John McCain has recently introduced a law called the “Internet Freedom Act”. This will stop the Federal Communications Commission from regulating anything that runs over IP (Internet Protocol). It’s intent is to stop so-called ‘net neutrality’.

So what is net neutrality? It’s the idea that if I pay for my network connection, and you pay for your network connection, we should be able to communicate over our connections without hindrance by our ISP’s. Specifically, the FCC has proposed the following:

* Consumers are entitled to access the lawful Internet content of their choice
* Consumers are entitled to run applications and use services of their choice, subject to the needs of law enforcement
* Consumers are entitled to connect their choice of legal devices that do not harm the network

In other words, the providers that run the pipes such as AT&T, Charter, and Verizon should not block lawful internet content, they should be able to use whatever devices they wish so long as they do not harm the internet

* Consumers are entitled to competition among network providers, application and service providers, and content providers.

There should be capitalism in the marketplace that will allow consumers to determine what applications, services, and content they desire

* A provider of broadband Internet access service must treat lawful content, applications, and services in a nondiscriminatory manner

This means that an ISP customer can access all content on the internet in the same way, without allowing the ISP to extort money from content providers for ‘premium’ access to their users.

* A provider of broadband Internet access service must disclose such information concerning network management and other practices as is reasonably required for users and content, application, and service providers to enjoy the protections specified in this rulemaking

ISPs cannot operate in secret, in other words, to get around these issues

Essentially, Net Neutrality is a codification into law of the principles that have been the basis for the internet and its innovations. It’s core belief is one that allows me to remain in business. I run web services, and the neutrality of the internet is what allows me to provide internet connectivity.  If large backbone providers started charging extra tariffs for access to their customers above and beyond the network access fees I already pay, I would simply go out of business.

AT&Ts CEO Ed Whitacre has made comments about his desires to charge Google more for allowing access to the AT&T pipelines. Google already pays for it’s network connections, and peers directly with some ISPs, but AT&T basically wants more money for providing no further network access. Specifically, when asked about upstarts such as Google, he had this to say:

“How do you think they’re going to get to customers? Through a broadband pipe. Cable companies have them. We have them. Now what they would like to do is use my pipes free, but I ain’t going to let them do that because we have spent this capital and we have to have a return on it. So there’s going to have to be some mechanism for these people who use these pipes to pay for the portion they’re using. Why should they be allowed to use my pipes?

The Internet can’t be free in that sense, because we and the cable companies have made an investment and for a Google or Yahoo! (YHOO ) or Vonage or anybody to expect to use these pipes [for] free is nuts!”

If the AT&T CEO had his wish, tariffs to reach AT&T clients would essentially put me out of business. He doesn’t acknowledge that Google has already paid for their network connection, as well as the customers that are trying to reach it. He is advocating for further fees to be placed on those who would innovate.

This has nothing to do with Republicans, Democrats, Liberals, or Conservatives. It is a technical issue, that lawmakers are now stumbling into blindly. What really spurned me into writing this is the following video, by the Fox News commentator Glenn Beck:

This politicization of this issue is disgusting, and the arguments that Beck makes are not really worth debating. To Beck, this is just another thing used to demonize the Obama administration. To me, and many other people making their living on the internet, this vitriolic spew is dangerous.

Finally, John McCain is a strange person to be submitting any sort of internet bill. McCain has been quoted in the past as acknowledging that he doesn’t even use the internet: his wife does it for him when he needs something. And it’s no secret that one of McCain’s top financiers is AT&T – the very same company that advocates against net neutrality to bolster their bottom line.

I’ll finish this post up with a list of people and companies that support net neutrality – these are large companies and innovative individuals that support the basic tenets of net neutrality:

Google
American Library Association
Association of Research Libraries
Microsoft
Amazon.com
American Association of Law Libraries
Vonage
Verizon
Tim Berners-Lee (creator of the internet)
Vinton Cerf (creator of the world wide web)
Intel
Facebook
Skype
Ebay
Earthlink
Paypal
Sony
and many many more