[IP] Net Neutrality in Software?
Begin forwarded message:
From: Art Botterell <acb@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: October 26, 2006 11:03:18 PM EDT
To: dave@xxxxxxxxxx
Subject: Net Neutrality in Software?
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Dave -
(For IP if you like...)
Meanwhile... the newly released Firefox 2 web browser demonstrates
that net neutrality isn't just about carriers.
The details: A common challenge for web publishers is how to serve
both the web and the RSS feed-reader audiences without duplication.
A simple standards-based solution is to link the RSS or Atom XML file
to an XSL stylesheet, causing modern browsers to display the content
as HTML per the publisher's design.
Until now. Seems the Mozilla team has decided that an RSS or Atom
feed with XSL styling should never be viewed as designed by the
publisher. Instead, the user is compelled either to select an RSS
feed reader or else view a "preview" as formatted by the browser.
Even Internet Exploiter gives users the option of viewing styled RSS
files as their publisher intended. Looking at a number of bug reports
about this from beta testers earlier this year, this choice seems to
have been based on a belief that "your browser (developer) knows
best" about the user experience... along with a belief that only a
relatively few folks will complain... since it makes a few site
designers look bad in a way hardly any of their visitors ever will
understand... and so it's not really important.
Is this anything less than a software-based violation of net
neutrality? We like to assume that, so long as our carriers are
transparent, our computers will be, too. But what's the point of
transparent nets if our browsers develop agendas of their own?
Just another reminder that the benefits of open source obtain only
when users insist on integrity, and restrain the impulse to give open
source developers a pass on points of principle.
- - Art
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