14 DAY TRIAL // Steve Wozniak is a big supporter of Net Neutrality, a concept most easily described as the freedom of the Internet. In a power-to-the-people type of letter, Wozniak urges the Federal Communications Commission to help lay the ground of tomorrow’s free Internet by passing net neutrality into law.
Also referred to as “network neutrality” or “Internet neutrality,” the idea of Net Neutrality is basically an extension of the longstanding concept of a common carrier. The term was coined by law professor Tim Wu in 2003 and it essentially states that Internet service providers (ISPs) and government in general should treat the data on the Internet, and its authors and consumers, equally.
Various net neutrality laws are being considered with the main goal of not discriminating or charging differentially by criteria like user, content, site, platform, application, etc.
Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak, the guy who pretty much invented the personal computer, is very vocal on this particular topic. Since he’s an advocate of inventing things and then releasing them to the world for free, it’s not hard to see why Wozniak, along with many others, is hard-pressing the FCC to help pass net neutrality into law.
“Imagine that when we started Apple we set things up so that we could charge purchasers of our computers by the number of bits they use. The personal computer revolution would have been delayed a decade or more. If I had to pay for each bit I used on my 6502 microprocessor, I would not have been able to build my own computers anyway,” writes Wozniak.
“What if we paid for our roads per mile that we drove?” he asks later in his open letter. “... every time and in every way that the telecommunications careers have had power or control, we the people wind up getting screwed. Every audience that I speak this statement and phrase to bursts into applause,” he adds.
Stressing that people don't want governments taking away their Internet freedom, Wozniak also daringly states, “We have very few government agencies that the populace views as looking out for them, the people.”
“The FCC is one of these agencies that is still wearing a white hat. Not only is current action on Net Neutrality one of the most important times ever for the FCC, it's probably the most momentous and watched action of any government agency in memorable times in terms of setting our perception of whether the government represents the wealthy powers or the average citizen, of whether the government is good or is bad. This decision is important far beyond the domain of the FCC itself,” he concludes.
The full text can be found over at The Atlantic.