In Europe and India, proponents of weak net neutrality rules appear to have bought into the misguided notion that higher charges are necessary to keep telecommunications companies in business and, further, that the companies have a right to impose them. The idea goes something like this: Internet companies like Google and Facebook are making lots of money because cable and phone companies have built networks that give people access to their services. Therefore, Internet-based businesses should help pay the costs of creating, maintaining and upgrading networks.

This is a disingenuous argument. Telecom companies make money by charging individuals and businesses monthly fees for access to the network. If that revenue was inadequate to cover the cost of running networks, telecom companies would raise prices or they would become insolvent. If anything, prices have fallen as it has become cheaper to provide service. Big telecom companies like Vodafone, which does business in Europe and India, are in fact quite profitable.

There is resistance to the proposals in Europe and India, some of it from official sources. The European Parliament, for example, voted last year for legislation similar to the F.C.C. rules. Neither the rules adopted by Parliament nor the Council’s proposal can take effect until the Parliament, the Council and the European Commission, the executive branch of the E.U., work out a compromise.

In India, with the comment period underway, Internet activists have organized a campaign against the regulator’s proposal and appear to be having some impact. The minister of communications and information technology, Ravi Shankar Prasad, recently said on Twitter that the government would study the issue closely before adopting final rules, noting that the Internet belonged to all of “humanity and not to a few.”

One of the main reasons the Internet has been so successful is that people have generally been able to use it how they wish. The worst thing policy makers could do to the network would be to allow telecom companies to mess with that.