In: Computer Science
This assignment will require you to write a 300-word APA style essay paper with references on the topic of Net-Neutrality
The paper should focus specifically on the following:
What is Net-Neutrality and your position on the subject - for or against and why?
How does Net-Neutrality impact digital forensics?
Should Internet Service Providers (ISP's) be liable for computer crimes committed on their networks?
Does Net-Neutrality support freedom of speech - if yes or no, why?
The concept of network neutrality, more frequently referred to as net neutrality, is that Internet service providers ( ISPs) must treat all Internet communications equally and not discriminate or charge differently on the basis of user, content, website, device, application, equipment type, source address, destination address or communication process.
With net neutrality, ISPs for particular online content do not actively block, slow down, or charge money. ISPs can prioritise some types of traffic, metre others, or theoretically block traffic from specific networks without net neutrality, while charging customers for different levels of service.
The term was invented in 2003 by Tim Wu, professor of media law at Columbia University, as an extension of the long-standing definition of a common carrier, which was used to define the position of telecommunications systems. Net neutrality laws can be referred to as "common carrier" laws. Net neutrality does not block all the abilities that internet service providers have to influence their customers. On the end-user side, opt-in / opt-out services exist, and filtering can be conducted locally, as in the filtration of sensitive content for minors.
ISPs have blocked creative Internet technologies that interfere with their business, limited or blocked traffic they do not want, forced individuals and businesses pay more to access specific Internet resources, and even aggressively inserted commercials into all the network traffic of their clients. Opponents of net neutrality and ISPs may argue that we don't need legislation to do the right thing, but history has shown that ISPs will inevitably take advantage of their position as access providers without regulation. For the above mentioned reasons, net neutrality should keep in place to regulate ISP.
Some of the disadvantages of not having net neutrality are:
1) Compromised privacy- Less privacy due to traffic capture and analysis by ISP.
2) It restrict and limits encryption- ISPs can try to block or throttle some of the tools like VPN for secure communication. They can also restrict our security service and force their own.
3) Some ISP can also block VoIP traffic because it affected their revenue from telephony services. So, the lack of net neutrality paves the way for this sort of more bad conduct.
4) ISP could also inject ads nto our traffic which can hamper user experience and in turn can also turn deadly when hackers can leverage bad security of online ADs agencies to insertmalware in place of ads.
Therefore there is an absolute neccessity for any country to adopt net neutrality to let go off ISP's monopoly and an elected government should decide what internet traffic should be regulatedin which way.
The government should form regulation as to what trsffic is allowed and what not and how ISP should behave inn regulating internet traffic. Thereafter there should be no liability over the ISP for crime committed on their network if ISP themselves are not involved or aware of the crime.
Net neutrality support freedom of speech to a large extent in a way that there is no bound on the internet traffic by ISP's and every legitimate content as per country standards are hosted and circulated over the network without any limitations based on any factors.