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Senators Bash ISP and Push Extensive Net Neutrality
eldavojohn writes "Remember when Verizon sued the FCC over net neutrality rules? Well, Senators Maria Cantwell (D-WA) and Al Franken (D-MN) see it a bit differently and have authored a new working bill titled 'Internet Freedom, Broadband Promotion, and Consumer Protection Act of 2011 (PDF).' The bill lays out some stark clarity on what is meant by Net Neutrality by outright banning ISPs from doing many things including '(6) charge[ing] a content, application, or service provider for access to the broadband Internet access service providers' end users based on differing levels of quality of service or prioritized delivery of Internet protocol packets; (7) prioritiz[ing] among or between content, applications, and services, or among or between different types of content, applications, and services unless the end user requests to have such prioritization... (9) refus[ing] to interconnect on just and reasonable terms and conditions.' And that doesn't count for packets sent over just the internet connections but also wireless, radio, cell phone or pigeon carrier. Franken has constantly reiterated that this is the free speech issue of our time and Cantwell said, 'If we let telecom oligarchs control access to the Internet, consumers will lose. The actions that the FCC and Congress take now will set the ground rules for competition on the broadband Internet, impacting innovation, investment, and jobs for years to come. My bill returns the broadband cop back to the beat, and creates the same set of obligations regardless of how consumers get their broadband.'"
When the FCC starts censoring content, you'll be sorry.
newton62 (56617) Karma: Bad
>>>nutball levels of a Glen Beck or Michele Bachmann
What, precisely, do you find more "nutballish" about Beck and Michelle then Franken? Michelle seems like a decent politicians to me (along the lines of Ron Paul), and Beck's show is most prerecorded video of various Elite persons *in their own words* admitting they want a revolution. Or to raise gas taxes. Or to impose carbon taxes ("electricity prices will necessarily skyrocket").
So please, enlighten me and others, what makes Beck/Michelle worse than Franken? In your opinion but backed with facts? Thanks.
Information wants to be expensive AND wants to be free. So you have Value vs. Cheap distribution fighting each other.
ISPs are running private networks that you merely pay access to get an IP from. They can charge what they want, and their sysadmins can regulate traffic however they want. They own the networks; you just connect to them as a privilege.
Notice that all the senators mentioned are Democrats. This is just more big government. The absolute last thing we need is the FCC--the same group that freaked out over Janet Jackson's nipple--deciding how to regulate internet traffic. This seems so obvious and self-evident that it's surprising that slacktivists (people who link silly movements on their Facebook pages) are still trying to push "net neutrality," which isn't neutral at all.
Calling this the free speech issue of our time is totally crazy. Where exactly is the free speech that's being limited?