I usually get to go to the Heritage bloggers briefing, and I always enjoy it. Today, though, I learned something shocking: apparently, there are conservatives who aren't in favor of net neutrality.

This just doesn't make any sense. The story of the Internet is the prime example of how markets are supposed to work: anyone can enter, and the best ideas, content, and products win out. If I have a brilliant idea, I'll be wildly successful (Google); if I have a terrible idea, I'll fail miserably (Pets.com).

I can put anything on the Internet, because there are no gatekeepers on content. I still have to find viewers, but if I provide a better product, I'll get them. The only advantage that established companies have is their brand recognition and that doesn't stick around for long. What search engine did you use before Google? Do you even remember?

So why do we need net neutrality legislation? Because this entire paradigm -- all the innovation this delicate balance of market forces can foster -- is now threatened.

When Good ISPs Go Bad: A Cautionary Tale

Say my ISP wants to make an extra buck. MySpace offers them ten million dollars to speed up connections to MySpace and slow down connections to Facebook. Later on, I want to waste some time on the web. MySpace is so much faster than Facebook, so I'm going to do it there instead. Now my decision is based on who paid my ISP more, not the content of the site. This hurts my ability to make choices, and the quality of the goods on the market.

Now my ISP has found this blog post complaining about their relationship with MySpace. They're not pleased, so they decide to prevent their customers from accessing TechRepublican. (Great Firewall of China, anyone?)

A few weeks later, my ISP announces that it's got a fantastic new advance: documents and e-mails will travel much faster than before, at the expense of YouTube videos -- the folks using YouTube are probably just procrastinating. Businesses and grandmothers are happy, but there's a problem. To do this, my ISP has to be able to see what's inside my packets. It's reading my data.

This is all legal.

Opponents of net neutrality say I might be protected from some of these abuses by existing anti-trust laws, though at the Heritage briefing former Clinton aide Mike McCurry wasn't quite sure. Anti-trust law, however, won't make sure that ISPs do what they're supposed to: treat all packets equally.

Mr. McCurry thinks we should develop "smart pipes," as opposed to the "dumb pipes" we have now. (Doesn't he know it's a series of tubes?) The goal is to make sure that important information can travel more quickly. Unfortunately, there's only one way to do this: deep packet inspection. "Smart pipes" only work by inspecting the data that travels through them, and that only works by violating our privacy.

"If you have nothing to hide, you have nothing to fear!" net neutrality opponents assure us, and after all, no one would ever dream of using our private information against us. Really, we should just sit back, relax, and let all the innovation be strangled out of the marketplace. Also, I got this really great offer from the Prime Minister of Nigeria. All he needs is my bank information...

Net neutrality legislation isn't regulation for the Internet. It allows for a level playing field that lets the Internet work as a model of free market efficiency. And that's something every conservative can get behind.