JSM88
join:2000-12-20
Falls Church, VA | Important point on net neutrality here We really can't say much about a content provider signing an exclusive deal with an ISP - that is NOT a violation of net neutrality, no matter how wrong it may seem. Content providers are free to sell their goods to whomever they chose, and not sell as the case may be - witness the NFL and DirectTV BUT - and this is the big BUT - if an ISP offers this service, and exempts the bandwidth used from caps, or charges a difference price for the bandwidth, that is a fundamental, anti-competitive violation of net neutrality and should be dealt with in the harshest manner possible. By privileging some methods of content delivery over others the ISP's will be closing out the market in ways that content providers (Netflix vs. HBO) could never do to each other.
The funny thing is that the ISP's, in their fights with the FCC over jurisdiction, are missing the far broader area of anti-trust law that will eventually doom any effort to tie content to delivery. The settled law that allowed the government to prevent movie studios from owning movie theaters is directly applicable to this situation, and can be applied by the courts without any legislative or executive action should a case arise. |
