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Originally Posted by powerclown
Question: How could the ISPs and hardware companies legally prohibit access to a site such as this one, and is that even whats at stake here because I was under the impression it was more a matter of controlling the amount of bandwidth available to end-users. If it is the latter, and the stated explanation for it is to finance the physical expansion of the infrastructure of the internet for future innovation and new technologies, then whats the problem with that?
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Net neutrality is not about the amount of total bandwidth the end user has access to.
It is about treating all packets of information sent and received by users the same way. That is, packets from all applications and all websites have to be treated similarly.
So it is not about the total bandwidth available, but the bandwidth available for different sites and applications. Without net neutrality, an ISP could make a deal with yahoo that it's pages would load much faster than google pages for example. Or it could completely block the transmission of VoIP packets, essentially killing voice communication over the internet. It could make certain sites or email addresses unreachable, if it so chose. In short, without net neutrality, ISPs can speed up or completely block programs and websites as they see fit. Think of what China does to its ISPs.
While it all may sound like some conspiracy theory, in many nations where net neutrality is not enforced ISPs have simply shut down VoIP to prevent competition, for example.
So on one hand you have the majority of content and software providers for net neutrality (google, microsoft, yahoo, ebay) and the majority of ISPs against it (At&t and verizon).
The issue you are talking about, of bandwidth, is another issue that some people want to tackle, but as the FCC chief said,
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Throughout, Genachowski stressed his own background in business and his concern for innovation. He decried "detailed rules" that would be immediately outdated and made clear that ISPs could still throttle heavy users at peak times and take reasonable measures to manage their networks.
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I.e., limiting the amount of bandwidth little Johnny has as he tries to download 10 porn movies at the same time would still be ok, but not blocking VoIP, access to certain sites, etc.