A legal battle between a VoIP services provider and a Georgia-based ISP may act as a backdrop for the nation's ongoing net neutrality debate.

The headline-grabbing tussle began earlier this year when the Albany Water, Gas & Light Commission, a fiber-optic based Competitive Local Exchange Carrier (CLEC), filed a criminal complaint against L2Networks for theft-of-service. What exactly was the L2Networks accused of stealing? The Internet, basically.

The Albany Water, Gas & Light Commission claims that L2 should be forced to compensate the utility for using its "Internet backbone" to deliver VoIP services to current Internet subscribers. ISPs have grown frustrated with VoIP service providers because their offerings soak up bandwidth while also giving subscribers reasons to ditch other ISP services, like cable or telephone.

A comparable complaint would be Comcast (News - Alert) accusing Netflix of stealing its infrastructure to deliver streaming video services.

L2Networks is looking to Washington for help. The VoIP provider has officially filed the first net neutrality complaint with the Federal Communication Commission requesting the regulatory body, "protect the national and global interest of the public and the internet application industry alike," according to an L2 spokesperson.

"We are deeply concerned that the alleged claim could potentially change the landscape of the national internet marketplace as residential and commercial consumers see it today," the spokesperson continued. "The FCC's (News - Alert) report and order #10-201 was designed specifically to prevent these types of activities; however the manipulative use of the criminal legal system to create an anti-competitive environment and otherwise remove the local competition, is 'far reaching' at best."

Without federal regulatory intervention, the criminal complaint against L2 could create an "irreversible ripple effect" that touches any company which derives revenue from the Internet, including Google, Amazon and newly-public Facebook (News - Alert), says L2.

No word yet on a response from the FCC, but the chance that it will step in and attempt to create an important precedent is good. If this criminal complaint actually moves forward, expect to see a string of multi-billion dollar lawsuits litter the headlines.