One of the important things in net neutrality is that providers do not discriminate against certain types of data. The idea is that the network provider is not filtering content before it gets to the user. Don’t we already have this though? The Kindle has a 3G network connection, yet you can only get what Amazon wants you to get, primarily ebooks and periodicals. Isn’t that a big no no under net neutrality ideals? Just to be clear, I don’t think there’s anything wrong with that, and I don’t think that most people have a problem with it. Here’s why…
The Kindle is pretty much made for one thing, reading things. As long as it can get the information you need to read, no one is concerned that you can’t also get Netflix on it. Despite being very un-net neutral, it is a very popular device because it works well. You’ll note that there’s no law or regulation that made that happen. Just sayin’…
That’s really the main point. If a device meets a demand, and does it well, it will be successful no matter how limited it is. On the other hand, if the device didn’t meet a big enough demand, or did it poorly, it would go away. Would Sen. Franken mind if Verizon came out with a VCAST only device with its own network? More importantly, why should Verizon have to ask the Senator’s permission? Is there a big difference between a network banning other services on one device vs. all devices on that network? Why does anyone think that companies will be successful in banning popular services? There are a lot of possibilities out there with streaming devices, and no one really knows what will be best until it is tried. That goes especially for you Sen. Franken…