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Net Neutrality Goes Down in Flames as FCC Votes To Kill Title II Rules (arstechnica.com)
As we feared yesterday, the rollback of net neutrality rules officially began today. The FCC voted along party lines today to formally consider Chairman Ajit Pai's plan to scrap the legal foundation for the rules and to ask the public for comments on the future of prohibitions on blocking, throttling and paid prioritization. ArsTechnica adds: The Federal Communications Commission voted 2-1 today to start the process of eliminating net neutrality rules and the classification of home and mobile Internet service providers as common carriers under Title II of the Communications Act. The Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) proposes eliminating the Title II classification and seeks comment on what, if anything, should replace the current net neutrality rules. But Chairman Ajit Pai is making no promises about reinstating the two-year-old net neutrality rules that forbid ISPs from blocking or throttling lawful Internet content, or prioritizing content in exchange for payment. Pai's proposal argues that throttling websites and applications might somehow help Internet users.
Feels like we've had a lot of those lately.
The internet was NOT invented for ISP profitability. Fuck this treasonous noise.
These are crimes against humanity... some day there will be a reckoning
free markets, yadda yadda yadda
If it isn't crystal-clear to everyone by now, let me state the obvious for your benefit: The FCC, which apparently is in the hip pocket of ISPs and wireless companies, does not give a flying fuck about what the citizens of the U.S. actually want the Internet to be, all they care about is being Good Little Doggies for their corporate patrons. On the other hand the Baby Boomer generation will probably love it; the Internet will likely become like a larger version of AOL.
Corruption is the biggest thing our founders were worried about as a threat to our form of government. For years it has been getting worse and worse. We've finally reached the point of critical mass and are now in a snowball or thermal runaway type of situation where we cannot recover.
If you thinking jacking up prices for service is somehow helping.
This is what we get America. Voting largely along party lines or for religious reasons! You thought Trump wait till you see what Betsy Devos, Jeff Sessions, Scot Pruitt are going to do. I am hoping here the states will do the right thing and add some laws against this but I am not sure how much authority they will have. Also, state legislators are probably cheaper to buy anyway!
From a system designed to ensure information flows no matter what... to a system designed to ensure selected information flows at a rate determined by your wallet.
Another change to America that will squeeze the 99% for the enrichment of the 1%, sold with the lie that they're doing it for the exact opposite reason.
You know, I'm not big on class warfare but at some point you have to realize that your society is going to shit if its primary focus is to benefit a small subset of the population to the detriment of the majority.
Obviously the FCC has full 100% authority over a network connection that goes from one state to another.
But surely states can impose fairness restrictions on in-state connections. i.e. if a computer in Fort Worth seeks to reach a computer in Dallas, the State of Texas (assuming they would want to) could regulate neutrality, no?
And if an ISP happens to route the connection out-of-state (a common occurrence for various reasons) that doesn't get 'em off the hook. (That's like saying if I rape someone, then drive across the state line, then drive back to the original state, I can't be prosecuted by the state for rape.) California is allowed to have pollution regulation on cars, even though the cars' pollution can drift through the atmosphere across state lines.
Whelp, now there exists a new revenue stream - a stream of income that stock holders will DEMAND be exploited maximally.
That new income source: Asking for payments for premium treatment from uploaders.
I expect that this will get rather messy - as the financial motivations will likely upturn a lot of agreements between large networks, and the viability of many valued companies.
But, this IS what contributors paid for, so this is what they get, apparently.
Ryan Fenton
Alternative Headline: "Thing That Never Made Any Difference Never Will" When regs that never went into force are pruned in the forest, does anyone make a sound? I guess they do.
FCC Chairman Ajit Pai explained why he thinks that net neutrality is a problem, and why we must eliminate the rule. He said:
Number one there was no problem to solve, the internet wasn’t broken in 2015. In that situation, it doesn’t seem me that preemptive market-wide regulation is necessary. Number two, even if there was a problem, this wasn’t the right solution to adopt. These Title II regulations were inspired during the Great Depression to regulate Ma Bell which was a telephone monopoly. And the broadband market we have is very different from the telephone market of 1934. So, it seems to me that if you have 4,462 internet service providers and if a few of them are behaving in a way that is anticompetitive or otherwise bad for consumer welfare then you take targeted action to deal with that. You don’t declare the entire market anticompetitive and treat everyone as if they are a monopolist.
