This neut debate is interesting, featuring Tod Cohen, George Gilder, Peter Huber, Lawrence Lessig, Paul McWilliams, and Andy Kessler at Gilder’s Telecosm Conference.
Lessig really stands out – he sounds like a twelve-year-old girl demanding an increase in her allowance, and the rest tell her to do her chores. That’s not much of an exaggeration. Gilder is also pretty incoherent, but the others have some interesting things to say.
And this talk between Ed Feigenbaum and Bob Kahn should open a few eyes. Kahn says he’s not interested in network neutrality (1:44 in), which to him is a destructive slogan. Networks are built on incremental improvements, and net neutrality stifles that growth. Here’s some quotes:
If it’s more efficient to do things inside the net than outside the net, I’m OK with that…Companies that make innovations should be able to control them…You really want to incentivize people to innovate…I’m totally opposed to mandating that nothing interesting can happen inside the net.
He says he doesn’t agree with his former assistant, Google’s Cerf, that innovation has to be pushed outside the net.
(Note: Bob Kahn is the guy who actually invented the Internet, not Al Gore, not Vint Cerf, not Jon Postel, not Bob Metcalfe, not Tim Berners-Lee. Bob Kahn invented the Internet and he’s against network neutrality. This will be on the test, so write it down.)