[1st-mile-nm] FCC makes a move toward Net Neutrality

[John Osmon]

[...from "Free Press" via Carroll Cagle...]
 
> Your hard work is paying off! Just one hour ago, the Federal Communications
> Commission voted to punish Comcast for violating Net Neutrality and blocking
> your right to do what you want on the Internet.

Ouch.  Too many of these types of victories could be devestating.

I *want* my ISP to be able to block things.  I don't want spam.  I don't
want the worm-du-jour running rampant.  I might even want to them block
P2P so that they can keep their costs lower than other ISPs -- and thus
offer me cheaper access.

What we need is access neutrality -- from my home or office I want
a multitude of choices when it comes to ISPs.  I want them to be
unfettered by mandated "Net Neutrality" laws.  I want them to
*offer* filtered access, but each ISP could specialize in some niche.

Qwest has a great model for such a system -- their ATM-based DSL
product.  Qwest offers connectivity from your home/business to 
several ISPs.  Any number of service-based ISPs could be contemplated 
by using such an access system.

Perhaps an ISP alliance would crop up that partners with the MPAA/RIAA.
Such ISPs would filter P2P traffic that isn't destined for "legitimate"
services.  In exchange for such filtering, the MPAA/RIAA could subsidize
the end-users' ISP fees with the savings from reduced piracy issues...  

I believe that such a service would have many takers -- but would be 
impossible to achieve if Net Neutrality becomes the law of the land.

Free the copper/fiber -- the net will take care of itself.

(Note:  I help run an ISP, so assume I have some biases...)

As I get ready to send this, the following popped up on slashdot:
  http://arstechnica.com/articles/culture/customer-owned-fiber.ars