Washington Post writer Steven Levy outlines a Time Warner proposal to charge Internet users by the Gig. The monthly cut for basic service is 5 gigs (I assume this would be for less than the current price). The article mentions the capacity eaten up by those involved in illegal file sharing. New and legal online video services – the article mentions iTunes, but I would think NetFlix would possibly be a bigger problem because there is no charge per download – are also a concern.
Of course, if such fees can be applied, it will again be less expensive to rent the DVD at your local store. It will also be less expensive to use “pay per view” through your cable company.
Levy contends this is somehow different than the net neutrality issue.
This is in contrast to behavior that violates the principle of “net neutrality,” which asserts that providers shouldn’t be able tilt the digital playing field to favor their favorite Internet services (i.e. their partners or those who pay them).
I don’t see it that way. If the cable company owns the pipe, digital cable content and Internet content are still coming into your home through the same connection. If the company can restrict one form of digital content in order to increase sale of the other, they certainly are not neutral. I’ll bet the download tax won’t be applied to pay per view purchases? Perhaps pay per view downloads require no bandwidth.
