ESPN makes the decision as to who can see their premium content. What's wrong with that? If they lose revenue based on their own decisions, that's their problem.
It is quite different than if it were Verizon that said "You can access content at ESPN," while Comcast said "No ESPN.com for you."
"The Net neutrality advocates worry so much about the content transporters while the content the "evil" broadband duopoly of the Telephone companies and the Cable companies that they have never considered the possibility of "evil" content producers. While I don't know the exact business behind this ESPN360 deal, it certainly looks like the blockage of entire source IP blocks is being done from ESPN's side of the pipe. If this is true, doesn't this turn the entire Net neutrality debate on its head since we may need to reverse our focus towards the abusive content companies?"
This is the content providers making decisions as to who can access their content, and not the access providers. Think of it like an amusement park. The park owners get to decide who may enter, and who may not within certain legal boundaries. What may not happen is for the city that owns the main access road to decide that only those driving American-made cars may get to the park in the first place.
Does that mean that I like it? No, but since the content providers own the content it's perfecly legitimate for them to restrict access to their content.
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