Slashdot Mirror
Dutch To Introduce Net Neutrality By Law
An anonymous reader writes "Big news out of the Netherlands this week, where a government minister announced plans to guarantee network neutrality by law. If Parliament approves the amendment to Dutch telecommunications law, and it expected to do so, it would become one of the first countries in the world to legislate against Internet providers who want to charge more for using particular applications or services."
I'm seriously considering moving there asap. Find a decent town with low crime rate and ik vil nederlandse les het goed!
Yeah, but you would think that the "Land of The Free" would have guaranteed internet freedom much earlier than anyone else. Instead, they are busy trying to lock it down.
The US has always been behind the times. ;-)
Heck we didn't even invent the Bill of Rights concept. It was taken from the British, after we won the civil war. Or the concept of natural rights (invented by the Greek Stoics and Roman Senator Cicero). We're all just a a bunch of plagiarists.
My AC stalker: " I personally agree with your posts most of the time, but that won't keep me from modding you troll"
You won't like it you yank. Our beer got taste, our cheese is not just a barely edible plastic, our food isn't genetically manipulated, the soda contains real sugar, the women are the easiest in the world, the pot is so cheap just anyone can smoke it... eh... oh wait, I got it. We are SOCIALIST. You got to pay taxes here. Sales tax? 21%. (might 20% they keep on raising it recently).
That should scare of the Americans... well apart from the beer having taste etc etc. America is an interesting place to visit, just don't eat or drink anything that wasn't prepared by a first generation immigrant.
MMO Quests are like orgasms:
You may solo them, I prefer them in a group.
So it's instead the land where the landowners are free to do whatever they want, and those without capital have no rights?
Learn to love Alaska
Depending on how you look at it, the Revolutionary War WAS a civil war, as at that time we were part of Britain and were fighting with the main British forces. It's just that the "civil war" tag is usually only applied when the side wanting to break away loses the fight. :)
"People who think they know everything are very annoying to those of us who do."-Mark Twain
you are under the wrong impression.
DARPA took ideas from existing POTS, which already was using packet switching, then it took existing computer networks, which didn't use packet switching, and applied the packet switching and created TCP/IP.
That was the contribution - the protocol.
Now, AT&T was certainly declared a "national resource", it was given all sorts of monopoly powers by the federal government, so that was totally wrong.
However you are arguing about your ISP, not the protocol and not even the AT&T specific lines, so when you look at the fact that most of the Internet (99% of it probably) is private networks, then you can try and ask your question again.
You can't handle the truth.
I just copied and pasted the first paragraph from the link in the article when submitting, but I didn't think it would be posted this way. I think some more information is required for a proper news article/discussion. Therefore, a short summary of the law in question.
For Dutch readers, here is the amendment in Dutch: https://www.bof.nl/live/wp-content/uploads/Amendement-van-het-lid-Verhoeven-c.s..pdf
Summary for English readers:
It will be forbidden by law to block or induce a bandwidth limitation on select internet IP addresses/websites/applications. Unless:
- the blocking or capping reduces congestion, but every type of service still has to be treated equally
- for the integrity or safety of the network and service of the provider
- to block unwanted communication stated that the client has explicitly asked so
- has to be done by court order
There is some more in depth information what internet access really means, and it also states that providers may block everything, providing it's for example a VoIP only subscription. It's not allowed to offer an internet subscription while blocking certain stuff, but the other way around thus still will be legal. Also it's ofcourse still allowed to give an overall bandwidth cap or monthly data cap.
All in all I think it's a pretty solid amendment. Submitted by the four left wing parties: D66, PvDA, SP and Groenlinks
I'll continue to think that even if we're stealing ideas - at least we steal some of the good ones.
Good ideas should be stolen with pride!
That was one of the things we learned during a week-long "team-building group brainstorm" (I jest not).
Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities. - Voltaire
It was never the "land of the free to use other people's property the way I want."
Really? The history of 19th century America is the history of one group wanting to use another group's property, and doing so over, and over, and over. You must be a real American to be so ignorant of your own country's history. Off the top of my head:
Repeated relocation of Native Americans to steal their land.
Chattel Slavery (using some else's body the way I want without their consent).
Grazing rights conflicts in the west.
Water rights conflicts in the west.
Mineral/oil rights conflicts.
Railroad right-of-way conflicts.
I'm sure a few dozen more specific cases could be added.
In short, America was ALWAYS the "land of the free to use other people's property the way I want."
I'm Dutch.
Sorry to inform you, you are wrong on much of what you state.
We do have great social services, second only to scandinavia AFAIK. ;)
Taxes are not flat but range roughly from 33% to 50% depending on income with a tax-free bottom sum.
Can't compare disposable income, but from what I've know it's pretty much equal considering in the US you have to pay for a lot of things that are paid through taxes here; the amount of money we have left at the end of the month is probably quite close. More significantly we have far less economic "outliers" around here; few billionairs and few people living in poverty.
Houses ARE more expensive and since the economic crisis, credits have become somewhat more difficult.
As for dull; life is what you make of it; if your friends prefer to live a dull live around here, they can do so
Cars are more expensive, but not by much (OTOH, fuel IS a lot more expensive than in the US).
Consumer goods aren't twice as expensive, perhaps some 10%-20% more expensive. Mostly because of corporate taxes. As I understand it, many US companies are able to pay $0 taxes due to creative accounting. Tax laws are a little less pro-corporate around here.
Internet isn't free, neither wired nor mobile. I don't quite know what you get for $80/mo with AT&T, but the most expensive mobile subscription for iPhone4 around here is roughly $55 a month.
AFAIK, most of the above is similar for the rest of the north and west European countries.
Slashdot social media options: AIM, ICQ, Yahoo, Jabber and Mobile Text. Why no MySpace?