Internet taxation is on the way!

[Conrad Knauer]

Whoops; forgot to 'reply to all'.

On Mon, Apr 5, 2010 at 9:49 PM, Fred A. Miller <fmiller at lightlink.com> wrote:

> The Washington Times
> Internet taxation is on the way!
> Just the latest Obama administration power grab
> By Timothy H. Lee
[...]
> These tax proposals in the National Broadband Plan come just as the FCC
> continues to push so-called "Net Neutrality" regulations for the Internet.
>
> "Net Neutrality," which in fact constitutes Net regulation, would prohibit
> service providers from differentiating distinct forms of Internet data. And
> why is this important? Because with booming Internet use consuming
> ever-greater amounts of scarce network capacity, service providers must be
> free to test innovative methods to prioritize data to prevent gridlock.For
> instance, emergency medical data could be prioritized over routine
> recreational video downloads.But Net Neutrality would stifle that sort of
> experimentation and innovation.
>
> The result of "Net Neutrality" would be fewer incentives for
> Internet-service providers to continue investing in infrastructure
> expansion, which would in turn degrade Internet quality as ever-increasing
> traffic overwhelms existing capacity. The Internet has flourished like few
> technologies in human history precisely because its innovators and service
> pro-viders have remained free of regulatory suffocation."Net Neutrality,"
> however, and now proposed taxation of Internet goods and services would
> jeopardize that.

Compare and contrast to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Network_neutrality

"advocates of net neutrality and associated rules have raised concerns
about the ability of broadband providers to use their last mile
infrastructure to block Internet applications and content (e.g.
websites, services, protocols), particularly those of competitors.
[...] Neutrality proponents claim that telecom companies seek to
impose a tiered service model in order to control the pipeline and
thereby remove competition, create artificial scarcity, and oblige
subscribers to buy their otherwise uncompetitive services. Many
believe net neutrality to be primarily important as a preservation of
current freedoms. [...] Opponents of net neutrality characterize its
regulations as "a solution in search of a problem", arguing that
broadband service providers have no plans to block content or degrade
network performance. In spite of this claim, certain Internet service
providers have intentionally slowed peer-to-peer (P2P) communications.
Still, other companies have acted in contrast to these assertions of
hands-off behavior and have begun to use deep packet inspection to
discriminate against P2P, FTP and online games, instituting a
cell-phone style billing system of overages, free-to-telecom "value
added" services, and bundling."

And if you would like an amusing graphic:
http://www.w3.org/2009/Talks/10-23-steven-openweb/netneutrality.png

CK