Republican Sen. John McCain has long opposed “net neutrality,” but his recently released tech plan sweetens the deals for tech companies with an alternate solution: tax cuts.

“Net neutrality” prohibits internet service providers, such as Qwest and Comcast, from restricting content, sites or platforms on their networks, and from introducing multi-tiered web access plans that charge a premium for high-speed internet access. Pressure for abandoning net neutrality has come mainly from telecom companies interested in pursuing the profits that would follow from multi-tiered internet service packages.

Sen. Barack Obama has committed to supporting internet neutrality, and went so far as to pledge that he would appoint a champion of that approach as chairman of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC).

“John McCain does not believe in prescriptive regulation like ‘net-neutrality,’” according to the McCain campaign’s policy statement. “But rather he believes that an open marketplace with a variety of consumer choices is the best deterrent against unfair practices.”

To encourage this open marketplace, McCain advocates a 25 percent corporate tax cut and keeping capital gains taxes at 15 percent. McCain also supports a tax credit equal to 10 percent of wages spent on research and development and allowing new business to expense the costs of new equipment and technology during the first year of operation.

According to OpenSecrets.org, McCain has accepted $405,160 in donations from the telecommunications industry to Obama’s $270,297. Obama still outpaces McCain in contributions from the computer and Internet industries, accepting $3,992,353 to McCain’s $1,047,377.