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Landlords, ISPs Team Up To Rip Off Tenants On Broadband (backchannel.com)
"Network operators like Comcast, Time Warner Cable, and ATT, in cahoots with [real estate] developers and landlords, routinely use a breathtaking array of kickbacks, lawyerly games of Twister, blunt threats, and downright illegal activities to lock up buildings in exclusive arrangements," reports Harvard Law Professor Susan Crawford.
itwbennett writes: Eight years ago, the FCC issued an order banning exclusive agreements between landlords and ISPs, but a loophole is being exploited, leaving many tenants in apartment buildings with only one choice of broadband service provider. The loophole works like this: Instead of having an exclusive agreement with one provider, the landlords refuse to let any other companies than their chosen providers access their properties...
"This astounding, enormous, decentralized payola scheme affects millions of American lives," Crawford writes, revealing Comcast's revenue-sharing proposals for property owners and urging cities (and national lawmakers) to require broadband neutrality in residential buildings. Other loopholes are also being exploited, Crawford writes, and "it's why commercial tenants in NYC pay through the nose for awful Internet access service in the fanciest of commercial buildings... We've got to take landlords out of the equation -- all they're doing is looking for payments and deals...and the giant telecom providers in our country are more than happy to pay up."
"This astounding, enormous, decentralized payola scheme affects millions of American lives," Crawford writes, revealing Comcast's revenue-sharing proposals for property owners and urging cities (and national lawmakers) to require broadband neutrality in residential buildings. Other loopholes are also being exploited, Crawford writes, and "it's why commercial tenants in NYC pay through the nose for awful Internet access service in the fanciest of commercial buildings... We've got to take landlords out of the equation -- all they're doing is looking for payments and deals...and the giant telecom providers in our country are more than happy to pay up."
While a good idea in theory, ultimately Telecom has a massive and very effective lobby. This also fails to address the very real problem you sometimes have in the Northeast where competing installers will cut or pull another guy's cable during an install, either to make room for theirs or out of a more childish nonprofessionalism in some parts of installer culture. However, there are plenty of ways to deal with that which do not stifle competition.
Real lawyers write in C++
Has Cox cable, don't want it. Called Dish Network, they said no problem for apartments as they have small dish units that hang out window or something. Install guy gets here and is told by maintenance guy that they can't install it, and to remove all others currently being used because cableco is already available to tenants (but not free). Slime bag landlords.
In mainland China we had the same issue. We were paying about 10,000rmb a year ($2000 US) for awful slow broadband (5mbps fibre). After 5 years we noticed we could see our house from the office, so we bought two antennas and wireless APs and beamed our fast 100mbps home internet which cost 1600rmb per year ($320) and ran the entire office off of that. Commercial building lockdown should be illegal
My mom and I aren't Trump's loyal followers, and I won't even be voting due to circumstances than I don't want to go into, but my mom is more conservative than I am. We believe that Trump does a better job at understanding and acting on his best interests than most of the political creatures. He lies more blatantly than they do. It's hard to be certain which of what he says is a lie, but he would make a racist statement he doesn't actually believe in order to advance his interests. We believe it is likely he will find his way to make things work better than most of the other people, though if Bernie became an option and I were to vote, I would probably vote for Bernie over Trump. But Trump is better than Hillary in my book, because of his better understanding of how to get where he wants to go. With Hillary there's too much things like the "What difference does it make" and the home email server going on. If she had told a somewhat plausible lie instead of "What difference does it make" that would actually improve her suitability in my book. If her duplicity were revealed and she came back with something about how national security would be compromised if the facts were made known to the public and that was a public hearing, I could live with that. But she didn't do any of those things, Those are the sorts of things me and my mom look at when determining the suitability of any candidate to almost any office and when making determinations of people in general. I am generally more liberal than my mom.
