How net neutrality became a hot-button issue

-Source Daily Times- For a fundamentally nerdy subject net neutrality is pushing a lot of political buttons. The latest salvo is over a California law that restores a ban on cable wireless and other broadband providers from impeding peoples ability to use their favorite apps and services. The federal government had rescinded that ban and the Trump administration is seeking to block Californias effort as an imposition on federal prerogatives. Though net neutrality started off more than a decade ago as an insight into how to make networks work most efficiently it has taken on much larger social and political dimensions lately. The issue has emerged as an anti-monopoly rallying point and even a focus for resistance to the Trump administration. Any time the cable companies and the Trump administration are on one side it looks good for companies to be on the other side Boston Law School professor Daniel Lyons said. But the idea hasnt always been political or partisan. Net neutrality traces back to an engineering maxim called the end-to-end principle a self-regulating network that put control in the hands of end users rather than a central authority. Traditional cable-TV services for instance required special equipment and controlled what channels are shown on TV. With an end-to-end network like the internet the types of equipment apps articles and video services permitted are limited only to imagination.