This past tax day I wrote an article examining whether the government might soon be coming after content creators like Google or Netflix.  Such a notion would leave many in complete befuddlement after the past two years have seen the pro-Net Neutrality camp deeply entrenched in spreading concerns of impending doom that would be headed to the Internet if we continued even one more day without a regulatory regime placing its grip over the network.

One must understand that the heart of the much of the Network Neutrality debate has been the fear that Internet Service Providers (ISPs) like that of Comcast, Verizon, or AT&T would begin charging content creators to receive prioritized connections to the Internet.  If they were to do this, then the pro-regulation crowd suggests that this would create an unfair advantage for large or established web companies and that small startup companies would not have the capital to pay these fees or “taxes” for faster, prioritized service and would therefore be at an immediate disadvantage.  Therefore any present day suggestion that any governmental agency or program should place a taxation on content as a right of way to exist on the Internet seems contrary and ironic to the goals and concerns that have been much of the fight for the pro-regulatory side of the debate.

At a February 23rd Congressional Internet Caucus panel, Shirley Bloomfield, CEO of National Telecommunications Cooperative Association (NTCA) who notes themselves as being “the voice of rural telecommunications” said that, “We would really like to see the FCC also grapple with the contribution side of the equation as well.”

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From the AFP:

The five-member Federal Communications Commission (FCC) approved the rules aimed at safeguarding “network neutrality,” the principle that lawful Web traffic should be treated equally, by a 3-2 vote at an open meeting here.

The three Democrats on the panel voted in favor of the rules, which are likely to face legal challenges, while the two Republicans voted against them.

“Our action will advance our goal of having America’s broadband networks be the freest and fastest in the world,” said FCC chairman Julius Genachowski.

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It’s an eerie echo of last year’s health care debate, but without nearly as much public attention.  Another Christmas Eve, another sixth of the economy taken over by Washington.

This time it’s so-called “network neutrality” regulation.  President Obama’s Federal Communications Commission is obsessed with regulating the Internet.  They apparently won’t be stopped by common sense, courts of law, public opinion, or a resounding electoral defeat for big government policies.  They made it official last night at midnight when they announced the agenda for their December 21 meeting: the FCC is going to regulate the Internet.

Network neutrality (also known by the even more lovely sounding marketing term “open Internet”) is an outgrowth of the larger so-called media reform project of radical left-wing activists like Robert McChesney, the socialist founder of the misnamed group Free Press, which has enormous influence on the FCC, where its former communications director, Jen Howard, is FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski’s press secretary.

McChesney explained where net neutrality leads to SocialistProject.ca:

You will never ever, in any circumstance, win any struggle at any time. That being said, we have a long way to go. At the moment, the battle over network neutrality is not to completely eliminate the telephone and cable companies. We are not at that point yet. But the ultimate goal is to get rid of the media capitalists in the phone and cable companies and to divest them from control.

The FCC’s new rules, likely to be approved on a final 3-2, party-line vote on December 21, take McChesney’s first step.

Network neutrality sounds simple – force phone and cable companies to treat every bit of information the same way – but modern networks are incredibly complex, with millions of lines of code in every router, and constantly evolving.

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In the ongoing fight over proposed rules that would institute net neutrality, a major proponent of the policy is taking fresh heat from critics.  Google, arguably the world’s biggest name in tech, a major source of campaign donations to President Barack Obama, and one of the most prominent advocates of an “open internet,” is taking heat for alleged hypocrisy and rent seeking.

The criticism comes as the company continues to advocate for the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to impose net neutrality rules that would target internet service providers (ISPs) while opposing so-called “search neutrality” that would impact both the company and its revenues in a manner that observers of the debate say could be particularly adverse to Google.

Last week, in a post on the official Google blog, the company’s senior vice president for product management, Jonathan Rosenberg, wrote that while Google’s “goal is to keep the Internet open,” it opposes the concept of “openness” where it would apply to its own search and ad products.

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