There's no one in politics that isn't a con man. I don't want the GOP to heal itself, I want it to go away. No matter what happens, Trump is just the figure that can result in that happening. The people who don't critique things the way I do and hate Trump will lump him in with the GOP and not vote for them and by my estimate be more likely to stay not voting for the GOP, while if Hillary gets elected, she'll keep making embarrassments like her Benghazi testimony and the server problem. I'm not sure of the situation around the actual Benghazi incident, but what I and other people do remember is the testimony. That is not someone I want as President. She is liable to turn off people lukewarm to the Democratic party, and while the Democrats aren't much better than the Republicans... Hmm, I really don't like the chances for the dissatisfied turning to other political parties, which is the state I want, no matter who gets elected. Hopefully they move to prosecute Hillary and Bernie becomes the political candidate. Not that great for turnover either, but at least important topics will come to the forefront. A Bernie presidency could show that ideas championed by other political parties might work. I want the Democrat party to go away, too, but not as much as I want the Republican party to go away. They are both a scourge to people being comfortable inside their own skin no matter their circumstances. The Republicans because they want to hurt people with differences they disapprove of, and the Democrats because their solutions for such people make them dependent on others to accommodate them in order to have a sense of well-being. In an ideal world there wouldn't be separate male and female bathrooms, but you don't need an Ideal world to be satisfied that you are you. If somebody came to me and said from now on I have to go to a bathroom that doesn't match who I see myself as, but everyone else continues as usual, that doesn't affect me much as a person and until everyone has that strength of self-identity, it is what I believe we should be striving for.
I was going to go on about how their voting records differ, but voting records are a red herring like a lot of other things I can't recall right now on other issues, and I'll tell you why: If you can't use your vote as a bargaining chip for addressing other issues, you won't be very effective. There are a lot of things I remain silent about that I think are wrong so that I will be listened to when it comes to the root problems that need to be talked about for any lasting change. "Personality" isn't the key indicator, either. What topics you bring to the stage, is. My family has a somewhat conservative background. Historically, since Democrats used to be the party of labor, my ancestors used to vote for them. Now my relatives vote Republican. I don't interact with my father much, but I'd wager he's a DINO. The abortion issue is big with both sides. So much so, that it alone is enough to make my dad a DINO even though he probably is more liberal on personal traits than my mom. He is less forgiving when it comes to performance though.
I watched Glenn Beck. Without him, I would have never heard of Cloward and Piven. From what I learned from him about them is actually pretty useful stuff, even though he doesn't agree with such tactics and tried to demonize them. I would haven't have heard of Che Guevara, not that great of a guy, I gather, but some of the things that Glenn Beck might have liked about the guy is bad. I listen to Tim Minchin and wish he could write a song that opened conservatives eyes, but he targets mainly liberals that also have bad ideas. I watch The Bible Reloaded and they make valid criticisms of the Bible, but my mom won't look past their conduct. The Armoured Skeptic I can at least get her down to watch because he doesn't cuss as much and otherwise conducts himself better. I hope you can see what kind of people I see in America and the kind of hurdles faced with getting good information to people who will listen at least a little bit. Certain kinds of conduct don't matter, personality doesn't matter to the people I see as the most information needy. Gamers are vocal about Samus in Other M about how she doesn't have the personality they want her to have, but she has the conduct of someone who the Americans I want to reach will accept and is on message, so I will promote her to them and defend her in face of critics because people who conduct themselves like her are people the demographic I want to reach will listen to. I find little to criticize in Samus's conduct when it comes to presenting her to that demo. The conduct of her critics, on the other hand, can be used as a reason why Samus is the good person here... for the demographic that has the flaws I can address. Trump and Bernie both conduct themselves better than Hillary in those areas, but some of the very things that Samus has that turns off gamers can appeal to the people I need to reach. Samus has military training. The gamers don't get military decorum. They see deference as weakness in Samus. I've run out of ideas and its getting kind of late where I'm at, so I feel like I'm not wrapping up properly and I feel sorry about that. But it is Slashdot. But you've conducted yourself decent. And now I've gone all Gollum.
Hillary will be just like Obama, that is exactly why I vote for here. Obama accepts wall street donations. Obama accepts pharma donations. Obama accepts big oil donations. Obama accepts cable co donation. But Obama has not been bad president for any of these reasons. I dont mind 4 more years (or 8 more years) of Obama alike.
Now I have no idea if Trump would do anything to stop it, but there is at least a CHANCE
That is exactly the problem. Trump could make it better. Trump could make it worse. Trump could make it far better. Trump could make it far worse. There is no way of knowing anything. It like voting an 8 ball as the president. An 8 ball is not hillary, it has that going for it, right?