The FCC got involved in 2008 after Comcast was found to be throttling high-bandwidth, BitTorrent-related requests, a move that Comcast defended as necessary to ease traffic congestion. Indeed, congestion is a major issue that ISPs struggle with daily, especially on high-bandwidth assets like movies, games, and video content. But neutrality advocates are more concerned with the theoretical next steps, including favoritism towards certain sites, software packages, or hardware setups.

Comcast and other access providers are obviously thrilled with the decision, and neutrality advocates predictably distressed. The pro-neutrality group is varied, and spans heavyweights like Google, the Obama administration, and consortia like A2IM in the music world.

But this is hardly a closed book. “Today’s court decision invalidated the prior Commission’s approach to preserving an open internet,” the FCC stated. “But the Court in no way disagreed with the importance of preserving a free and open internet; nor did it close the door to other methods for achieving this important end.”

This is the first official filing by the independent label organization, though Bengloff has rifled off open letters to the Obama administration and the FCC, among other support activities.

On its face, the issue of net neutrality seems fairly straightforward.  After all, who wouldn’t want equal access to content from every site, big or small?  And, on the net right now, users enjoy that very privilege, including the ability to consume music from bands of every size, style, and genre.

So what’s the issue?  That is exactly what ISPs are asking, raising the issue of why governmental oversight is needed at this juncture.  Perhaps government involvement is redundant, or worse, meddling and expensive.  It may also make certain bandwidth management chores difficult, and ultimately slow the net.  But neutrality proponents fear a world where a handful of ISPs can effectively handpick their favorites, including their own horses.

Openness is what the internet was designed for, though on the music side, the open internet has been a mixed blessing.  Fans currently enjoy the greatest levels of access and connectivity, though the beast is incredibly difficult to monetize.  Still, A2IM prefers the wilds of openness.  “Despite the many unresolved questions surrounding the protection of intellectual property online, we remain optimistic that open internet structures are our best means through which to do business, reach listeners and innovate in the digital realm,” Bengloff noted.