Tim Berners-Lee talks about ISP 'bribing'
What would you say if the person who created the world wide web a few decades ago, was actually worried that it’s becoming an act of bribery for those who want exclusive access to the fast lanes of the internet? I’m sure you’d think that Tim Berners – Lee is a pretty cool guy who wants more than anything to see his creation become available for everyone under the same conditions and circumstances.
Net neutrality has become the main subject for a lot of discussions lately, with more and more people taking its side every day. Berners – Lee is disappointed to see the internet transforming into a property of the Internet Service Providers (ISPs), who are taking advantage of the people’s needs and control their internet connectivity.
Tim Berners – Lee said to The Washington Post that when he built the web, he took his telephone wire that was coming from his wall and plugged it into his computer, without asking for permission from his telephone company to do that. He added that there’s a difference between regulating the providers of broadband and the services on top of it, which is his opinion to those who believe that the ISP’s new rules are ways to regulate the internet.
“A lot of congressmen say, 'Well, sign up for the free market' and feel that it's just something you should leave to go by itself,” said Berners – Lee. “Well yeah, the market works well so long as nobody prints money. So we have rules, okay? You don't steal stuff, for example. The U.S. dollar is something that everyone relies on. So the government keeps the dollar a stable thing, nobody steals stuff, and then you can rely on the free market.”
Berners – Lee warned that the rules being discussed by the Federal Communications Commissions would “tacitly” give even more power to ISPs, who would charge content companies for priority access to consumers. Consequently, companies who would pay more would have more exclusive services to offer, leaving the rest behind; an act of “bribing”, as Berners – Lee called it:
“We need rules,” said Berners – Lee. “If businesses are to move here and start here rather than start in Europe or Brazil or Australia – they're going to look around and make sure, 'Oh, does the power stay up?' And they'll look for other things. 'Is the Internet open?' Will they have to effectively bribe their ISPs to start a new service? That's what it looks like from the outside. It's bribery.”
Lee finished by talking about an important aspect of the internet, and that is the ability for someone to use it without having the knowledge needed to understand its technical part- even though it does exist; in fact, people shouldn’t even have to know about it. It was created for everyone, regardless of age and level of education, and if it starts losing this trait then its purpose was lost.
“How the technical bit – all the deals about peering all that – is really complicated and difficult. That is something normal people in the street aren't going to understand – and they shouldn't have to! If you have to start understanding what's happening inside, then the Internet has failed already.”
[Source: The Washington Post]
A few words about Tim Berners – Lee
Sir Timothy John “Tim” Berners – Lee, who is also referred to as “TimBL”, was born in the 8th of June 1955 in London and is mostly known for his invention that did shape the world: the World Wide Web. This happened in 1989, when he was working in CERN and saw the opportunity to connect hypertext with the Transmission Control Protocol and domain name system ideas.
Currently Berners – Lee is the director of the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) and the Web Science Research Initiative (WSRI), the founder of the World Wide Web Foundation and is also a senior researcher and holder of the Founders Chair at the MIT Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL). In addition, he is a senior member of the advisory board of the MIT Center for Collective Intelligence. He has received several awards throughout his career; on 19 May 2014 he was awarded an honorary Doctor of Engineering and Technology degree from Yale University.
