re: Net Neutrality - Layman's Terms

Cable and phone companies (ISPs) have government sanctioned regional near monopolies on our internet connections. They also sell us TV content. They want to keep it that way.

This isn't all about NetFlix, but they are the canary in the coal mine so to speak. What the ISPs are doing to NetFlix is what they will do to all internet content providers if they are successful. The ISPs already charge customers to access NetFlix, they'd like to double dip and charge NetFlix for access to it's customers, even though they already got money from their customer to pay for the data consumed. NetFlix traffic is being intentionally slowed down by ISPs, they essentially need to upgrade the connection between themselves and NetFlix, a solution that is relatively inexpensive, but they choose not to because they are going to get their money, either from shaking down NetFlix, or from keeping their customers away from NetFlix so they will keep buying cable TV.

There has been some "Net Neutrality" legislation introduced, but the main legal tool people seem to want to use to stop this is have the FCC declare the ISPs a common carrier so they can regulate them.