The inventor of the World Wide Web testified before the Subcommittee on Telecommunications and the Internet in the U.S. House of Representatives Thursday 1 March, summing it up in one sentence:

“We are a society only in as much as we are individuals communicating.”

Not that that’s all he said:

Berners-Lee didn’t endorse specific Net neutrality proposals largely supported by congressional Democrats, but he said the Web as a communications medium deserves “special treatment” to protect its nondiscriminatory approach to content.

While he was growing up in the U.K., there were high penalties for interfering with mail delivery, because mail was one of the main ways to communicate, Berners-Lee said. Now, the Web is a major communications medium worthy of protections, he said.

One company or country shouldn’t control access to the Web, he added.

Berners-Lee offers thoughts on Net neutrality, DRM, Legendary Web originator weighs in Grant Gross, IDG News Service, March 01, 2007

He didn’t get much opposition to his thoughts on net neutrality, but he did get some to his DRM comments.

It’s interesting to see who the pro-DRM commenter was, or, rather, what she’s previously sponsored:

While Berners-Lee didn’t hear a lot of opposition to his Net neutrality comments at the hearing, Representative Mary Bono, a California Republican and the author of the copyright-extension clause often referred to as the “Sonny Bono” or “Mickey Mouse” Copyright Extension Act, challenged his assertion that digital rights management (DRM) copy protections could hinder the growth of some parts of the Web.

Berners-Lee called for open standards instead of closed DRM technologies. Instead of DRM, copyright holders should “allow people to do the right thing” by providing the information on how to legally use the material, he said.

Where Bono and Disney see pirates, Berners-Lee, like Steve Jobs as the article says, sees a market opportunity.

So let’s see: the inventor of the World Wide Web and both of the inventors of TCP/IP (Cerf and Kahn) are for net neutrality, and Disney and Bono are against. I don’t seem to recall either of the latter being involved in creating the Internet or the web. Once upon a time Disney was a pioneer in new media (animated cartoons, animatronics, hybrids, theme parks, etc.). Recently it seems they’ve had to turn to Pixar and Jobs for help even with their core business of animated features. So if I had to pick which camp to listen to on the subject of innovation and creativity, I know which camp I would pick.

-jsq