"The US academic Barbara van Schewick, Professor of Law and Director of Stanford Law School’s Center for Internet and Society, agrees with Save the Internet's analysis of the main problems. In anarticle posted on Medium this week she suggests ways in which they can be fixed by MEPs when it comes to the vote next week.
Mo' lanes, not faster lanes
As Ars reported earlier this year, by allowing "specialised services" on the Internet, the EU's net neutrality proposals would create a two-tier system with fast and slow lanes. Van Schewick explains that this would be a disaster for innovation in the EU: "If established companies can pay so that their content loads faster or does not count against users’ monthly bandwidth caps, then those who can’t pay don’t have a chance to compete."
Moreover, she points out that this would raise costs for everyone: "Large corporations that pay to be in the fast lane will have higher costs, so we the customers will be forced to pay higher prices for their products and services." The key here, she says, is to "refine the definition of specialized services to close the specialized services loophole and keep the Internet an open platform and level playing field.""
- Date Published:10/23/2015
- Original Publication:Ars Technica