Sir Tim Berners-Lee lends support for net neutrality

THE INVENTOR OF THE WORLD WIDE WEB, Sir Tim Berners-Lee has lent his support to net neutrality, agreeing to help establish principles and guidelines for the open Internet.

He is working with the UK government and the work will be guided by three net neutrality principles. They are, full access to legal content for all users, no discrimination against content providers on the basis of commercial rivalry, and clarity and transparency regarding traffic management policies.

Berners-Lee said that "best practices should also include the neutrality of the net". He added that the web has only grown as fast as it has because there have been two independent markets for connectivity and content.

The father of the web agreed to work with the UK government's Broadband Stakeholder Group. It will produce a "transparency document", with a particular focus on highlighting the rights of consumers and businesses to access the web without discrimination.

Ed Vaizey, the UK's communications minister, welcomed Berners-Lee to the debate. He has been meeting with various groups to discuss net neutrality, an issue that caused great controversy for him in the past after he suggested that he did not support the idea. He later clarified that he was a supporter of net neutrality, but doubts still lingered about his position. µ