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House Passes Amendment To Block Funds For Net Neutrality
Charliemopps sends this quote from the National Journal:
"The House passed an amendment Thursday that would bar the Federal Communications Commission from using any funding to implement the network-neutrality order it approved in December. The amendment, approved on a 244-181 vote, was offered by Energy and Commerce Communications and Technology Subcommittee Chairman Greg Walden, R-Ore., to legislation that would fund government agencies for the rest of fiscal year 2011. Walden and other critics of the FCC's net-neutrality order argue it will stifle innovation and investment in broadband. "
Thank them again if years down the road you have to pay another $50 a month just so you can stream youtube and netflix to your computer.
The Senate won't pass this so it's merely symbolic on the part of the House. Way to manage your time well, boys and girls. Now get back to work on real problems!
Now why would politicians do something that makes corporations more powerful at the expense of individuals?
I thought this was a democracy. (Taaaa haaaa ha.)
Politicians thrive on anything that gives them more power. Here is just example #724,249,196 this month.
Sneaking an amendment into an appropriations bill. Everyone says it's an underhanded cheat, but it's just too *useful* to prohibit.
"it will stifle innovation and investment in broadband"
... give me !freedom! *dollars or give me death ...
wait. it did NOT. it was de facto rule of internet up till this day, until you corporate whores had been instructed to kill it.
land of the !free! *rich
Read radical news here
Remember, these are some of the smartest people in the country. They have evaluated the issue from all angles and determined that "net neutrality" as regulated by the FCC is not in the interest of their constituents.
They know exactly how it works and what it means for various businesses and especially in terms of the First Amendment. They have been completely unbiased in their review and I applaud them for their actions.
Monopolies need to be regulated Mr. Congresscritter.
Jeez. Maybe we can appeal to our Member State Legislatures to regulate the Comcasts, Verizons, and other monopolies inside their borders.
Information wants to be expensive AND wants to be free. So you have Value vs. Cheap distribution fighting each other.
This lack of funding is aimed at the FCC's version of "net neutrality", not to block net neutrality in general. This is a good thing. That version of "net neutrality" was in name only. Obviously there are interests on both sides of the aisle at play here (Big Business wants even less restriction, consumers want what they've always had), but we all agreed that the FCC's current idea sucked, so this is a win.
There is an interesting proposal in an essay in the latest Scientific American: allow differential charges on the basis of quantity of traffic, but not on the basis of content.
That would all the (IMO) reasonable approach of charging the heaviest users more and/or throttling their bandwidth, but wouldn't allow Comcast to put competing Netflix out of business.
Sheesh, evil *and* a jerk. -- Jade
-Tm
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Does anyone else just feel worn out by all political BS in the U.S these days? I mean, it seems like Congress is nothing more than a group of professional trolls at this point. They never, ever seem capable of doing anything useful, or beneficial for the citizens of this country anymore. It's exhausting. Every single time a story pops up (on Slashdot or anywhere else) that involves politics or a political decision, you can basically just assume that it's going to screw over everyone in the country that isn't already a politician.
Being a U.S. citizen today feels just like playing the role of Sisiphus, consistently pushing a boulder uphill (trying to improve the world by being a responsible citizen, voting, jury duty, etc.) only to realize that you have to push it up again when you reach the top (Congress critters keep passing bills that fuck things up even more). It's exhausting, to keep reading about how those folks we elect to power just stumble around and fuck things up so badly....It's so consistent that it very nearly serves as a dataset to debunk that old meme of, "Never attribute to malice that which can be adequately explained by incompetence."
Our leaders are just fucking terrible. It's exhausting.
Motorcycles, Robots, Space Gossip and More!
I think you missed his point. Even before this Net Neutrality bill ruckus the government was monitoring traffic so in that respect it doesn't change anything. But more importantly it doesn't give the government more control, it states that the ISP cannot prefer one site's traffic or another. The argument that this stifles competition is mind boggling to me. If you allow them to pick and choose traffic, and can 100% guarantee you that competition will be stifled. And don't forget, they didn't build the infrastructure on their own. The telecoms have taken in billions of dollars of tax payer subsidies and land to build it out, and as such I feel we as tax payers have a right to regulate how they run their lines.
What produced the Internet in the first place? The government or private industry?
MMO Quests are like orgasms:
You may solo them, I prefer them in a group.
I think you missed his point. Even before this Net Neutrality bill ruckus the government was monitoring traffic so in that respect it doesn't change anything. But more importantly it doesn't give the government more control, it states that the ISP cannot prefer one site's traffic or another.
Dude, you're asking them to legislate. That they will do. To think that all they're gonna do is say 'ok, guys, treat every packet as equal, please' is naive to the extreme.
The argument that this stifles competition is mind boggling to me.
The fact that someone would be mind boggled by it in this day and age is mind boggling to ME. Every piece of regulation written in any democratic country in the world is littered with little bits of law that were BOUGHT by corporate interests to benefit them or hurt competitors one way or another.
That is how it works in the real world of politics.
The argument that this stifles competition is mind boggling to me. If you allow them to pick and choose traffic, and can 100% guarantee you that competition will be stifled.
No you can't guarantee that. If they want to pick and choose traffic, thats their choice. Now, if the market for people who wants unrestricted traffic is big enough, all it takes is for ONE competitor to sell an unthrottled monthly plan to win all those customers.
Unfortunately, the kind of user that downloads 500GB very month are a minority. I'm not dissing or trying some underhanded trick to denigrate those users, I'm a heavy user myself. I just don't feel I'm entitled to use government force to get things my way.
And don't forget, they didn't build the infrastructure on their own. The telecoms have taken in billions of dollars of tax payer subsidies and land to build it out, and as such I feel we as tax payers have a right to regulate how they run their lines.
I dont forget that part, friend. But the tax payers won't regulate shit. The corporate interests that bid higher for congressmen will do the regulating, as is the way in America for the last hundred years.
Send your spendthrift head of state this
Well, when you cut taxes on the wealthy, and then keep spending money, the poor end up having to pay for it. This is precisely what is happening. The Democrats and Republicans are both doing it. I suspect its meant to get the politicians and their friends as wealthy as possible before the shit hits the fan. Im not sure what is actually going to happen, maybe another war, a depression or maybe a small revolution (Texas keeps talking about succession, I know I live in Texas), but something is going to happen that isnt good for the average American.
That brings me to an interesting point, / . is just "the ramblings of socially-inept, technology-literate news-mongers".
I owe the government nothing for it has given absolutely nothing to me. Taxes are slavery and I don't want my money going to the projects so that Shaquista (or whatever her fake name is) and her brood can surf porn while young bucks eat steaks and drive Cadillacs.
Besides, I've got everything *I* need already and I got it all by myself without any help. Time to pull up the ladder. After all, I know what poverty is, I was on welfare and did anyone help me? No! I got to where I am today as an unemployed engineer through the sheer magnitude of my Galtian genius.
Time to cut off the gravy train. If anything, we should be burning down infrastructure.