net neutrality is a war between google/yahoo/etc on one end and backbone providers on the other end. the backbone providers want to be able to charge to prioritize content, while those who don't own a backbone segment oppose this.

google/yahoo/etc. have plenty of money and so these campaigns are probably funded by them. However, I think that there is much merit to the case behind net neutrality, as granting a number of de facto local monopolies would mean that information providers would need to get into the backbone business to reach customers. ComCast could (and probably would), for example, make your connection to Google or Google Video (or your private server) extremely slow by deprioritizing such packets and forcing you to go to ComCast's own (inferior) portal.

Posted by: gc on October 6, 2006 5:38 AM