February 26

Wired -  On the internet, the traffic cops are blind -- they don't look at the data they're directing, and they don't give preferential treatment.

That's something operators of the internet highway, the major U.S. phone companies, want to change by effectively adding a toll lane: They want to be able to give priority treatment to those who pay to get through faster.

Naturally, consumer advocates and the web companies that would be paying the toll are calling it highway robbery.

More by Bill Thompson (BBC), Cringely (PBS) and Lawrence Lessig. Wikipedia on Network Neutrality and Virtual Karma with a  funny dialog that may happen in 2019 after the big telcos got their way. ~Zach