You’re missing the point: If they have to vet every single piece of information, that’s not an internet connection at all; they won’t be able to allow any message boards, any third-party hosting, any user-created content at all. Because without Common Carrier status, they’re legally liable for any and all of it that is transmitted across their network. Someone emails someone else about a drug deal? They’re guilty of co-conspiracy. Post a death threat? Company’s now a co-defendant for delivering that threat. Someone pirates movies/software? They’re liable for pirating, too (they “copied” it for you).
Without common carrier protection, any ISP will effectively have to disconnect themselves from the internet to avoid being buried under a mountain of lawsuits … which may happen, with a conglomerate of sites hosting their own content and only talking to each other, not allowing email or instant messaging … and then everyone will drop them and go to other ISPs that are, y’know, actually connected to the internet. Sorta like what happened to AOL/Compuserve/etc., but much faster, because the wider internet is already known to the populous.