Going forward we are going to propose eliminating that Title II classification and figure out the right way forward. The bottom line is, everyone agrees on the principles of a free and open internet what we disagree with is how many regulations are needed to preserve the internet.
Could the big content providers (Netflix amazon spotify etc) band together to create a separate company that provides local VPN jumping on points right in front of the regional caches these providers all have? The isps could retaliate by throttling encrypted traffic but that will affect many businesses who will vote for isps with their wallets because they unlike us do have a choice.
refactor the law, its bloated, confusing and unmaintainable.
Pay your ISP bill in increments of 0.01, preferably by paper cheque. Automation makes this easy. Offer to pay in 0.25 increments for a 'small fee', or randomize the increments. Insist on a paper bill showing all payments.
Include the following on your voicemail: "If this call drops or has lag, this is because ISP is possibly throttling packets. Please offer to pay ISP more money and hope for better service.
Throttle incoming connections from the ISPs ad servers. Setup a pi-hole for ads.
The internet itself will now quickly become a monopoly, since AmaGooBookTubeSoft can pay enough money to silence everyone else by effectively just shouting far louder than they can even afford to.
Also any political or SJW groups can now totally block any/all alternatives to their myopic world views just by paying the ISPs.
No doubt MPAA/RIAA/Hollywood are already chomping at the bit to be able to block any/every site they feel like in another gross abuse of power.
Why yes, there is something more dangerous. A liberal that thinks using broad strokes of a brush to paint all conservatives as the same. It's like saying Hillary and Bernie are the same because they both ran as Democrats. That's dangerous thinking.
This FCC nonsense is just pure greed. Nothing more nothing less.
Exactly! Trust your government, trust the big companies, after all they exist to make your life better, right?
Douche.
It isn't only the conservatives you need to worry about. large parts of the democratic party is also corrupted by big corp money. I hope Sanders gets a new movement going. otherwise another run of guillotines is the only option.
When your innternet bill triples for exactly the same services or less, or where you'rer forced to use the company's own streaming content only (which doesn't include a bunch of your favourite content)... you'll understand. Just as all major gas stations in the same area all charge the same price, ISPs will follow suit.
It's like the Mexicans who voted for DT and are now facing deportation even though they were the "good hombres" (hard working people, just not american citizens).
You know, it's funny. 10 years ago I would be right there with you folks, panicking and hyperventilating ( well, drinking a beer and grousing anyway. We all cope in our ways, don't judge )..but if the years have taught me anything, it's to appreciate opportunity when it comes along.
Had I my own way, my and other's lives would be infinitely better with virtually no downside. However, the world doesn't work like that ( shocking, I know ). Once I stopped fighting it, I realized that despite it's broken nature, the world still manages to push forward to society's benefit ( though most refuse to acknowledge that ). Set backs are sometimes needed to make leaps forward, and sometimes "set backs" are only considered such because individuals lack the vision to find the opportunity.
So relax; breath. Trust in yourself and find the opportunities presented. You, and society, will be fine, I promise.
Mod me down with all of your hatred and your journey towards the dark side will be complete!
Come on /. Let's take the trolling up a notch for this thread!
They may be able to, but the feds will likely be able to stick their hands in as well. For instance, you call your local neighbor on your phone, connecting only through local telephone exchanges, if there's a federal statute about what you're doing (say, selling pot), then (among other things) the feds claim jurisdiction because you used "an instrument of interstate commerce", or IOW, something that could have enabled you to do whatever it was in an interstate fashion.
This is one of the underlying reasons for the assertion that the feds have inverted the meaning of the commerce clause (which says they have the authority to regulate commerce "among the several states", not "within the several states") and are therefore acting in an constitutionally unauthorized manner.
So bottom line, the feds can apply their rules and make them stick. Even if whatever it is happens only within the confines of a single state.
I've fallen off your lawn, and I can't get up.
This is a great day. The net freeloaders will no longer be subsidized by the average network customer. The users will bear the brunt of the costs.
If you want to see why NN is important, look at what Zero-Rating of internet for Facebook has done in India. Supposedly the rest is widely available, but the reality is it is poor quality or expensive, and thus people stay in the walled garden of Facebookland.
to paint all conservatives as the same
Only 1 way to be sure that they are : check how do they VOTE, turns out they follow their fuhrer like mindless monkeys.
Obama's Net Neutrality is only 18 months old. Before that, was it so bad? During it, was it better?
