Net Neutrality has never existed

This article does not fairly represent the position of NetNeutrality opponents.

Most opponents that I know of oppose NetNeutrality on the basis that government regulation of the Internet on behalf of large corporations is a bad idea. Microsoft and Google spend millions lobbying for NetNeutrality because they stand to benefit from such laws (not because they are "good guys").

The fact is that there has never been NetNeutrality. When I was in college, I was not allowed to use fast network connectivity because I wasn't part of the department that had a grant to pay for it. In your home, when the network connection is slow, you go up to your son's room and tell him to turn off BitTorrent. The Internet is divided into those who pay for it, and those who leech from it without paying. Keeping the leechers under control is an important part of keeping the Internet running.

Engineers who keep the backbone running have long been fighting this battle. They monitor their networks in order to make sure that people pay for the bandwidth they use. When they find leechers, they quickly move to stop the leeching. They battle the huge users of the Internet, like the Microsoft's and Google's of the world. The big users likewise have engineers that maintain multiple connections to the Internet, and try to find tricks to route their packets using the least cost possible. The often find an unsuspecting victim and find a way to change routes to get bandwidth for free. Right this second, an Internet backbone engineer somewhere in the world is tracking down a leecher and restricting its bandwidth.

If Microsoft and Google get their way, then this sort of stuff will stop. They will be free to exploit routes for lower prices, but ISPs will no longer be free to stop them. The small guys will end up paying for the bandwidth of the big guys.

NetNeutrality is not a battle of "the people vs. the powerful", but "the powerful vs. the powerful". No matter which side the government takes, we'll all lose. The best solution is to keep the government out of the fight.

The Internet was founded on principles of freedom, which is why Robert Kahn, one of the founders of the Internet, opposes NetNeutrality. Another founder, Vint Cerf, supports NetNeutrality, but of course, he's a paid lobbyist for Google. The EFF supports it, but that's because they are vapid populists, and will happily discard our rights and freedoms as long as a big corporation is hurt in the process.

NetNeutrality is an oddly Orwellian law, where everyone is equal, but some are more equal than others.