Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Net Neutrality Seen Through the Telegraph

Posted by samzenpus on from the doomed-to-repeat-it dept.

James McP writes "Ars Technica has a write-up on the unregulated telegraph of the 19th century, which gives a view into what could happen to an internet lacking any regulation mandating neutrality. The owners of the 'Victorian internet' used their control of the telegraph to prop up monopolies, manipulate elections, facilitate insider trading, and censor criticism."

2 of 249 comments (clear)

  1. Re:It doesn't matter who is violating your rights by DaveV1.0 · · Score: -1, Troll

    Hey, dumbshit, why do you think you have a right to free and unfettered use of someone else's work, money, and equipment? Did you build the infrastructure? No, you didn't. Did you pay for the servers and routers? No, you didn't. And, the government didn't either.

    Listen up, shithead, YOU DO NOT HAVE A RIGHT TO THE INTERNET OR ANY OTHER NETWORK OR THE WORK PRODUCT OF ANYONE ELSE.

    The Constitution says you can start your own news paper, and it says you can say things the government doesn't like. It does not guarantee you a phone, a news paper, Internet access, etc. It does not say you can use other people's things for free.

    Oh, and just so you will know, originally the Constitution, including the Bill of Rights, didn't provide rights to anything. It provided rights FROM things, like censorship and unreasonable search and seizure.

    --
    There is no "-1 offended" or "-1 you don't agree with me" mod options for a reason.
  2. Re:Clueless about power by bonch · · Score: 0, Troll

    This power WILL be taken and abused by whoever controls it.

    And the government is the more dangerous power. Far more dangerous.

    Again you FAIL to understand that free markets DO NOT EXIST without government regulation to keep them free.

    So what keeps the government in check? Governments are way more corrupt than a free market. I'm not painting everyone I disagree with as hating free markets, but there is a segment of pro-government people who despise free markets and think government intervention is the solution to everything, and a lot of Slashdot posters belong to that segment.

    You want to replace one potentially corrupt power that we can regulate with our dollar with a power that controls and regulates us. That is stupid, ignorant bullshit.

    P.S. My comment was at +5, so it's amusing to see closed-minded people band together to modbomb me because they have no counterargument. Doesn't bother me.