I understand the motives of those promoting network neutrality as law, and sympathsize with them, and understand the temptation.

But it’s not correct to say that even the laws you cite are not making legal requirements about architecture. Saying you can not do something with your architecture is still legislating architecture. Saying that you can’t charge for something is still legislating architecture. Just because I believe that the flat rate open net is the best architecture doesn’t mean this is the only valid opinion or the only valid way to design, and bill for, a network.

That bill also does exactly what I don’t advise. It regulates “broadband providers” with a definition that’s quite broad (200kbps in one direction) and would thus include satellite, cellular and just about anything else that’s not a dial-up modem. There is no problem here except from franchised broadband providers that have been granted some sort of monopoly. That means MSOs, ILECs and to some extent the new WISPs that have been granted monopoly rights to poles. (It might also include use of licenced spectrum.) We would not want to affect anybody else.

And I don’t think you or others want to affect the small upstart ISPs. I presume it was felt that if you singled out the monopoly ISPs they would complain this was unfair. Either way they will certainly work to amend any bill to make sure it provides regulatory legwork for small competitors. That’s what they do. It’s what they always do. And members of congress don’t seem to understand how much paperwork and permission equal asphixiation.

It is also important to understand that the network of an ISP is not the internet. The internet, by definition, is the network of networks, tied together because they all use IP and can route amongst themselves. You can regulate how private networks interconnect to form internets, but it’s much harder to do it for the private networks at the end, but that’s the likely place they will want to interfere with network neutrality if you could stop them at the interconnect.

While we’ve been concentrating on this legislation, they seemingly snuck past us something far more damning to the internet than network non-neutrality is ever likely to be — the USF. A fat tax on small players, VoIP companies and ISPs, paid to the big telcos, along with a bureaucracy which will involve ISPs having to register, report revenues and pay fat fees.

We want to keep it hands off as much as we can. Which alas, does not mean “hands off except on the things we want.”