Vint Cerf backs Obama for U.S. president

Vint Cerf has come out in support of Barack Obama for United States president.

In a YouTube video he recorded, Cerf, Google's chief Internet evangelist, said he was supporting Obama primarily because of the Democratic candidate's position on Net neutrality.

Cerf commands wide influence throughout the technology world due to the role he played in the development of the Internet. Cerf co-designed the TCP/IP protocol with Robert E. Kahn. While at MCI, he oversaw the development of the world's first commercial e-mail service to be connected to the Internet.

Here's a transcription of what he had to say:

"The concern that some of us have is that broadband access to the Internet in the United States is not very competitive. There are two kinds of providers--the cable companies and the telcos--but often they don't actually compete with each other directly for services to consumers or to businesses that need access to the Net.

"The problem with this relatively uncompetitive environment is that those who control the broadband access to the Net may in fact introduce discriminatory practices that interfere either with competitors who are offering value-added services on the Net, or maybe they will interfere with consumers trying to get access to services all around the world who may actually be using those broadband facilities in order to reach the consumer from someplace else.

"We believe that the Internet should remain an open environment. It's vital to innovation. Companies like Google, and Yahoo, and eBay, and Amazon, and Skype, and so on, got their start without having to get permission from any ISP or any broadband provider to offer services. They simply acquired access to the Internet, put their services up and then made them available to the general public."

"We think that's the best way for the Internet to evolve, and I'm pleased to say that in the upcoming presidential elections, the two candidates have rather different views of this particular matter. Senator Obama in particular sees things the way I do, which is that the Net should remain open, fully accessible and providing access on a nondiscriminatory basis to people who want to offer new services on the network."

[sbwinn]

Talk about a single issue voter!

But, I missed the part of the Constitution where the federal government is granted the right to pass laws regarding Internet bandwidth usage one way or the other. Guess that interstate commerce clause just keeps getting broader and broader.

[ggordonliddy]

Cerf had nothing to do with creating the Internet (is he trying to take credit because his name is a play on "surfing ('cerfing') the web"? very suspicious, indeed).

Al Gore created it, and through him Obama can also claim this honor. Who are we to disagree? It would be racist to do so, you anti-communist fools!

[johnericanderson]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vinton_Cerf

Actually, yes, he did.

[johnericanderson]

This explains why McCain ads are getting removed fro YouTube and Obama's are not.


The new taxes Obama will put on Google will far outweigh any bandwidth neutrality issues.