There's a lot of bullshit flying around about net neutrality.

The issue is not whether you will be able to get to Google or read your email, or see your tweets, or all the other ridiculous issues that have been attached to this. Honestly these are Karl Rove-level scare tactics, and are hugely hypocritical. (Because the proponents operate services that tilt the table in favor of others. They wouldn't stand up to a net neutrality test themselves.)

The issue is if Netflix should have to pay Comcast to stream videos to you, if you're a Comcast subscriber. Now they do pay for that. I don't see the Internet suffering. And I am a Netflix user but not a Netflix shareholder. Netflix is just trying to get a better deal, to save a few cents per user per month, and using us as pawns.

To the cable companies, who currently charge a subscription fee for basic service and premium services like HBO and ESPN, Netflix is a competitor. If you watch movies on Netflix you are likely not using their pay-per-view service. Taken to its extreme, and we certainly heading there, all video will be streaming, and the subscription services will die off, and Comcast will lose a huge chunk of revenue. Yet they will still have to operate the same network services, whether you're subscribing or not. They have a point. Why shouldn't Netflix pay them to deliver their video? HBO does.

Disclaimer: I hate Comcast. For good cause.

But my hatred of them doesn't blind me to the greed of the Netflixes. Pay the tariff. Please. And stop trying to use Internet users to save you money. Save the silver bullet for times when the Internet really needs our help. I'd have to say that I hate Netflix even more than Comcast for trying to use the goodwill for the net in pursuit of more profits.

When to act

Now, if you ever have to pay an access fee to read a random blog, that's another story. But that's not what this is about.