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In a move that will surely go down in Internet history as one of the
worst decisions in years, the Justice Department said last week that
it opposes net neutrality, “the idea that all Internet sites should be
equally accessible to any Web user.” Thus in a move that favors big
business over small, typical of much in the Bush administration, the
good anarchy, and, in the case of the Internet, the idea that one is
free to surf as one wants without paying extra fees, is all but dead.
The Justice Department compared the Internet to the Post Office saying
that if people pay different rates for different services, the same
idea should apply to the Web. How is that for being in this world and
of this world? Justice further stated that net neutrality could hamper
the development and expansion of the Internet because the big boys
would not invest as freely as they might if everything remained free.
I said that the Internet represented “good anarchy.” Perhaps that is
an oxymoron, but the Web is getting along quite well without the
imposition of what surely will be a pay-as-you-go system that is
waiting in the wings. Perhaps an unorganized boycott is in order so
that the phone and cable companies who might impose fees on the
potentially millions and millions of users, will understand that
freedom is what makes the Internet thrive, and not necessarily the
bottom line.
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At NBC News for 35 years, Ron Steinman was bureau chief
in Saigon, Hong Kong and London, was a senior producer on Today and wrote
and produced for Sunday Today. At ABC News Productions, he produced
and wrote documentaries for A&E, TLC, Discovery, Lifetime and the
History Channel. He has a Peabody, a National Headliner award, a
National Press Club award, a International Documentary Festival Gold
Camera Award, two American Women in Radio & Television awards and
has been nominated for five Emmy's. He is a partner in
Douglas/Steinman Productions, whose latest documentary, "Luboml: My
Heart Remembers," aired on PBS' WLIW/21 and the History Channel in
Israel, April 29, 2003. He is the author of, "The Soldiers 'Story",
"Women in Vietnam," and most recently, "Inside Television's First
War: A Saigon Journal," University of Missouri Press, 2002. |
An
Editorial: The End of Net Neutrality