Netherlands Cements Net Neutrality In Law

Fluffeh writes "A while back, Dutch Telcos started to sing the 'We are losing money due to internet services!' song and floated new plans that would make consumers pay extra for data used by apps that conflicted with their own services — apps like Skype, for example. The politicians stepped in, however, and wrote laws forbidding this. Now, the legislation has finally passed through the Senate and the Netherlands is an officially Net Neutral country, the second in the world — Chile did this a while back."

Comments

Too bad

[meerling]

Too bad our politicians probably won't take the hint.

Re:Too bad

[Canazza]

everywhere but the Netherlands and Chile

Re:Too bad

[Anonymous Coward]

Does the net need a nanny state (so called)? I dunno, ask Comcast who slows connections to Netflix and torrents. Ask Comcast again, who do not throttle their own streaming service. Ask the cable channels who withhold streaming content to try and force cable subscriptions that people do not want. Ask the government who want unfettered access to everything you do online and will probably willingly sell that information to the highest bidder.

Yeah, we need net neutrality, or your idea of a "nanny state". Because not all regulation IS nanny stating, you've just been convinced by Fox News that it is so they can participate in these exact kinds of things with everyone else.

Re:Too bad

[Anonymous Coward]

The Nanny State? Parroting a-holes use that word.

The Dutch Nanny State happened to be the one that for a large part co-provided all the infrastructure most telco's use. And then it just had to be privatized for no other reason other then trying to force a failing market system.

You obviously don't know what you're talking about.

Re:Too bad

[Eraesr]

Too bad our (as in: the Dutch) judges don't take a hint. Yesterday a judge ruled that a bunch of additional Dutch telcos needed to block access to The Pirate Bay. A few months back that very same judge already ruled that two telcos (XS4ALL and Ziggo) needed to block access to TPB. Not that it matters, research by an independent company has indicated that usage of TPB by XS4ALL and Ziggo customers hasn't decreased the slightest bit.

Re:Too bad

[dingen]

Of course Finland is small when compared to the US. So lets compare the EU to the US. Why is the internet faster in the entire Eurozone, with all their different countries, cultures and languages, than in the US?

incomplete article.

[Anonymous Coward]

A day after this was announced all Dutch ISPs were ordered to block TPB.

http://torrentfreak.com/five-more-dutch-isps-given-10-days-to-censor-the-pirate-bay-120510/

The US isn't the only country that is getting destroyed by lobbyists and religious nutjobs.

Didn't stop net censorship.

[lxs]

Net neutrality is a great step, but on the same day a judge ordered all ISPs in the Netherlands to block the Pirate Bay. You win some you lose some.

Special 301 Report

[Anonymous Coward]

Special 301 Report welcomes Netherlands!

This is challenged

[thrill12]

There are already voices in the Dutch parliament calling for an investigation into copyright law, and whether censoring sites for commercial purposes/civil law is allowed : this would then only allow the blocking of sites illegal under criminal law. This story has not ended by far, and a similar thing as what happened to KPN (calling netneutrality into question) could happen to Brein (our "MPAA", using censorship for commercial purposes).