Don’t break the Net

Should we let US telecom and cable companies turn the Internet into a two-tier network?

I say “no way.”

Here’s why:

The Internet is a medium. You don’t penalize successful players by charging them more because they make better use of a given medium than others.

Do paper companies charge more to best selling authors? Does Dell charge advanced Internet marketers more for their PCs than beginners? Do paint manufacturers charge more to artists whose art works are in the Museum of Modern Art?

The very idea is completely daft, but currently US phone and cable companies are trying to ram the idea down regulators’ throats with the help of an army of high paid lobbyists and venal Congressmen.

The inventor of the World Wide Web, Tim Berners-Lee, has come out squarely against the two-tier proposal. He’s currently in Edinburgh, Scotland speaking at the annual World Wide Web Conference.  THE annual conference.

You can read his remarks as reported by the BBC here.

It’s a serious issue.

– Ken McCarthy

P.S. For over 25 years I’ve been sharing the simple but powerful things that matter in business with my clients.

If you’d like direction for your business that will work today, tomorrow and twenty years from now, visit us at the System Club.