As Robert Pirsig once wrote in “Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance”, we humans have an innate ability to recognise quality when we see or hear it. In art, love, music and many other aspects of life. The amazing thing is that we all sense more or less the same, but have a hard time trying to define this quality: words fail us.
This contradiction can be recognized in the debate on “Network Neutrality” or NN.
Everybody intuitively understands the issue: don’t mess with my Internet connection, it is my lifeline. Don’t restrict my freedom.
Things get really messy when people try to define this attitude in legalese, in words that can be made to a law which is enforcable and discriminating. In countries with a culture of strict adherence to the exact wording of contract law (like the UK and USA) the debate is stuck. The more European approach is to try to define an attitude, a moral position , a quality which must be recognizable in the implementation.
The Norwegians have taken a shot at this. You can download 2009-02-26-Norway-Neutral-Network-Guidelines.pdf. here.
They are the first ones and it is a good start. Read it.
