Free Republic

The principles of openness and universal access that underpinned the creation of the internet three decades ago are under greater threat than ever, according to Google co-founder Sergey Brin. In an interview with the Guardian, Brin warned there were "very powerful forces that have lined up against the open internet on all sides and around the world". "I am more worried than I have been in the past," he said. "It's scary." The threat to the freedom of the internet comes, he claims, from a combination of governments increasingly trying to control access and communication by their citizens, the entertainment...

Late last week, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) took what is being called "the final step" towards implementing their illegal Net Neutrality regulations. You may recall, that back on December 21, the FCC bypassed government regulations and seized control of the Internet -- delivering what many believe is a knockout blow to one of the last, great free-market frontiers our nation and the world has ever seen. According to the organization Less Government, regardless of a multiple lawsuits, a move by the House of Representatives and a D.C. Circuit Court unanimously ruling that the FCC had no authority to take...

We thank the following foundations, corporations, and individuals for supporting our work: Foundations Andy Warhol Foundation Ford Foundation Kahle-Austin Foundation MacArthur Foundation Open Society Institute Rockefeller Philanthropic (NYSMF) Rockefeller Philanthropic Foundation Vadasz Family Foundation

Some have argued that the concept of net neutrality goes back to the 1800's. In one way, they're correct, but it's not the way they think they mean. The father of Net Neutrality, Tim Wu has this to say: In the class at MIT, Wu floats some hypothetical ways you could fight abuse. One would be creating mechanisms that are "something like term limits for monopolists. In theory, the government could say, 'Well, this company has clearly shown it's corrupt. ... So let's just nationalize their source code.'" That's straight forward enough. That does not sound like freedom to me....

The Power To Control Is Internet freedom threatened more by dominant companies or by the government's efforts to hem them in? Mr. Wu's solution is to propose a "Separation Principle," a form of industry self-regulation to be overseen by the Federal Communications Commission (though he concedes that there is an ever-present danger of regulatory capture—whereby the FCC or other agencies become excessively influenced by the businesses they are meant to be regulating). The key to competition in the information industry, Mr. Wu believes, is a complete independence among its three layers: content owners (e.g., a games developer); network infrastructure (e.g.,...

Tim Wu, the coiner of the term "network neutrality", and a senior adviser to the FTC, has an interesting solution to solve the non-existent problems plaguing the tech industry. As The Chronicle of Higher Education reports: "In the class at MIT, Wu floats some hypothetical ways you could fight abuse... "something like term limits for monopolists. In theory, the government could say, 'Well, this company has clearly shown it's corrupt. ... So let's just nationalize their source code.'"

The internet is under threat. At risk is what's known as "net neutrality", or the principle of free access for each user to every online site, regardless of content. That's the view of the man who coined the above term, Tim Wu, whose new book, The Master Switch, was published yesterday. It argues the internet now runs the risk of not just political censorship – as seen in Libya and Egypt, and in the American reaction to WikiLeaks – but that of commercial censorship, too. Monopolies such as Google and Apple may soon decide to choose which parts of the...

Tim’s ideas on tech policy trouble me deeply. I’ll ignore the fact that he gave birth to the term “net neutrality” and that he chaired the radical regulatory activist group, Free Press. Instead, I just want to remind folks of one very troubling recommendation for the information sector that he articulated in his new book, The Master Switch: The Rise and Fall of Information Empires. While his book was preoccupied with corporate power and the ability of media and communications companies to posses a supposed “master switch” over speech or culture, I’m more worried about the “regulatory switch” that Tim...

Concludes Cleland: FTC advisor Tim Wu + President Obama’s pledge of no burdensome regulation = regulatory dissonance. That’s a problem which may see little end. Wu joins an excusive and growing club of Soros-connected federal policymakers (current and former), including Mark Lloyd, Chief Diversity Officer at the FCC; Van Jones, (once) Special Advisor to the President for Green Jobs; Ben Scott, Advisor for Innovation Policy at the State Department; and Jen Howard, Senior Communications Advisor for the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (the last three all from Free Press board or staff).