Can I Still Google My Yahoo - Reframing the Net Neutrality Debate - Why Legislation Actually Means Deregulation
![handle is hein.journals/umkc77 and id is 769 raw text is: CAN I STILL GOOGLE MY YAHOO? REFRAMING
THE NET NEUTRALITY DEBATE - WHY
LEGISLATION ACTUALLY MEANS DEREGULATION
Christopher E. Roberts*
The remarkable social impact and economic success of the Internet is in
many ways directly attributable to the architectural characteristics that were part
of its desin. The Internet was designed with no gatekeepers over new content or
services.
[W]e only assume that the Internet allows radical freedom because it
happened to be designed that way. It could just as easily be redesigned to restrict
freedom.2
I. INTRODUCTION
The Internet's architecture is open and decentralized - a space where users
can access almost any information at the click of a button and media
conglomerates do not dominate the flow of information. As Cerf's quote
indicates, this openness is part of the Internet's greatness. However, what if the
Internet's architecture changed and information did not flow as freely as it
currently does? Would freedoms be restricted as Vaidhyanathan suggests, or
would competing market forces maintain an open Internet? These are questions
that surround the net neutrality debate. To answer these questions it is important
to first define net neutrality.
The concept of net neutrality is not easy to define or understand. As
California Public Utilities Commissioner Rachelle Chong humorously noted,
there are 31 flavors of net neutrality.'4 Google, who supports net neutrality,
sees it as the principle that Internet users should be in control of what content
they view and what applications they use on the Internet.5 Those who oppose
net neutrality see it as the government telling network owners that they can't
provide higher speed or more capacity for Internet sites or services that have
* J.D. Candidate, May 2009, University of Missouri-Kansas City; B.G.S. Political Science, August
2006, B.G.S. Communication Studies, August 2006, University of Kansas. I thank Professor
Nancy Levit, for without her guidance and input the publication of this Comment would not have
been possible. I also thank my friends, family, and loved ones for their support. The views
expressed in this Comment are solely the author's.
1 CIRCLEID, Vint Cerf Speaking Out on Internet Neutrality, Nov. 10, 2005
http://www.circleid.com/posts/vint-cerf speakingout on Internet neutrality/.
2 SIVA VAIDHYANATHAN, THE ANARCHIST IN THE LIBRARY: How THE CLASH BETWEEN FREEDOM
AND CONTROL IS HACKING THE REAL WORLD AND CRASHING THE SYSTEM 29 (2004) (paraphrasing
Professor Lawrence Lessig).
3 See generally Lawrence Lessig, The Law of the Horse: What Cyberlaw Might Teach, 113 HARv.
L. REv. 501, 514 (1999).
4 Rachelle B. Chong, The 31 Flavors of Net Neutrality: A Policymaker's View, 12 INTELL. PROP. L.
BULL. 147 (2008).
5 Google, A Guide to Net Neutrality for Google Users, http://www.google.com/help/
netneutrality.html (last visited June 28, 2008).](ViewImageLocal?handle=hein.journals/umkc77&div=30&collection=journals&method=preview&ext=.png&size=3)
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Can I Still Google My Yahoo - Reframing the Net Neutrality Debate - Why Legislation Actually Means Deregulation
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