NETWORK NEUTRALITY: PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE OF INTERNET - 10.12818/P.0304-2340.2017vBIp195

Abstract

The scope of this article is to analyse net neutrality. It starts by contextualizing internet’s birth, its purposes, the main principles used on its design and how was the original architecture of that network, specially its modular structure and layers. Next, it describes some recent changes on the internet’s structure, highlighting the monitoring and control of data packets, by accessing its headers or using a technology known as DPI (deep packet inspection), which allows the monitoring of the content of each packet, in order to discriminate between them. This part explains how this subject affects the life of billions of people, worldwide. Finally, the paper focuses on net neutrality, as the main legal response to the previously described problems, explaining how it derivate from the original design principles of internet, in order to support a conclusion that reconciles, at one side, free competition and investment strategies, and, at the other side, privacy, freedom of speech, innovation and internet users decision-making autonomy.