[Shamanmuni]

What you are saying doesn't make much sense. The "private property" of the ISP's is valuable for content providers only when the public is using it. An ISP with 10 users has exactly 0 power to demand money, even if they have the largest and greatest infrastructure on the market.

Think about this: I, as a user, am paying my ISP money in order to connect and receive content through the Internet, irregardless of the source of that content. I trust my ISP to send that content, and I don't care where it comes from. They should send it as fast as they can (according to my plan) because that's what I pay them for. I think there's no argument there, any user would want to get any content as fast as his plan allows.

Now, my ISP wants to be paid by content providers to give them preferential treatment, breaking completely the trust I put on them when I chose their service. Isn't this exactly "money or favor given or promised in order to influence the judgment or conduct of a person in a position of trust"?

The only way I can imagine this isn't bribery is if they start sending the preferential content faster than your plan allows, while maintaining the rest at the same speed as before. But we know it won't work like that.