UK Government Wants To Kill Net Neutrality In EU

Glyn Moody writes "Not content with snooping on all Internet activity, the UK government now wants to introduce changes to the contentious EU Telecoms Package, which will kill net neutrality in the EU: 'Amendments to the Telecoms Package circulated in Brussels by the UK government, seek to cross out users' rights to access and distribute Internet content and services. And they want to replace it with a "principle" that users can be told not only the conditions for access, but also the conditions for the use of applications and services. The amendments, if carried, would reverse the principle of end-to-end connectivity which has underpinned not only the Internet, but also European telecommunications policy, to date.' To add to the irony, an accompanying text cuts and pastes from Wikipedia, without attribution."

Comments

Re:Left wing credentials

[Chabo]

This is the labour party exercising its left wing credentials. It wants total control of the populous.

http://www.talkswindon.org/politics/speedcameras/Brown%20is%20stalin.jpg

I apologize for the squished aspect ratio on the photo.

I first saw that photo on Top Gear, when Clarkson was comparing Brown and Stalin: that he is restricting movement by raising fuel tax, and that ID cards and curfews are to follow.

I'm an American, and the British government has made me not want to live in the U.K., which I would otherwise like to do someday.

Re:Left wing credentials

[Anonymous Coward]

I'm an American, and the British government has made me not want to live in the U.K., which I would otherwise like to do someday.

I'm British and I agree with everything you've said, but swap the words British with American and American with British and I have the same problem. It's hard to choose which is the lesser of two "evils", but there are also many worse choices.

Pirate Radio one more time around?

[presidenteloco]

From the 1960s, draconian British radio broadcasting restrictions forced would-be music broadcasters to park ships in the North Sea and transmit "pirate radio" stations to the UK.

Perhaps its time for pirate radio 2.0 : unlicensed digital packet radio mesh edition.

I am tired of UK being a EU member

[Anonymous Coward]

I am a proud EU citizen I am tired of the UK being an EU member. UK (both government and population) behaves like stubborn child, like the black sheep. It does not want to adopt Euro, fully implement Schengen Treaty, European Charter of Human Rights, etc.; UK doesnâ(TM)t respect the symbols of the Union (e.g. the flag). Yet they want to rip all the benefits of the common market. Eastern EU workers were good when their citizens did not want to fill in raw work positions. Same Eastern-EU workers are scapegoats now, while their own British born citizens from the former Empire population blow themselves up. And now they want to infect the rest of the Union with their Stalinist type of police state. Frankly, I want UK out of the EU, let them be spied on their island only, have all the raw jobs they hired cheap hard working foreigners they despite, ask them to have a visa to visit EU, be finger-printed, etc. Let's have them alone on their pathetic island, also known for many reason as "The Perfidious Albion". Many of their politicians still behave like 100 years ago when they were a global empire, now the empire is gone and they just pay the price of arrogance. We need the Union to evolve without the hand-brake on. Brits, keep your politicians, CCTV cameras, and KGB-style police at home! Let the European Union alone!

Re:I am tired of UK being a EU member

[ObsessiveMathsFreak]

De Gaulle, and gaullists in general, was very much against the UK joining the EU. His major objection was its overseas empire and is connection to it. A connection that would preclude any stronger connection with the continent.

These days, I think it must be said that De Gaulle was certainly correct, except that he mistook the connection. The UK is not so much linked to its former empire, as it is inextricably linked to its former colony, and now arguably its master, the United States. There is also the concept of the Anglosphere in general.

The Anglosphere is a very real cultural and economic force, if not a political one. This is what De Gaulle saw, and is why he did not want the UK forcing that worldview onto the EU. With English now being used as the dominant language in the EU, and with the UK promoting measures such as this, and all but standing in for the US in the commission, I think his objections were valid.

The UK should not have been let in.

Re:I am tired of UK being a EU member

[Anonymous Coward]

Then why you don't simply organize a referendum to get out? You British accuse EU bodies of being "undemocratic", when they are not. They are only too bureaucratic, but this is a business process issue, not a political one. It is your "democratic" government which does not gives you a referendum, isn't it?

The EU Parliament is directly elected like any other Parliament (I will vote this June 2009!). The EU Commission is approved by the EU Parliament, like any other European government. The Council of the EU, as well as the European Council is composed of the representatives from the democratically elected governments of the member states. That being said, EU bodies are democratic enough for me.

However, what kind of democracy is the one on Westminster, that keeps UK in the Union against (supposedly) the will of the British people? And why the British people don't give the UK Independence Party the majority of votes in the UK Parliament? I am sure that UKIP will give you the out-referendum the majority of the British people want. Or perhaps there is just a very vocal minority? I don't know, I am just asking.