Here's what I'm REALLY angry about - these goddamn local monopolies. Of I have choice of a shit sandwich (AT&T) or a dick up the ass (Comcast).
I am paying $49/month for 1.5Mbps DOWN and .25Mbps up. Really AT&T? I could get better by signing up with Xfinity if and ONLY if I get one of their "packages". But Internet only? Nope, don't offer that in your area. (I didn't realize that they have to run a separate cable for internet only and it's a real burden on them. /s)
So Netflix can either pay Spectrum a ton of money or they can put a pop up on their website for all Spectrum customers saying "Your ISP is slowing down this connection artificially. If you want higher quality streaming, switch to a different carrier."
Gee, I wonder which route they'll take. Let the name and shame parade commence.
Internet is soon going to be like Cable TV you have to choose your internet package
Basic
Economy
Premium
*cough* Bullshit
With the Internet now moribund, desktop application development will become popular again!
If sites like Pandora or Youtube need to pay premiums for adequate performance over your Comcast or Verizon or whatever line, expect them to make you watch more ads to make up for it.
The long-running excuse is that the "people" don't even know what net-neutrality is, much less what it's valuable. Now they'll learn... free stuff on the Internet will get scarce, or will be delivered at crap speeds while your provider pushes their own affiliated entertainment package (with a fee), the only content that's reliably watchable.
Fees for other services you do over the net may also appear or increase. Hell, if I were Comcast, I'd hit Amazon, E-Bay, and other online merchants up hard, 'cause I know they can pass those fees onto their customers. Bye-bye, cheap Internet shopping.
Thanks, ignorant American voters, who shrug it off with lame-ass both-parties-are-just-as-bad excuses. Bullshit. I didn't like Hillary much, no I didn't, but if she HAD been elected, Ajit Pai would NOT be in charge of the FCC for fucking the Internet. Now, we all get to pay.
and this big shit sandwich is just getting started... 1,265 more days to go.
Take it easy, Charlie, I've got an Angle...
From a system designed to ensure information flows no matter what... to a system designed to ensure selected information flows at a rate determined by your wallet.
Right, because government regulation is always good?
Can any of the Chicken Littles provide any evidence of their fears actually coming true? I keep hearing about how ISPs will block access to sites, or slow your connection down, but can anyone show this actually happening?
If you want to fight something, fight the government supported cable monopoly.
Gotta love how net neutrality is useless now that it's God Emperor Trump's government that's killing it. Funny how some orange cheeto's shitty little promises can make even the intellectual elite of this site throw away everything they claimed to believe in. As long as we're sticking it to the libruls, right?
Thanks, Slashdot. Thanks.
except:
When they came for my bandwidth...
I've said this before, but we can get it back. It does mean we're gonna have to vote for the kinds of politicians who support Net Neutrality. We had one, but we replace him with somebody from the other side 'o the tracks....
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Don't let headlines like this form your opinion, they votes to continue with their proposed rulemaking. there will be another comment period, and it will be important to support title 2 classification still. Once that is over, the FCC will have to prove to the courts (cause they WILL be sued) that there is enough of a shift in the marketplace to require reclassification.
Its far from over, nowhere near done. Don't let sensationalist headlines make you drop out of the fight early. Stay in, stay educated, and keep punching. We can still win.
Becareful what you wish for. Conservatives own the most guns and most services - the people that fight for this country since before you were born - are conservatives.
Adults: conservatives. Children: liberal far left.
Calling for civil war is extremists so this is you.
No real American what to see the country obliterated by a civil war.
Child, you need to visit other war torn countries. Its clear you have never been out of the USA.
Go see. Then come back and telll us if you wish this for your family or friends. (If you have friends).
Wait was the first line decrying racists then making a racial slur. Well done.
and their health care. Trump ran a populist campaign with big promises for people kicked out of the middle class by globalism. If you're an ex-auto worker in Detroit or a laid off coal miner in Ohio you don't give a flying fark about Net Neutrality. You're making $9/hr at Walmart and/or McDonald's. You want you're $30/hr Union job back, and Trump promised that.
Hilary ignored the swing states at her peril. She only shifted left when it was clear Bernie would win if she didn't. She's was always a terrible candidate that the corporate Dems shoved down our throats. These people aren't dumb or superstitious, they're being actively ignored. This is what happens when you abandon a large percentage of your population to poverty and dismiss there concerns as stupidity. Bernie didn't do that. The "Justice Democrats" (google it) aren't. If the rest of us keep doing it we're gonna be a third world hell hole in 20 years as those folks drag us down trying to find a solution in a world that's leaving them behind.
