Chile First To Approve Net Neutrality Law

Sir Mal Fet writes "Chile has become the first country in the world to approve, by 100 votes in favor and one abstention, a law guaranteeing net neutrality (Google translation; Spanish original). The law states [submitter's translation]: 'No [ISP] can block, interfere with, discriminate, hinder, nor restrict the right of any Internet user of using, send, receive or offer any content, application, or legitimate service through the Internet, as well as any activity or legitimate use conducted through the Internet.' The law also has articles that force ISPs to provide parental control tools, clarify contracts, guarantee users' privacy and safety when surfing, and forbids them to restrict any liberty whatsoever. This is a major advance in the legislation of the country regarding the Web, when until last year almost anything that was performed online was considered illegal."

Comments

I love the wording in the above translation.

[pecosdave]

The "send" part eludes most U.S. discussions. Most major ISPs in the US block many outgoing ports to prevent you from running a server. What I do with my bandwidth is my business thank you very much, including serving up HTML.

Re:I love the wording in the above translation.

[pecosdave]

You work for Comcast don't you?

I ran my own server off of SouthWestern Bell then later Time Warner for years with not a single spam message bounced off my server, nor issue from it. Seriously, hosting the occasional Fark photoshop pic and having a photo album hosted on my own equipment with passwords for my family along with a small vanity site, where's the problem with that? I did it for years and find it nearly impossible to do now because of people with your mindset.

I know a lot of people abuse it and run porn sites and push malware, but I shouldn't have to pay the price for them.

Re:I love the wording in the above translation.

[Baseclass]

Why must I be a business to need a web server? I'm a hobbyist.
I'm paying for bandwidth, it's really none of their business how I utilize said bandwidth.

Re:I love the wording in the above translation.

[Anonymous Coward]

Residential customers don't need a web server, though.

You are not competent to decide that for me, and neither is my ISP.

Re:I love the wording in the above translation.

[turbidostato]

"The last line can be used by ISPs saying that you're "damaging the network""

And they previous one can be used by any lobbying party to get off with whatever they want.

""May not limit the right of a user to enter or use any class of instruments, devices or appliances on the network, provided they are legal"

So they just need to, say, declare illegal connecting more than one computer to a "single computer" connection and there you go.

"and that they do not damage or harm the network or service quality"

Oh, and by they way, trying to use 100% of bandwith as shown in the contract terms harms the service quality since we oversell it 100 to 1.

Re:I love the wording in the above translation.

[pecosdave]

Listen in many countries we have laws protecting our freedom to do as we please. Yes, it's debatable rather we really have those freedoms or not, but that's beside the point.

One thing that we generally have laws about is our personal freedoms end at the point that we utilize them to restrict someone else's freedom.

If you're botnet infested you are out there doing denial of service attacks and trying to hack other systems into joining your bot net. At this point your freedom is being used in an attempt to restrict someone else's freedom.

That's what jails are for, or in this case being cut off until you fix it.

I see no "one rule for you, one for the rest of us" as you say. I see "don't attack someone else". Don't attack someone else is a pretty good rule I think.

Re:I love the wording in the above translation.

[LordLucless]

So do what my ISP does (Australian, not US). By default, ports 80 and 25 are blocked. If I want to open them, I log into my ISP, hit up my control panel, and turn off filtering. I've been running my own servers on my Internode connection for years.

OK

[koan]

What Chile does: (what looks like) Decent Net Neutrality
What America does: Massachusetts Bids To Restrict Internet Indecency

Re:OK

[bsDaemon]

From the Nixon administration through the first half of Bush 41's term, Chile had Augusto Pinochet, a military dictator. They might tend to look at freedom with slightly less jaded eyes than Americans who have had it "too good for too long." Small things like that can tend to have major effects on perspective. Just saying.

Re:OK

[PopeRatzo]

What Chile does: (what looks like) Decent Net Neutrality

I'm telling you, there's a real progressive wind blowing through South America. Brazil, Chile, Argentina and others are moving to the Left and having great success. There economies are growing and it's not just the rich that are doing better. Socially, they've got a long way to go, but at least they're moving in the right direction, using the European socialist model as a starting point, not an end in itself.

We're going to read a lot in the coming few years about the success stories in the Southern Hemisphere. They're going to be a shining example for what free societies can look like in the 21st century: prosperous, fair and free.

Even Hugo Chavez, who has gone off the rails as is common among very strong politicians who have great success, did a great deal of good for his country before he got drunk on power. But he'll be gone soon and there's a healthy crop of decent leaders waiting to take over.

Don't think for a second that the financial and social successes in South America don't scare the hell out of the USA.

Re:OK

[andita]

^.^Nice you point this topic. It is funny how this convo has turned up in a US's self talking..as usual. Please, i do not mean any offense with this, but it is just this thinking which kind of confuse me. I`m chilean. I have been in the states and i should say in many southamerican countries and it is so not like you imagine the rest of the world, specially southamerican countries. Why? because you live in fear. It is true that we had Pinochet 40 years ago, painful period of our lives, but eventhough we do not forget we can still forgive and start over. I`m not saying that everything is good, just saying that we move on. ... I as going to say many things, but i think you wont read them... While in US i was in a really nice place, there werent even afroamerican people, just native americans, still the way of comunicating with others was really different. I was treated like a princess, really good, and like if anything could happen to me at any moment (i should say overprotected since i was without my family there but i wasnt underage ) "Do not get out alone because someone can kidnap you" "Do not greet someone you dont know coz they can be a pervert or u wont be greeted back" "do not conect to internet in the pool of the place because someone can get into ur files through internet and get dome personal info from your computer" etc... i couldnt eve go to the club alone coz someone coul "put sth on my drinks" and do anything. It is a general fear in people that you cant see in any southamerican countries [excepting when u are a tourist in Favelas/brasil or amazonas /venezuela-colombia]. But in the rest of countries like Chile, argentina, peru, etc,you normally see children late at night playing, or in summer time people jst go to the beach at nigth and children, teenagers and people in general can walk at any time in the cities, go to dowtown alone, travel by public transportation from one city to another, or from home to the inner city or to anywhere without any problems... ["Never take a bus in the US" is what Americans told me] So, if we talk about freedom, i think that you should start thinking what "real" freedom is. I went backpacking last february with my best friend down to the south, 20 days in which we walked in the road, meet people, hitchhike from truck drivers to horse carts... and we finish our trip without even falling into the ground once. THAT isFREEDOM and safety. What we are getting with this new law is stating the bases to also give more security to people as well. After this law is completely updated and applied there will be improvements to it, such as grooming hunting, etc. Perhaps we are not as advance as US and not as fast developed since both US and Chile are 200 indepent countries, (We r kind of slow) but still we are trying to do our best. (Thanks Daemon) Sorry my poor english..it`s been a while since i dont practice writing or speaking.

Key Fickle Phrase

[Aldanga]

"No [ISP] can block... legitimate use conducted through the Internet."

Anybody else see the problem here?

One Page bill

[Attila Dimedici]

I looked at the translation of the bill and it appears to be a one page bill. I only skimmed it, but I can support such a bill. There's no place to hide things in it. Unlike the "net neutrality" bills that have been introduced in the U.S. Congress.

Re:Why net neutrality is bad...

[tofubeer]

Net neutrality doesn't prevent charging based on usage (which is what they should be doing). Note that that is different than charging based on sites accessed or protocols used. ISPs should not be degrading P2P traffic, or restricting access to sites, what they should be doing is charging users based on their consumption.