Anyway, from what I see, the British democracy is a failed one, not the EU's. And per the TFA, now you want to infect the rest of the democracies in the Union with your Stalinist shame? Please, to quote your American masters, "give us a break!".

P.S. I also spend a lot of time in States. Here nobody on the street gives a damn about the "strong US ally which is GB". Americans think in terms of "us and the rest of the world", UK is only a docile servant of American agenda, out of many others at hand.

American companies with businesses in Europe headquartered in UK actually suffers from the double foreign exchange risk: US corporations have consolidated budgets in USD, European HQ budgets in UK budgets are done in the pathetic dwarf pound, then revenues and expenses are in EURO. Many are skipping the pound and relocate in the English-speaking, and EU friendly Ireland for that matter. No wonder manufacturing sector in UK is now only 11%, while the service sector (finance) took the hit from imitating the Americans blindly in their sub-prime stupidity.

Re:I am tired of UK being a EU member

[ElectricTurtle]

The Europeans have nobody to blame but themselves for the kind of people that the British are. Stronger connection with the continent? Heh, yeah, what like when the Romans invaded? The Danes? The Viking raids and invasion attempts? The Normans? The Spanish would have if they could have, same with the French both under their monarchy and Napoleon, and lastly the Germans under Hitler (we'll let the cold war Russian threat slide). I think I'd be a little schizophrenic about 'the continent' with that much 'history'.

It's funny that the EUropeans hold Britain's former colonies against her. All the major states of Europe had colonies, the only difference was that they all came to nothing. Mexico doesn't have a permanent seat on the UN Security Council, Algeria sure as hell didn't save Europe from the Germans (twice), Indonesia never managed to put men on the moon, etc. etc. Many of the British colonies were the only European colonies to achieve a 'European' level of rule of law and quality of life, and I think that makes the other European powers jealous. I think it bothers the French that no matter how many words they make up for new technology, it's still only English that's accepted as the universal language of air-traffic control (because English-speakers invented powered flight). I think it bothers the great Universities of Europe that no matter how good they are, they'll never carry the gravitas of Oxford and the Rhodes Scholarship simply because that's what Britain impressed on all her colonies and sphere of influence as the excelsior achievement. Anyway, the point is well enough made.

The transfer of global primacy from the British in the 19th century to the Americans in the 20th represents a very unique event in known history. Never has the center of the primary political and military power on earth shifted such a vast geographic distance without a similarly vast shift in language or culture. As a grand coincidence, those two English-speaking centuries oversaw the production, dissemination, and regulation (or lack thereof) of virtually every new technology that has changed human civilization, including the internet. This made the 'Anglosphere' into the primary progenitor of the coming modern monoculture. Any scion of the other major cultural powers who understands these things would be justifiably miffed, and I believe they are.

Re:I am tired of UK being a EU member

[Petrushka]

You've got some interesting points, but I suspect that if de Gaulle were around today he'd be thoroughly in favour of keeping the UK in the EU. It really specifically was the Commonwealth that he was concerned about, and the UK has wholeheartedly and thoroughly done its best to bring the Commonwealth to an end.

Today the major powers in the EU -- France and Germany, and to a lesser extent Benelux -- very much want to keep the UK in the EU, and I suspect that's precisely because of the UK's trans-Atlantic links. The UK may have always been ambivalent about the EU -- it so happens that the yea-sayers have been winning so far -- but since the Commonwealth became moribund, the EU has been working remarkably hard to appease the UK and keep them in. Perhaps the UK's importance in the field of banking is another reason to keep the UK. If not for those two things, I would imagine that France in particular would have given up on UK-appeasing long ago.

Re:I am tired of UK being a EU member

[Anonymous Coward]

The Revolutionary War was about sovereignty, not society or culture. Aside from giving up tea for coffee and banning titles, American society was solidly derived from English society, most importantly common law.

While the French, Spanish, and Dutch had some significant holdings, they were not as well populated as the British holdings, nor as solidly held. The lands in the south such as Florida and Louisiana bounced between Spanish, French, British and American control like pinballs, and the Dutch didn't hold onto New Amsterdam long enough for even the name to stick. The Germans came largely rather late to the party, a fair number of Hessians didn't want to go back after their mercenary role in the war was over. Otherwise the bulk of Germans (and Irish and Scotts-Irish and Scandinavians and other Europeans) came in the centuries following the war. However, by the time of that influx, the socio-cultural foundation had already set, and the waves of Europeans coming in were largely absorbed into it.

So to say that the 'British have no merit regarding where US is now' ('merit' is a strange word to use in this context) is disingenuous at a minimum. There's a reason why we (I'm 3rd generation American of Norse/German extraction) speak English and use a legal system based on British common law, and it is purely that the British cultural influence was the most dominant of those in play at the time of the Revolution and the solidification of the US during the transition from the Articles of Confederation to the Constitution.