Hi! I make Firefox Plug-ins. Check 'em out @ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/youtube-mp3-podcaster/
I'm less concerned about the decision than what it shows about the power of our voice as US citizens.
Then again we did elect most of those people.
Minimum threshold fixed. Thanks!
I can't remember where I first heard this idea, but people panicking over things like this is closely related to their political ideology and worldview.
For Liberals and Progressives, they're always fighting to push forward, to progress. They view human existence as a series of events that push us ever forward as a global society to an eventual Utopia. Things were always worse in the past and will always be better in the future. Any impediment, disagreement or setback to their agenda is thus viewed as "turning back the clock", or "taking us backwards".
For Conservatives, they realize that the pendulum swings both ways. Things change. There is no simple and straight path that takes us all to a glorious future. Sometimes the change is to your advantage and sometimes to your disadvantage. They view any setbacks as temporary in nature, and don't panic about things that they know can be changed.
Life seriously sucked two years ago, and the Internet was nowhere near as free as it is today...
In Soviet Washington the swamp drains you.
Might wanna check on your lord and savior bernie sanders' own record in the big corp money. His wife is being investigated for alleged bank fraud related to funding for a college she ran. Not small time either. And if you think he wasn't involved or had no knowledge of this, nor had any motivation for his platform to go a certain way (FREE COLLEGE FOR ALL). Would it really be a surprise that the guy spouting off free this and free that to tantalize his followers was doing so for personal gain and not the BS altruism that they tried to portray?
Hard times create strong men.
Strong men create good times.
Good times create weak men.
Weak men create hard times.
Can I call bullshit on that optimism?
What would have happened if black people, women, the LGBT community just stopped fighting for their rights?
I agree if you say that stressing out too much without a plan is pointless, but please remember that you can only stop fighting because others are fighting for you.
How was it... "all it takes for evil to triumph is for good to do nothing". Big nice dichotomy, but you get the point.
Thank you for this wisdom you have bestowed over the internet.
Now in ten years how much will I have to pay to have access to this wisdom?
This is an NPRM. Not an R&O.
Nice strawmen you got there.
First of all, WE DO NOT HAVE NET NEUTRALITY. Not if you consider what "net neutrality" really was intended to be.
For example, AT&T is still allowed to throttle and even transcode video content between you and Youtube. This is expressly allowed under net "neutrality" rules.
Carriers are still allowed to keep data usage for preferred services outside of your data bucket. This is also expressly allowed under the rules.
WE DO NOT HAVE NET NEUTRALITY.
But, this may be an opportunity to get it if we participate in the process and file a formal comment that is well-researched and well-written.
"Pai's proposal argues that throttling websites and applications might somehow help Internet users."
How can anyone be so delusioned that they truly believe limiting access to websites and applications may somehow help users!? It won't help us, it will only help internet companies make more money through literal blackmail.
This will just turn into a : Pay us a bit of "protection money" and we will make sure that no "harm"(slow down) comes to you.
This will kill off any new comers, only protecting the ones who can afford to pay out. In the worst case, it may actually drive companies OUT of the US, thus result in a loss of jobs! This "Pai" has no sense of reality and it's clear he prioritize Verizon and the likes over actually protecting consumers and small companies that can't give out the protection money. This is why republicans are the scum of the earth.
LOL what a big crock of shit. I guess we know what party you belong to. You partisan piece of shit.
I'm a conservative, and even I believe that as things stand right now, this has the potential to be a huge mistake. However, if Pai wants to turn this into an actual good thing for consumers, he's going to need to go full-Monty on his proposals. To wit: don't just remove the restrictions, but also the protections which apply to telcos under Title II. Strip away the privileges held by telcos and cable companies alike, in the form of their protected monopolies. Maybe we could even reinstate a truly free market, by the elimination of all FCC policies, period. And then petition Congress to actually give the FCC the power to fully overrule any state or local restrictions, so that they can't blockade the free market, either.
After all, that's pretty much the party-line mantra, at this point, isn't it? Liberals legislate everything to the point where it hurts, and conservatives eliminate legislation to the point where it hurts. So then, do it, Pai. Eat your own dog food.
