Opinion: Internet isolationism is bad for business

Computerworld - What if you had to pay to receive packages from FedEx?
 
Oh, sure, there's UPS and DHL and the US Postal Service.  But imagine if they were all proposing that, because people make money based on the contents of packages other people shipped, that they should see some of that money.  Imagine they implied that, if you or your company did not pay a reception fee... well, things might happen.  Packages might get lost, you see.
 
Now imagine they informed you that they were going to deploy equipment that could analyze the contents of the packages they shipped.  A six-ounce letter might contain a multimillion dollar contract, while a twenty pound box might just have some intern's new laptop.  Suppose their equipment could tell the difference.  Would you pay to not have that contract "lost" in a sorting facility?
 
Of course you'd pay.  You'd also pay not to have your knees broken.  But kneecap integrity should not be a business expense.

This is, of course, a simplification.  Nowadays, that contract could be transmitted over the Internet instead, and work would continue to flow.  But something very strange has been proposed for the Net:  Broadband providers have suggested that, like FedEx charging to receive packages, certain receivers should have to pay to receive packets.  Though they've been coy about what it would mean to not pay, broadband providers have indeed proposed deploying an entire network of monitoring and censoring agents that could examine network traffic and suppress it, unless a "business arrangement" had been made with the receiving parties.

FedEx would never suggest intentionally losing your packages.  They also would never suggest tearing them open to see if there’s anything good inside.  But Verizon and Comcast and a number of other broadband providers are gleefully declaring their intent to drop your traffic, starting with whatever you consider most valuable.  This, they call "innovation".

We've got a problem here.

The status quo on the Internet is something referred to as network neutrality.  This basic idea -- that it's the Internet's job to move data, not to inspect and select and ultimately reject it -- has worked quite well.  What one particular branch of the Internet is suggesting is something rather different:  Internet isolationism.  They wish to redefine their customers as a "captive audience", suppressing the free trade of packets to them unless as-yet undefined tariffs are paid.  They propose to isolate their customers behind an ever-shifting web of favored providers, special partners, and mutually beneficial arrangements.

This was, of course, the model of both America Online and France's Minitel.  Neither model came close to the success of the Internet.