Michael Hiltzik: The Internet no man&#39;s land

One would think that the battle over "network neutrality" -- the principle that Internet service providers shouldn't favor some websites and block others based on their own corporate interests -- would be a slam-dunk. There's no logical reason why services that consumers treat as utilities should be picking winners and losers among the content providers that subscribers choose to access.

But as my Wednesday column reports, when powerful commercial interests are at work, look out. Cable companies have long been accustomed to situating cable channels on their grid depending on how much those channels pay for the privilege or how many viewers they bring to the system (cable operators make some of their money by reserving commercial slots for themselves on popular shows). As cable operators come to dominate the universe of Internet service providers, nothing but strong government regulation in favor of net neutrality will keep them from importing the same business model to the Web.

Fred von Lohmann of the Electronic Frontier Foundation warns that we shouldn't be complacent that more evidence hasn't surfaced of big ISPs blocking or throttling websites that compete with their own businesses. As long as regulatory mechanisms on the Web remain unsettled, they have reason to behave; Comcast, for example, is awaiting government approval of its big merger with NBC. If it's discovered to be violating net neutrality, that merger could be in danger. But this condition won't last forever.

The column starts below:

Here's an entry in my bizspeak-to-English dictionary: When executives in certain industries talk about needing to be rid of regulation so they can foster "better customer service," they're really talking about safeguarding their income.

Case in point: the cable and telecommunications industry, and the concept of network neutrality.

Net neutrality, broadly speaking, is the principle that any Internet service provider, such as your cable or phone company, should be largely blind to whatever data flow to your computer from the websites you access -- your service provider shouldn't interfere with your Web searches, say, by giving Google preferential routing (and thus faster speed to you) over Yahoo.

The net neutrality issue scuttled back into the headlines last week with a ruling by a federal appeals court that appeared to nullify the Federal Communications Commission's jurisdiction over Internet providers' behavior.