Lest my posting of a certain ninja‘s take on the subject lead anybody astray, I’m not a big proponent of “net neutrality” as the phrase is currently understood. I don’t agree with Mr. Ninja’s stance, seeing it as humorous hyperbole. The problem is that most of the discussion about freeing the Internet from the evil telcos (or freeing the Internet from the threat of innovation-strangling regulation) is non-humorous hyperbole. Richard Bennett summarized the ongoing “neutrality” debate rather succinctly in a recent post.

If your ISP wants to keep you from watching videos of the Hot Dog on a Stick girl, they’ll anger you and you’ll vote with your feet by leaving. You’ll then proceed to bad-talk them to anybody you know when the subject arises, and attribute every problem folks have with their connectivity to that ISP’s neo-facist policies and campaign of freedom-curtailing. It isn’t in the interest of your ISP to cut you off from content.

That said, the telcos’ Hands Off the Internet campaign is certainly not to be trusted. What’s the big tip-off? They are even less eager than their natural arch-rivals the Save the Internet campaign to provide the actual text of the legislation they claim to be informing the public about. The most recent bill considered by congress was the “Internet Freedom Preservation Act of 2006,” but the actual substance of the bill is rarely referenced, as folks opt instead to fly off on irresonsible tangents, hacking away at straw men of their own fabrication.

A non-expert full-text analysis follows:
Continue reading →