Knowledge & Cultural Institutions Defend Net Neutrality in EU
Summary
On the other hand, the consultation is anchored on one particular, problematic policy idea — a new legal right for telecom companies to require bonus payments from content and application providers, imposing new tolls for sending and “generating” traffic. It would undermine open Internet access — sometimes called “net neutrality” — and replace today’s well-functioning system of payments with a regulated morass, where consumers will ultimately pay the price. Knowledge and cultural institutions act as repositories for large amounts of data — we are responsible for collecting, storing, and making available all sorts of media and information to Europeans, often under public mandates. As public serving institutions, they already face significant budget strains, and new fees would inevitably mean limiting the services we provide, and using our resources to bolster the turnover of telecom operators rather than to deliver on our missions. For one thing, the fees would still frustrate knowledge and cultural production and dissemination in ways that would run counter to the goal of encouraging artistic and expressive freedom, as well as having knock-on effects on us.