isen.blog

. . . the grass gets trampled.

Google's chief counsel Andrew McLaughlin has done the predictable, weakening Google's stance on Network Neutrality.

In fact, I predicted it more than a year ago when I wrote:

Google and Yahoo and Microsoft and Skype,
They’re already successful, they can make deals for those pipes.
But when I want to publish stuff in my blog
It will not be OK for you to once again pay.
We already pay for our Internet connection.
We don’t need to subsidize a dying industry’s obsession!
If looking at my blog cost you an extra dime
You’d probably find another way to spend your time.

More importantly, when you hackers field a fragile new app
You don’t want it blocked by Ed Whitacre’s crap,
Cause when Whitacre says, “They’re not going to use my pipes for free”
He’s not talking about Them, he’s talking about Me.
He’s talking about Us, that should be plain to see.

Let me say it another way: Network Neutrality is not about Google paying more. It is about our freedom of speech, our freedom to innovate, and the public resource we call The Internet.

The Save The Internet Coalition has been scrupulous about not taking a dime from the bigcos. It, not Google or Yahoo or Microsoft or Skype, is the right place to put your Network Neutrality efforts!

UPDATE: In this video, which aired on Bloomberg on March 10 & 11, Google CEO Eric Schmidt agrees with me, saying NN is not in Google's economic interests, but Google supports it anyway.

The Net Neutrality part of the video begins at about 11:00.
My transcript begins at 11:55

Eric Schmidt: The curious thing about Net Neutrality is that if there's any site that could afford [to pay higher telco fees for preferred service] it would be Google. And furthermore, if we did it, it would freeze out some of the new competitors. So it's in our economic interest to encourage this. But we believe that it is a violation of a fundamental assumption of the Internet, that every piece of the Internet is reachable. Its called the end-to-end principle. And we believe that Net Neutrality, if it is given up, that new competitors, new entrants, new ideas, become much more difficult. So far we have been able to hold back the forces. It looks like we'll have a good year.

Technorati Tags: Google, NetworkNeutrality, savetheinternet