Cory Doctorow Draws the Line On Net Neutrality

Nerdposeur points out that Cory Doctorow has a compelling piece in The Guardian today, arguing that network neutrality is not only crucial for the future of the Internet, but is what the ISPs owe to the public. He asks, "Does anybody else feel like waving a flag after reading this?" "If the phone companies had to negotiate for every pole, every sewer, every punch-down, every junction box, every road they get to tear up, they'd go broke. All the money in the world couldn't pay for the access they get for free every day... If they don't like it, let them get into another line of work — give them 60 days to get their wires out of our dirt and then sell the franchise to provide network services to a competitor who will promise to give us a solid digital future in exchange for our generosity."

Comments

Statist abuse

[Hugonz]

"Does anybody else feel like waving a flag after reading this?"

Yes, a black flag in my case.

Re:Statist abuse

[maxume]

He makes me feel good about my self-aggrandizement.

Well, less ridiculous about it anyway.

Re:Statist abuse

[Requiem18th]

I'd mod you -1 Lack of common sense.

Logic should never be violated but logic without information of the real world is empty and useless.

That Cory Doctorow runs one of the most popular blogs in the web makes him relevant so the parent is right, the grand parent is wrong.

Next you are gonna tell me God is not logically impossible so I must be an agnostic and not atheist.

It always irk me when I find someone debating with logic and no common sense, it makes philosophers look stupid.

Re:Statist abuse

[Anonymous Coward]

And it's quite possible you're a moron and a jackass. Your point overwhelmingly seems to be that you exercise your freedom of speech and opinion badly. In fact, your kind are why AC posts have been degraded and generally given a bad rap; when AC first came about on /. back in 1997, it was a novel, interesting forum tactic to allow people to post anonymously, not an abused persona for morons like you to use.

Doctorow is at least putting effort, talent, and thought into the matter. Amnesty International was started by 2 handfuls of students. Apple by a couple of garage nuts. Linux by some crazy programmer who used the computer too much. /. by a couple or so geeks. There's a moron in the White House that's a blowhard; he was preceded by an irrelevant black sheep daddy's boy.

If these guys, who we know something about, are so pathetic by your standards, you must have very low confidence and esteem. Which I guess does explain you, now doesn't it.

Re:Statist abuse

[atraintocry]

You young guys take note: when you love someone because you think he is better than you and insult those who criticise him, you're no better than the Mediaeval peasant who cheered as the Church burnt the heretic. Every post-Renaissance humanist pointed this out and it's no less true today.

Well, at least you didn't bring up the Nazis.

Just keep competition alive

[brasselv]

As long as a competitive, free market is ensured, this won't happen.
If a ISP starts filtering, people will move to the next.

Of course, things may turn out very different if we allow dominant market positions to be built in the ISP market.

(But this won't happen, right? Just as we never let any dominant market position arise in the OS market, or in the microprocessor market. Now sorry, gotta rush back to my cave).

Re:Just keep competition alive

[spun]

As a medical doctor, I recommend that you begin a course of irony supplements, stat.

Opposing side?

[ComputerDruid]

I don't think I've ever heard an argument that was serious for the other side of this issue. Am I just ignorant? Or is this a non-issue that people like to discuss?

Regardless, censorship is a scary thing. Fortunately, the internet is probably bigger than most blacklist-based censorship attempts, and I don't think we're in such a bad position that people would tolerate anything more restrictive (whitelists or graylists). The great firewall of china is obviously the exception to this.

What about the Google monopoly...

[__aaclcg7560]

Didn't Google buy up all the dark fiber lines to build out a monopoly when the economy turns around?

Beware

[oldhack]

This is ploy to sell shovels. The rumor has it that he's been piling up options on Ace Hardware shares.

Re:Why do we have corporate-controlled wires anywa

[Daffy Duck]

Whereas today's hottest technologies are texting and Twitter. Stop. Which are very different from the telegraph in... some way. Stop.

Re:Not that I'm against net neutrality

[moderatorrater]

Either that, or more and more users become "special".

Until they're all special. And then we hug.

Re:flag-waving?

[maxume]

I was going to go to a protest and then I found out they weren't serving ice cream.

Re:flag-waving?

[Stormwatch]

Is red plastic flag burning patriotic? Unpatriotic? Communist? Anticommunist? I'm confused.

Burning plastic... anti-environmental, maybe?