Thanks for posting the article. I read it, and there is another great quote that I want to share:

Last month the Neutrality bandwagon reached Westminster – where it was dismissed in short order. Summing up the consensus at the end of an eForum debate at Millbank, the former Trade Minister Alun Michael described Neutrality as “an answer to problems we don’t have, using a philosophy we don’t share.”

I also completely agree with you in that keeping the internet the way it is now means not passing legislation, such as Snowe-Dorgan, that mandates government interference in the operation of the internet. Additionally, there is a common misconception used by supporters that net neutrality is the status quo when in fact these principles have never applied to cable broadband connections, which account for a majority of all broadband connections.

You may find this Guardian article interesting as it discusses the tactics of Save the Internet and notes the warnings being issued by some of the most senior network engineers like Robert Kahn.

“Save The Internet took full advantage of rational fears, argues veteran internet engineer Richard Bennett, but in doing so, it created “an Intelligent Design for the Left”.

The gap between fear and reality is even more stark when the technical issues are examined. The Neutrality amendments rejected by Congress last year would have made many of today’s private contracts illegal, and outlawed the techniques such as “traffic shaping” that ISPs use to curb bandwidth hogs, says Bennett.

Even worse was the long-term chilling effect. Neutrality would have made designing a better internet much harder, says the man commonly described as the father of the internet.

Dr Robert Kahn says that Neutrality legislation poses a fundamental threat to internet research because it misunderstands what the internet really is; it’s a network of networks, and experimentation on private networks must be encouraged.”The internet has never been neutral,” explains Crowcroft. “Without traffic shaping, we won’t get the convergence that allows the innovation on TV and online games that we’ve seen in data and telephony.”

http://technology.guardian.co.uk/weekly/story/0,,2049763,00.html

Additionally, as you mentioned, should an ISP block access or degrade content, they do so at their own peril and to the detriment of their business. Plus, any such action could be addressed by current laws and regulations.

Thanks and I found your debate on S&R to be very interesting.