And government regulation aside, insidious commercial considerations are also cutting off access and openness " including on mobile devices such as the aforementioned iPhone, where an ongoing dispute between Google and Apple -- only applications Apple has approved are allowed -- brings the issue into sharp focus.
Apple recently blocked Google's voice communications application, claiming it overrides the iPhone's built-in interface. But some critics contend the decision is more directly tied to Apple's desire to undercut competition. Google's competing Android system, on the other hand, allows anyone to write and distribute software without permission.
So it's good news, bad news time again. The good news is that "There is more freedom for the typical Internet user to play, to communicate, to shop " more opportunities than ever before," as Jonathan Zittrain, co-founder of Harvard's Berkman Center for Internet & Society, told the AP. "On the worrisome side, there are some longer-term trends that are making it much more possible (for information) to be controlled."
Internet Baby Daddy Len Kleinrock is less equivocal. "Allow that open access, and a thousand flowers bloom," he says. "One thing about the Internet you can predict is you will be surprised by applications you did not expect."
Yet such practical idealism is increasingly rare in government AND corporate circles " creating the need for a movement demanding that the government to require "net neutrality as a return to the founding principles that motivated Kleinrock and his colleagues decades ago.
If commercial fees and caps on data supply are allowed to discourage unfettered use of the Internet, "You are less likely to try things out," says Vint Cerf, another one of the Internet's founding fathers. Kleinrock, Cerf and the other leading engineers are increasingly concerned that burdensome barriers may squash future innovation before it happens " and as a result, we may miss the many benefits that unfettered use, experimentation and innovation would certainly bring otherwise.
Many happy returns?
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