Hands Off the Internet hearts Sonia Arrison, and in her latest column for Tech News World, she asks an intriguing question: “To what extent are supporters of net neutrality also tacitly supporting piracy?” Arrison works through the issue, and arrives at the conclusion that it’s probably “a lot.” She explains:

Perhaps that’s why the music and movie industry associations, in the past at odds with ISPs over obtaining pirate data, have remained fairly silent in the net neutrality debate. It also makes a recent announcement by the “Future of Music Coalition” look rather silly.

On March 22, Jenny Toomey, executive director of the Future of Music Coalition, said, “With Rock the Net, we intend to get thousands of the nation’s musicians, independent labels and music services to become part of the effort to keep a ‘payola’ system from being established on the Internet.

What’s ironic is that by supporting the issue of Net neutrality, these artists may also be supporting the theft of their products online. That would indeed ensure the elimination of payola, but it would also ensure an elimination of artists’ intellectual property.

The irony is that the music industry has no direct stake in the “net neutrality” debate, yet they have hopped aboard this bandwagon without considering the real threats to their own livelihood.

Networks are great, but they can be abused, and those who use more should pay more. Likewise, if you want to move audio or video packets along a network at a guaranteed rate, that costs a bit more, too. If anything, musicians should want their music and music videos to be delivered using state of the art technology. Whatever Dorgan-Snowe would do, it certainly won’t help that.

The real news from this week’s Business Week isn’t the cover story on Google’s increasing hegemony across the web. It’s the more immediate concern that weak capital spending may upend the economy.

Look at the facts:

• Orders for capital goods fell 1.2 percent in February, the fourth decline in capital spending over the past five months.

• The 4.4 percent growth rate in equipment outlays in 2006 is the smallest increase in three years.

• The subprime loan hemorrhage and spike in the price of oil have hammered investor confidence to its lowest level in six months, according to a UBS survey. This is key because prospects for demand, which have slowed and show no signs of a pick-up, drive capital outlays.

Congress and maybe a few bloggers might want to consider this as they advocate for neutrality regulations. Take the Dorgan-Snowe bill which gives the FCC six months to write rules that will legally bind Internet carriers. Given the inevitable lobbying, litigation and the impact of new technology on static regulation, there’s a greater likelihood of Sanjaya joining the Mormon Tabernacle Choir than this getting done in only six months.

Telecom investment is a bright spot in the otherwise dismal capital spending economy. But a regulatory fiat that interferes with America’s network build-out — like six months of legal limbo — is an economic Russian roulette.