Cringely gets to the heart of the matter.. Right now, it’s all about VoIP:
One thing ISPs supposedly aren’t allowed to do is to ban packets completely. If they tried that by, for example, restricting all Internet video or VoIP phone service to a particular provider, the courts would fill with lawyers filing Restraint of Trade lawsuits. So the ISPs take the air carrier approach of not denying passage to anyone, but wanting to give priority boarding to their most loyal frequent fliers. That’s the heart of their argument.
But the other position ISPs like to take is that of the common carrier, which supposedly doesn’t know the difference between one packet and the next, and is therefore not liable if some of those packets carry kiddie porn or terrorist communications. The ISPs, you see, want it both ways.
And they’ll probably get it, because they have the lobbying clout.
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Where this Net Neutrality issue will hit home is for Voice over IP telephone service, which becomes pitiful if there is too much latency. That’s what this is all about, folks: VoIP and nothing else. The telcos want to use it to keep out the Vonages, Skypes, and Packet8s, and the cable companies do, too. It is a $1 trillion global business, so we shouldn’t be surprised that the ISPs will do anything to own it, but it isn’t about movies or music or even AJAX apps — at least, not yet.
UPDATE: There are also some excellent pieces on the topic over at Jim Lippard’s blog. Too many to link individually….