Net neutrality

Net Neutrality is a slogan that refers to a proposed set of requirements that would be imposed by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) on telecom operators and internet service providers operating in the United States. The regulation would shift decision-making on owned resources from the network resource owners to non-owners. The non-owners seeking to influence the decision-making in this and other similar conflicts are sometimes termed "stakeholders."

There are six areas of proposed guidelines:

• Access to content

• Access to applications and services

• Connection of devices

• Access to competitive options

• Nondiscrimination

• Transparency

It is not unlikely, however, that proponents of the net neutrality provisions may be reacting to past monopolistic assignments of geographic customer territories, also by the FCC. Many incumbent telecom companies continue to be shielded from competition by FCC regulations.

External links

• A Libertarian Take on Net Neutrality by Stephan Kinsella

• Net Neutrality: Unwarranted Intervention by Fernando Herrera-Gonzalez

• Who owns the Internet? by Tim Swanson (May 2006)

• Net Neutrality: Toward a Stupid Internet by Raymond C. Niles

• Wave goodbye to Internet freedom, Washington Times editorial, 2 Dec. 2010

• Network neutrality on Wikipedia