In "Long Live the Web," Berners-Lee paints the picture of a landscape deeper than the ocean, above the clouds, and in the air all around us. One that spans the globe and records not just our physical reality, but our thoughts and feelings.

The internet is one of the greatest innovations of the modern age. It provides a (mostly) universal and nondiscriminatory access to the vast amounts of information at humanity's disposal. But according to Lee, these underlyings principles that make the internet so great are not legally protected. And that puts the neutrality of the internet at stake. No one, not ISPS, not governments, should be able to modify the quality of your internet connection as they please. Not if we want to protect the freedom and potential for innovation that web has.

According to Berners-Lee, in cases where governments may block an individual's access to the internet, "no due process of law protects people before they are disconnected or their sites are blocked. Given the many ways the Web is crucial to our lives and our work, disconnection is a form of deprivation of liberty. Looking back to the Magna Carta, we should perhaps now affirm: “No person or organization shall be deprived of the ability to connect to others without due process of law and the presumption of innocence.”"

One of the core principles of net neutrality is that all data packets travelling on the internet are treated and transported the same, regardless of their content. No packet is given any prefence nor disadvantage when it comes to the speed of delivery. This is important to insure that small-time websites can compete with large powerhouses like amazon.com. Unfortunately net neutrality is no longer legally guaranteed by the FCC, and though major ISPs have claimed they will not violate the princples of net neutrality, we simply don't have the information to confirm that is true ( since ISPs aren't required to share data showing they don't throttle or block packets. ).

But the fight for net neutrality hasn't ended. As Berners-Lee ended the article: "Now is an exciting time. Web developers, companies, governments and citizens should work together openly and cooperatively, as we have done thus far, to preserve the Web’s fundamental principles, as well as those of the Internet, ensuring that the technological protocols and social conventions we set up respect basic human values. The goal of the Web is to serve humanity. We build it now so that those who come to it later will be able to create things that we cannot ourselves imagine."