Proposed US legislation could create
closed-off areas of the internet, Tim Berners-Lee, director of the
World Wide Web Consortium, has warned.
One of the challenges facing the web is that the
network companies which have invested heavily in creating an open,
connected infrastructure, want a share of the revenue coming in
from the businesses that use this infrastructure.
Berners-Lee said this was nowhere more apparent
than with the distribution of video content online.
Although Berners-Lee said he had no problems with
commercial forces driving the web forward, the founder of the web
said he was concerned by moves in the US to curb internet
neutrality.
“There is an effort by some companies in the US
to get legislation changed so that if they provide enough bandwidth
to the home for video, they would have the right to degrade the
service to people who have not paid,” he said.
The change to the law would prevent users from
accessing TV stations over the internet unless the station had paid
for the right to distribute the video content over the
internet.
Berners-Lee said, “This is not the internet
model. I hope the US will come to the right decision based on the
groundswell of opinion for internet neutrality.
“If it does not, then people with high-speed
connections will find they cannot get the TV stations they
want.”
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