Yesterday, the Netherlands became the first country in Europe to adopt laws that protect net neutrality. The rest of Europe, and indeed most the world, needs to follow suit before we sleepwalk into letting corporations use their deep pockets to gain an unfair advantage online.
The new Dutch legislation was approved last summer, and blocks ISPs from slowing down or blocking traffic to specific websites or services, and from charging extra for access to certain websites or apps. It’s now been officially passed into law, as De Telegraaf reports [Dutch link].
This is important, as open access to the Web and everything it offers has been essential for driving innovation since Tim Berners-Lee brought the World Wide Web to life in 1991. The idea that you may pay less to an ISP for a connection that prioritizes its own video-on-demand service, for example, may sound innocuous enough, but it could potentially stop a new, competing service from gaining traction because its potential users get their connection speed throttled every time they try to access it. Full story...
Related posts:
The new Dutch legislation was approved last summer, and blocks ISPs from slowing down or blocking traffic to specific websites or services, and from charging extra for access to certain websites or apps. It’s now been officially passed into law, as De Telegraaf reports [Dutch link].
This is important, as open access to the Web and everything it offers has been essential for driving innovation since Tim Berners-Lee brought the World Wide Web to life in 1991. The idea that you may pay less to an ISP for a connection that prioritizes its own video-on-demand service, for example, may sound innocuous enough, but it could potentially stop a new, competing service from gaining traction because its potential users get their connection speed throttled every time they try to access it. Full story...
Related posts:
- CISPA: why we should take notice...
- France on the verge of becoming "an enemy of the internet"
- ACTA loses more support in Europe...
- Official behind ACTA quits, denouncing it as a masquerade...
- EU acts to end 'rip off' roaming charges on mobile phones...
- Mobile operators in Sweden trying to block Skype and Viber...
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