The BBC, Skype and eBay have put their names to an open letter calling on the UK Government to take action to preserve the open internet.
The letter calls on Ed Vaizey, minister for Culture, Communications and Creative Industries, to stick to five principles that the signatories believe are essential to safeguard free and equal access to the net.
“The Internet should remain open so that everyone is able to send and receive the content, use the services and run the applications of their choice, on the device of their choice, within the law,” the letter states.
Therefore, “traffic management should be kept to a minimum and deployed for purely technical, security or legal reasons” and internet users must have access to “meaningful information” about any traffic management that does take place.
Future investment should ensure that “new models of Internet access do not compromise openness” and, finally, the regulatory framework “must be fit for purpose and able to respond to abuses by network providers”.
The letter is in part a response to remarks made by Vaizey last month, when he suggested that market forces, not regulation, is the best way to manage internet access. That was music to the ears of ISPs hoping to be able to charge content providers in return for preferential treatment on their networks — the traffic management that the letter refers to.
The Open Rights Group has the full text of the letter, complete with a list of all the signatories.
