My pensieve

Following is the content of that mail that I sent to TRAI(advqos@trai.gov.in) with my views on NetNeutrality.
I would encourage people to copy/paste and send the same content or improvise it and send it to TRAI and express their support for NetNeutrality.
Hi,

Last two-three decades have shown us the power of people communicating
to each other independently, peer to peer over the internet. The world
of Free Software, Wikipedia, Khanacademy, MOOCs(Massive Open Online
Courses), Arxiv.org, to name a few would not have been possible had
people not been able to express, share, and spread their views over
internet. Internet has made it possible to decentralize knowledge and
make it accessible to people across the world.

On similar lines, Facebook, Gmail, Whatsapp, are just few examples of
how corporates have made use of internet and made available platforms to
enable people to communicate easily with very little technical
knowledge. They have come up with own business models across this also.

But though all these are the major and well known players in the
internet world, they just form a very small part of the actual internet
world. Internet comprises of millions of websites, each trying to
communicate some idea to its viewers. Like Facebook provides a platform
to communicate with your friends, a blogger like Avijit Roy may use his
blog as a platform to spread his views on religion. Like Gmail provides
mailing service, Riseup.net may provide mailing list services to
activists organizations. Whatsapp may provide services for people to
chat using their mobile, where as TOR may be used by people to browse
internet anonymously.

All of these wide range of
entities(individuals/organizations/corporates) are making use of
internet in their own way. Calling only a few of them OTT(Over The Top)
Service would definitely be wrong as each entity provides some or other
service. Some may make money over donations, some others by displaying
ads and some by selling ads. However that should not be a reason to
differentiate their content or service over the internet.

All of the content over internet should be treated equally irrespective
of how they are accessed, used or monetized. I would request government
of India not to take steps towards breaking fundamental aspects of
internet which is one of the humanity's greatest invention. Net
Neutrality is a must for future of Internet.

Regards,

Vignesh Prabhu
Student, UVCE,
Volunteer, FSMK
Bangalore