If a law violates GPLD

[Hordeking]

To add to the irony, an accompanying text cuts and pastes from Wikipedia, without attribution.

So, who does Gpl-violation file suit against? In fact, if a law quotes you unattributed, doesn't that mean the government is somehow liable for copyright infringement?

Re:Why?

[0123456]

The subjects of the UK are perfectly willing to give away rights in the name of security.

It's more complicated than that.

The British electoral system ensures that you only need a tiny fraction of the votes to control the country; Labour, for example, got about 22% of the votes in the last election, and they have a majority of seats in Parliament. Worse than that, they actually got less votes than the Tories in England, yet they control the country thanks to votes from Scotland and Wales.

The Tories are the only other party capable of being elected at this time, and they've merely become a wet version of Labour, without any sign of a leader with the balls of a Thatcher who could turn the country around as she did after the last Labour government.

The most likely third party to gain from lost Labour votes is the BNP, who are a bunch of raving national socialists (using that in the literal sense: far-left nationalists).

So there's precisely zero chance of improving anything through political means, and everyone of clue has been getting the hell out, with emigration reaching levels not seen since... uh, the last time the country had a Labour government.

When you combine the inability to make any real change without stringing up politicians from lamp-posts on Westminster Bridge with the exodus of millions of people of clue since WWII, you should hardly be surprised by what a disaster zone Britain has become; the people left behind are the ones least likely to get off their ass and do anything.

Re:thank you sir, may I have another

[0123456]

My parents and brother live in the UK and all that "police state" stuff was just in your head, mate.

I guess you'd have said the same to a Jew in Germany in 1932.

A few days ago I was reading a NASA astronaut's story about his visit to East Germany in the 80s before the Berlin Wall came down; I didn't understand why it seemed so familiar until I realised he was pretty much describing my last visit to the UK.

But yeah, total surveillance, ID cards, a DNA database and total control over Internet access are nothing to do with a police state; just go back to sleep and it will all be OK in the morning...

The funny part is that the way the country is going, Labour will get all these things in place just in time for the BNP to gain power and use those powers to turn the country into a real Nazi hell-hole.

'Your papers please...' Get used to it if you're dumb enough not to get out while you still can.

Everyone can see what they are trying to do...

[Turzyx]

Don't be fooled, there is no way this ammendment will go through, and the UK government knows this. The only motviation for proposing such ridiculous changes is to be seen to be tackling piracy and copyright issues, which they can then blame on the EU when they refuse these new powers.

Re:thank you sir, may I have another

[Stanislav_J]

Sounds more and more like cable TV, with its various "tiers" of service based on content, premium channels, etc. That's probably, alas, where Internet access is heading, not just in the U.K., but here in the U.S. as well. Don't kid yourself: net neutrality will sooner or later be just a memory. You can moan and complain and fight, but personally I'm amazed the powers that be haven't already clamped down on the notion of free-roaming flat-rate uncensored Internet use already. Can't control what the masses read and hear that way.

Re:Why?

[VJ42]

So what your saying is that only English votes should count towards who governs the UK? Lets just ignore Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. What do they know, eh?

No, the problem is that Scottish (and Welsh) MPs are able to vote on things that won't affect their constituents due to the devolved parliament and assemblies. In other words the Labour party is able to impose things on England by using Scottish and Welsh MPs but these things never get imposed on the Scots or Welsh. I'm sure you've heard of the West Lothian question

Re:Why?

[BitZtream]

Perhaps you're just an arrogant fuck?

When you combine the inability to make any real change without stringing up politicians from lamp-posts on Westminster Bridge with the exodus of millions of people of clue since WWII, you should hardly be surprised by what a disaster zone Britain has become; the people left behind are the ones least likely to get off their ass and do anything.

The people leaving aren't willing to get off their lazy asses and do anything, if they were, they would fucking be leaving, they'd be doing something about the problem.

You insult those you deem to stupid to leave, but by your own admission, this has happened before, and you know what? Those lazy people that stayed behind, the ones you think won't do anything, are the ones that fixed the country.

Get off your high horse, pull your head out of your ass, and stop thinking that you are so high and mighty. Your attitude is the reason the economy is like it is. 'OMG RUN ITS COLLAPSING EVEN THOUGH MY INVESTMENTS ARE NO WAY RELATED TO THE OTHER MARKETS!!!'

People who leave the country when things aren't like they want are the ones who don't get off their asses and do anything about it, they can't, they left. The ones left behind are the ones who end up fixing the problems that you were 'too good' to fix.