Amazon's Paul Misener has interrupted the hottest of Washington summers with a cool breeze of rationality in the net neutrality debate. Writing today on CNet, Mr. Misener mapped out what he calls a "a win-win-win" solution that will make consumers, net operators, and content providers alike better off. While we don't agree with every particular, it suggests to us agreement is possible.
Mr. Misener notes that the current impasse discourages investment and innovation to everybody's detriment especially at a time of general economic weakness:
"The legal/regulatory uncertainties have, understandably, dissuaded network operators from making investments in new technologies and services that might subsequently be found to violate Net neutrality. Unfortunately, some observers seem to think that this uncertainty hurts only the network operators and their suppliers, but consumers and content providers also are suffering, albeit unwittingly, from the lack of new services that might otherwise be available."We also are pleased that Mr. Misener parallels our own suggestions that the goal of any anti-discrimination rule is to protect the user experience, and that the best test of any proposed new services is whether or not they harm other users. As he explains:
"If paid performance enhancement for some content is equally available and does not degrade the performance of other content, then it should be permissible."Arts+Labs hopes Mr. Misener's commentary stimulates others to find a peace settlement in this long debate. It seems to us that opening the door to new investment and innovation that improves online performance is a pretty good idea that will help enable content providers to access new services and test new business models for delivering high quality and legal content to consumers.
Ending this fight also would put the focus back on such fundamental issues as universal connectivity and the continued development of safe, legal and innovative online content and applications.

