In an interview with Marketplace Tech, the inventor of the world wide web, Sir Tim Berners-Lee, says that the recently introduced Copyright Alert System (CAS) will potentially harm the democratic process, by making the Internet no longer neutral.
Speaking to Marketplace Tech's David Brancaccio, Tim Berners-Lee explained his vision for the Internet, of the responsibility of ISPs, and how the CAS radically changes everything.
"The World Wide Web should be a blank sheet of paper. The Internet service providers, their duty is to get me bits. Bits in, bits out. If the police want to come and arrest me for doing something illegal, then the police have to come. But it's not the job of an Internet service provider to be, in this case, not just the police, but then also the judge and the jury," said Tim Berners-Lee.
And with ISPs now forced to interfere with how the bits flow, and make legal judgements on what you can and cannot use the Internet for, the notion of Net Neutrality may now be under serious threat, and as a result, Tim Berners-Lee says that this could negatively impact on the democratic process. "Democracy involves people being informed, being able to communicate, being able to hold each other accountable. And all that absolutely depends on the neutral Internet."
Via Marketplace Tech.
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