Web Plan Is Dividing Companies

In an emerging battle over regulating Internet access, companies are taking sides.

Most media companies have stayed mute on the subject, but in an interview this week, the media mogul Barry Diller called the proposal a sham. And outside of technology circles, most people have not yet figured out what is at stake. The debate revolves around net neutrality, which in the broadest sense holds that Internet users should have equal access to all types of information online, and that companies offering Internet service should not be able to give priority to some sources or types of content.

"All of our life goes through this network, increasingly, and if you can't reach your boss or get to your remotely stored work, or it's so slow that you can't get it done before you give up and you go to bed, that's a problem," said Allen S. Hammond IV, director of the Broadband Institute of California at Santa Clara University School of Law. "People need to understand that's what we're debating here."