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That's very interesting

What exactly are "inalienable rights" anyway? We say they are something that everyone has, but it's like money - only worth something if people believe that it is worth something. Arguing whether those rights are oppressed or have been removed is an exercise in pedantry. I could equally argue that my right not to be "taken or imprisoned upon the appeal of a woman for the death of any other than of her husband" (article 34 of the Magna Carta) was oppressed when it was repealed by the Statute Law Revision Act 1863 (c.125) and Statute Law (Ireland) Revision Act 1872 (c.98)*.

* http://www.davros.org/legal/magna_carta.html (I ain't a lawyer!)

The entire planet has had network neutrality for years and it hasn't cost anyone a penny. The US has had common carrier laws since 1830 (they originally referred to shipping companies) and they are still in effect today. Why would continuing a law that has existed for 176 years suddenly incurr some new big cost?

So, just sent a registered letter to the patent examiner with a registered copy to the attorneys pointing out that there is prior art for claim one. this 1998 ISO comment, this 1997 IBM document or a few zillion others.

...can be found at A Chronology of Digital Computing Machines (to 1952)

ISPs are common carriers. (The CDA tried to declare that they aren't, but it was overturned)

By definition, a common carrier is someone with a policy to transport things irregardless of what they are, discriminating only on the customer's ability to pay. (And size/weight of packages, if relevant). Since specific laws are silent on the subject, courts will treat ISPs as common carriers, according to the dictionary (or common-law) definition.

An individual ISP can, if it wishes, enact publicly stated policies to remove it's common-carrier status. Some people will pay extra to get porn censored from their networking. An ISP like that is not a common carrier, and loses some protections. They can be sued, for instance, if a user clicks a goatsex link that should've been blocked.

But common-carrier and local decency standards have nothing to do with child porn, which is a federal offense.

One isn't supposed to "block" child porn- in theory, this is a serious crime, and any responsible citizen will report it to the police/FBI, who will physically unplug the suspect's computer.

That's why they can't just willie nilly record your conversations.

Not all "phone companies" are monopolies. Some are smaller companies, using the government's "must carry" rules to borrow a bigger company's lines. Yet they can't spy on you either.

There are many other reasons. State laws against wiretapping, for example, can make it a crime to record any communication without informed consent of all parties. Those laws aren't uniform, though. In some states, it only applies to audio and not text/images. Also, some states require only one member of the conversation to give consent.