Support net neutrality at the FCC

THE Federal Communications Commission is scheduled to vote tomorrow on net-neutrality rules designed to keep the Internet an open forum. It should approve them.

The central idea is simple. The Internet was designed as an empty pipeline. Its builders could not imagine such a thing, for example, as a user-created encyclopedia. It wasn't their job to imagine it; they let others create Wikipedia, eBay, Amazon, Classmates, Facebook, Twitter and the rest.

Entrepreneurs — some of them still students — could create these things because the Internet was "future proof." It didn't prevent the future from coming to pass. Said FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski, "The Internet's creators didn't want the network architecture — or any single entity — to pick winners and losers. Because it might pick the wrong ones."

That principle must be made strong and permanent. And that means having some restrictions on the companies, such as Comcast and AT&T, that operate the broadband network.

Service providers cannot be allowed to block access to competitors' sites. They cannot be allowed to block or disfavor lawful traffic, including streaming video or real-time games. And they must be transparent about their network-management practices.

The FCC's proposed rule is not, and should not be, about government running the Internet. It is about keeping the Internet future proof, so that the uses of tomorrow — and the industries of tomorrow — are not forestalled.