An important question...
I recall a peering panel at an ISPCON in 1996 when the current
Peering Badguys, BBN, were represented by John, who listened
to a ton of bitching for an hour about the unfairness of it all and
said (paraphrasing)...
"I understand you all have your opinions and desires but I just want
to point out one thing. It is now 1996, 2 years after the widespread
adoption of the web, and in every city in the US there are at least
two ISPs happily providing unlimited {dialup} access for under $20/mo.
What do you think we'd have if it were run or regulated by the government?"
Luckily, many bureaucrats and politicians in our government do
understand that. And so far The Community has been able to put
pressure on international bodies and other governments don't
have the clout. Hopefully that remains the case for some time.
Avi