Tyler Hamilton of the Toronto Star has an interview with Tim Berners-Lee in which the WWW founder expresses concern about a two-tier Internet.
Berners-Lee on Net Neutrality
March 28, 2006
Share this post
One Comment

Law Bytes
Episode 272: Build Canada’s Lucy Hargreaves on Canada’s AI Strategy and the Need to Shift From Being Users to Builders
byMichael Geist

May 25, 2026
Michael Geist
May 11, 2026
Michael Geist
Search Results placeholder
Michael Geist on Substack
Recent Posts
Midnight Madness: The Government Rushes Lawful Access Bill Through the House Without Debate or a Recorded Vote
One Step Forward, Two Steps Back: Bill C-36 Modernizes Canada’s Privacy Law, Then Delays It to 2030
Gary Anandasangaree’s Vic Toews Moment Shows the Government Has Lost Its Way on Lawful Access
Government Moves to Shut Down Lawful Access Hearing In Order To Fast Track Passing the Bill This Week
Canada’s Digital Super-Regulator: Bill C-36 Pushes Out the Privacy Commissioner and Hands Private Sector Privacy to an Overloaded Commission

Barriers to Entry
I see the efforts by telcos and others to wring more cash out of the ‘Net (by charging for “assured access” or “assured email” – under the guise of anti-spam concerns) as extremely dangerous to the Internet.
The ‘Net has reduced the barriers to entry to the point that one can begin a business or communicate with the world for less than $25 per month with inexpensive hosted services.
There are large organizations that are extremely threatened by the new business models the Internet now permits. Open Source software is one of them. P2P media distribution is another.
“Assured Access” will only be one of the attempts they will make to maintain their position in the market and the status quo.
Good luck to us all. We’ll need it to maintain our newly acquired power as consumers.