Understanding Title II: What The New York Times can learn from ‘The Princess Bride’

[Commentary] Some advocates don’t think the network neutrality rules proposed by the Federal Communications Commission allowing Internet service providers to enter into direct carriage agreements with application or content providers like Google and Netflix go far enough. The New York Times editorial board raves that Title II will “prohibit phone and cable companies like Verizon and Comcast from engaging in unjust or unreasonable discrimination against content.”

Title II treats telephone services as a common carrier. It is not about content, it is about prices -- namely the regulation of prices. Fast and slow lanes are permitted under Title II -- or, to say it the correct way, they are not prohibited under Title II.

[Boliek is an associate professor of law at Pepperdine University School of Law]