'Surrender Monkey' Google Slams the Door Shut

[Commentary] This week's joint statement from Google and Verizon means the Internet is finally growing up. Damn it.

On its face, the proposal from the two companies over Network Neutrality rules is just a declaration of principles they hope will influence future government policy making. The truth is, it represents a massive defection by Google from the cause of assuring a level playing field for providers of online content and services -- a cause that has been accepted as an article of faith from the Net's earliest days, and one of the keys to its explosive growth. And it will lead to an Internet that is more stultifying for businesses and consumers. There may be an argument that the net-neutrality cause was already so weakened its defenders needed to cut the best compromise they could, lest they lose everything. Internet service providers have a well-earned reputation for political clout in Washington; meanwhile, a federal court ruled in April that regulators lacked authority to censure Comcast Corp. for slowing traffic from a file-sharing network. The counter-argument is that if defenders of an open Internet acquiesce in allowing development of a tiered system and excluding wireless broadband from Net-neutrality rules, they'll lose everything anyway -- just in slow motion.

Either way, it's hard to shake the feeling that Google, having taken full advantage of the Net we've known for the last 15 or so years, is now helping pull the door shut behind it. A long time ago, I learned a valuable political lesson from my dad. "There are two parties in this country, but they aren't the Democrats and the Republicans," he said. "They're the Ins and the Outs." Google and Verizon just made clear they're members of the same party.