{"id":189,"date":"2015-04-11T21:51:19","date_gmt":"2015-04-11T21:51:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/scizzacutpaper.wordpress.com\/?p=189"},"modified":"2021-04-17T17:43:47","modified_gmt":"2021-04-17T17:43:47","slug":"break-the-internet-net-neutrality","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/scizzacut.com\/?p=189","title":{"rendered":"Break the Internet"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Is differential pricing fair? Electricity companies charge different rates for consumers and industries. Same power, different price. Given the power-crisis in India, it would be quiet fair to impose a higher pricing for households with excess power consumption<\/a> (eg. multiple ACs, generators, etc). Such a pricing would encourage responsible use of electricity. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The shipping industry generally follows a weight+volume formula for cargo, but these formulas do not apply when the cargo is a human body. Airlines charge different fares for parcels and passengers. Hell! they have the audacity to charge you twice for 2 kids who are perfectly capable of fitting into one seat and still weigh less than an adult. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Indian telecom companies are demanding separate tariffs for VoIP and Video downloads. They argue that not all data download is created equal. As illustrated in the above examples, this is a perfectly sound argument.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Preferential treatment for individual services or companies is a valid concern. For instance, Airtel could price data downloads from its own music streaming service at a lower price (or at no cost) , compared to data downloaded from another music streaming service. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

India needs a new bunch of laws for regulating telecom. Though those aren’t the only laws that need some updating.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A Home Grown Internet?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Indian Internet has never been neutral. As Obama recently admitted<\/a>,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“We have owned the internet. Our companies have created it, expanded it, perfected it in ways that they (others) can\u2019t compete…”<\/em><\/p>Barack Obama<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

A rich country with a muscular legal framework and low user-base, can afford to support and<\/em> regulate a neutral internet. Americans would have no qualms supporting a neutral internet, because their regulatory framework dominates it. In spite of being on Indian soil, you’ve probably bumped into the Digital Millennium Copyright Protection Act a lot more than you’d like. It’s Indian counterpart would’ve hardly bothered you. A neutral internet is simply a vehicle of american hegemony.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We’re participants of a system where the NSA knows more about us than our own government. Indian security agencies have been struggling to effectively monitor communication over unregulated telecommunication systems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yes, India’s track record for legislation and governance thereof hasn’t been very commendable. But that is not an excuse to outsource our privacy & protection to a foreign entity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Who will defend Indian start-ups from the internet monopolies of Google and Facebook ? These companies aren’t exactly mascots of liberty and freedom of speech. They are billion dollar ventures, that have repeatedly come under scanner for monopolistic <\/a>and manipulative<\/a> practices. In the business world, having deeper pockets is always a competitive advantage, net neutrality isn’t gonna change that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Closing Arguments<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Albeit controversially, China has created a protective environment, that has fostered the rise of it’s own tech-circle. The Chinese web ecosystem of alternative social networks, mobile and search platforms is a product of tremendous foresight and vision. And no, it wouldn’t have been possible with the framework of a neutral internet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let’s not get distracted by the voices of cheapskate activism. Our thirst for free (& sometimes illegal) videos & music cannot come at the cost of undermining our privacy (or our democracy). Even for activism the golden rule still applies:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Don’t ape the west<\/em>“.<\/p>Wisdom from the 90s<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Is differential pricing fair? Electricity companies charge different rates for consumers and industries. Same power, different price. Given the power-crisis in India, it would be quiet fair to impose a higher pricing for households with excess power consumption (eg. multiple ACs, generators, etc). Such a pricing would encourage responsible use of electricity. The shipping industry generally […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":443,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,5],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/scizzacut.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/189"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/scizzacut.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/scizzacut.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scizzacut.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scizzacut.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=189"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/scizzacut.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/189\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":445,"href":"https:\/\/scizzacut.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/189\/revisions\/445"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scizzacut.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/443"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/scizzacut.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=189"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scizzacut.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=189"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scizzacut.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=189"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}