David Clark, the chief protocol architect of the pre-commercial Internet, recently said: "The network is not neutral and never has been," and dismissed "as 'happy little bunny rabbit dreams" the assumptions of net neutrality supporters that there was once a "Garden of Eden" for the Internet" -- per excellent coverage of Mr. Clark's remarks at GMU by the Washington Internet Daily.
- Mr. Clark's exceptional Internet experience coupled with his current work on a Future Internet Design project for the National Science Foundation provide him great credibility in the net neutrality/Internet architecture debate.
Another colorful quote from the Washington Internet Daily's coverage of Mr. Clark's remarks -- cuts to the core of the problem with net neutrality -- that its seriously anti-private-investment:
- "Investors don't want to pour money into "this open-platform crap" -- a competitive commodity business with high up-front costs and little control over the network."
Bottom line:
Mr. Clark's comments highlight net neutrality's most glaring failing in this serious economic recession -- net neutrality is profoundly anti-investment of private capital, which is a monster problem given that most all of the Internet's varied infrastructure was built by, and depends on, private investment capital.
Net neutrality activists would like everyone to ignore the reality that new government net neutrality restrictions would largely eliminate the opportunity for private investors to profit from innovation and investing in Internet infrastructure.
That's certainly no way to get Internet for everyone...
