I didn't respond to your net neutrality post initially because I wanted to research a couple of things. One of the biggest problems that our gov't has regarding the internet is that they can't grasp the fact that they don't own it. Yes, the US Dept of Defense Advanced Research Projects invented the internet. The World Wide Web was invented at the CERN labs in Switzerland. So the US tries to pass laws to regulate content, and the rest of the world laughs.

Net neutrality is a little different. From one side, we are a capitalist economy. The companies that want to add the surcharges have made tremendous investments into this infrastructure of copper and wireless, and they see an opportunity to squeeze a little more profit out of it, never mind that the backbone providers and ISPs already pay them money for access, and last I heard, none of the companies that own the infrastructure are actually in financial straits.

On the other hand, this would leave the US wide open to reprisals. The US does not control all of the internet, and if, say, Australia wanted to throttle all US traffic to a stand-still, they could easily do it.

So I thought on this a while and decided that even though Dubya is pro-business (well, he's pro- anybody who'll donate money), it won't last in the long run. And sure enough, a bill has been introduced to ensure net neutrality into Congress.

I should check into the news sites and see what's happening with it.