I really get annoyed by all this. It's not Netflix traffic, it's my traffic. It's data I requested from my ISP, and the ISP carry the traffic because their customer wants it and pays for the service. If you're not making money from me then charge me more, don't threaten and extort the services I want to use!
> For any given U.S. household, there is often only one or two choices for getting<p>> high-speed Internet* access and that’s unlikely to change.<p>> Furthermore, Internet access is often bundled with other services<p>> making it challenging to switch ISPs. It is this lack of<p>> consumer choice that leads to the need for strong net neutrality.<p>Spot on. The reason Comcast and others can play this game is because they're a monopoly at the local level. They've worked <i>with the help of regulation</i> to snuff out all serious competition. Pull back the regulation (at the local, state, and federal levels) and watch the competition spring up, and watch the Comcasts of the world change their practices when they actually have to compete.
"But when we ask [ISPs] if we too would qualify for no-fee interconnect if we changed our service to upload as much data as we download there is an uncomfortable silence."
This is hilariously wrong. Netflix is paying ISPs because they dumped their CDN providers and started doing it on their own. They did it because it was cheaper for Netflix to cut deals than to use a CDN (who, by the way, also pay ISPs).<p>> imagine the plight of smaller services today and in the future.<p>This is flat out a lie, smaller services uses CDNs.
If we let the free markets work we wouldn't even be discussing net neutrality. ISP monopolies and duopolies are the cause of this problem. If there was competition consumers would choose the ISP that gives them proper, fast access to the services they use (eg Netflix).
Net neutrality I can see being a very important topic to Netflix. I could definitely see ISPs charging extra for Netflix services due to "load" or some BS like that (when really it would be to make up the damage to providers cable/satellite offerings).<p>Net neutrality is good for everyone, all links and all bytes should be equal.
This is where the beauty of popcorn time just shines because it's the same amount of data but it's coming from everywhere.<p>If Netflix could implement something like this and charge for it ISP's asking for a kick back would be lost.<p>Unfortunately the MPAA and RIAA would never go for that since they don't get to put their DRM everywhere.<p>Atually the MPAA and RIAA should be backing Netflix on this one since if Netflix fails the most likely replacement for it will be popcorn time and then the won't be making any money at all.<p>Then again Netflix will probably destroy net neutrality by complying with their demands before it fails.
"Big ISPs aren't paying money to services like online backup that generate more upstream than downstream traffic."<p>Maybe not paying money, but if you're running an offsite backup provider (ahem) and you're not getting special cut rates on your all-inbound usage ... you're not going to be in this business very long.
Remember when Netflix did the price hike and got a consumer backlash? Hey maybe if they could indirectly price hike through IPs, then no one would notice ;)