Variety: (h/t MS)
"Net neutrality" may sound like something only a Web geek could love, but at some point showbiz, largely indifferent to it so far, will have to start declaring an interest -- perhaps passionately.
Why? Because Net neutrality -- or, as some call it, Net regulation -- has the potential to affect content protection, otherwise known as Priority No. 1 of the entertainment industry.
Access to online content, itself no small concern, could also be at stake.[..]
But there's no rule that says it has to be that way. If you get your Internet from Time Warner Cable, for example, there's nothing to stop it from sending you content from Time Warner sites first and doling out content from the competition with whatever bandwidth happens to be left over.
Nor is there anything to keep an Internet service provider like Earthlink from taking fees from Disney or NBC Universal to give some sites priority -- and to block other sites altogether.
That would give Web sites with deep pockets behind them a new advantage in getting their content in front of Web users, while sites that can't afford those fees could be kicked to the virtual curb.
