Net
Neutrality
The idea that all data on the Internet should be treated equally by governments and Internet service providers is known as net neutrality, often known as network neutrality, Internet neutrality, or net equality. It is not acceptable to charge or treat users, content, sites, platforms, applications, connected equipment types, or communication methods differently. Tim Wu, a media law professor at Columbia University, first used the phrase in 2003. It was a development of the traditional idea of a common carrier.The deliberate slowing of peer-to-peer connections by Internet service provider Comcast is one instance of a breach of net neutrality. Deep packet inspection was being used by another company in 2007 to differentiate between online games, file transfer protocols, and peer-to-peer networks. They began employing bundling, free-to-telecom value-added services, and overages in a billing scheme modeled after cell phones.