Sir Tim Berners-Lee signs up to verily protect UK net neutrality

Here in the US we're still looking for a knight in shining armor to protect our free and open internet, but in the UK they've found their guy. Now they just need some plate mail. It's Sir Timothy John Berners-Lee, the man who first proposed the World Wide Web to the World Wide World in 1989. He'll be working with the UK's Broadband Stakeholder Group to ensure that any traffic management policies that go into effect are done with transparency and within a set of defined best practices. That is to say: corporations will still have an opportunity to address threats to the overall health of their networks, but they'll need to do so in an open way. Communications Minister Ed Vaizey summarized it thusly:

That agreement should be guided by three simple principles. The first is users should be able to access all legal content. Second, there should be no discrimination against content providers on the basis of commercial rivalry and finally traffic management policies should be clear and transparent.

So, that's good news for those across the pond. Here in the US, well, we'll just keep braiding our hair and singing out the tower window as loudly as possible. Or maybe it's time to give Tim Wu a sword.

[Photo credit: Paul Clarke]

Sir Tim Berners-Lee signs up to verily protect UK net neutrality originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 17 Mar 2011 09:48:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://www.engadget.com/2011/03/17/sir-tim-berners-lee-signs-up-to-verily-protect-uk-net-neutrality/

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