Of course, maybe Pai's argument would be that if he actually went too far down that path, than the telcos and cable companies would sue... but the thing is, at this point they're always suing over anything that is even remotely pro-consumer. If they're not suing the FCC after the dust clears, then clearly there's something wrong. So why the hell not?
Come on, Pai. Let's do this thing!
Are you referring to the zero-rating that was banned in India last year?
If you go out into the streets to protest, Republicans have passed laws to make it legal for drivers to mow you down with their cars.
"That's a nice web site you have, it would be a shame if something happened to your packets. For a reasonable fee we can make sure they arrive in good shape."
Yeah, that's right because the rest of us take up the slack. Thanks a lot. We're fighting on your behalf and doing what we can. Things doesn't just happen if we just sit around and drink beer.. it is because a lot of us find these issues important.
The FCC is part of the executive branch.
Meaning, of course, that they execute the rules (laws) established by Congress.
In the absence of such rules, the executive office is free to write its own rules.
Ergo:
Stop returning 95% of incumbent congressfucks and elect representatives that will simply pass a law making 'net neutrality' a thing.
Can't do it, or can't convince at least 51% of the electorate (or, in reality, only about 30%) to agree with you and actually vote? Then it must be not such a big deal.
-Styopa
But after fees and so forth (goddamned government rules! you'd love to give them a break, but the law is the law), it's really only an "up to" that may even get to negative figures.
But for faster access to your account, they can pay a "Prioritized access fee" to you for the low, low price of 3c/day!
(taxes not included, best efforts only, errors and omissions excepted, ask your doctor for advice)
It's only been the people whom use lots of data, such as video streaming websites, or use of the cell phone networks (which have expensive data), whom have been affected by 'net neutrality'. If some video streaming company wants to subsidize cell phone data, I'm all for it, and I will abuse it too. For 10+ years, I have yet to see some ordinary, small (by data) website get blocked. Warezing, and hosting video game servers were explicity prohibited by ISP terms of service, and they used large amounts of data.
I find it amusing that progress for them involves, with a scant few exceptions, more government intervention in more areas and less personal freedom.
If they were not American citizens, they couldn't legally vote. If they did, they're felons and should be deported.
If a doctor doing tele-surgery on a child over the internet isn't more important than the next season of "13 ways I killed myself" then I don't know what you guys are smokin'. Up to this point I haven't seen widespread blocking of applications based on data. Maybe based on security, but not data and if AT&T wants to not ding me for Directv content, then so be it. The others can still use the pipes. If I go to T-Mobile I can watch unlimited YouTube.
does that not mean ISPs would no longer be under liability protection and be able to turn a blind eye to the data that crosses their networks? If they inspect the data traffic, and throttle the rate of some packets vs others, are they not signing up for being liable for illegal or copyrighted content that traverses through their switches?
Or is this they get to keep the Title II protections but do not have to abide by any of the specified regulations? In which case we have just fundamentally altered what "common carrier" means.
But also what I find worrisome is the ISPs ability to restrict access to certain sites of open information, possibility for censorship (even if just unwittingly by favoring OTHER sites which pay to get better service), the snuffing of open discourse and equal access to all participants... as someone previously mentioned - I do not want to see the current Internet turn into a modern AOL or CompuServe, where you can subscribe to the content machine, but cannot use the Internet as you see fit.
WAR IS PEACE.
FREEDOM IS SLAVERY.
IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH.
Evidently, your personal concerns are so trivial and you live in such a pampered bubble that your have the luxury of this pollyanna perspective.
Some people don't.
Since its all the same to you, why don't you STFU and let the rest of us take life seriously?
the people that fight for this country since before you were born - are conservatives.
Utter bullshit. Stoppped reading right there.
I know some liberal-as-fuck veterans. Service and patriotism exist across the political spectrum.
Plus, the Found Fathers were separatist radicals. They had good reasons, but they were not conservative in any sense of the word. They forged a new nation because their first nation was ignoring their welfare.
The rich will be fine. And that's really all we care about. MAGA!
What an impressive debater you are. You knocked down every point with an iron-clad counter argument. Did you study rhetoric at Princeton?
Comment removed based on user account deletion
and sometimes "set backs" are only considered such because individuals lack the vision to find the opportunity.
Sometimes those "setbacks" can last 1200 years.
Looks like Trump thinks the best way to Make America Great Again is to take the whole country back to the 1950's.
This is brilliant, the USA is proving WHY government regulation is required for many areas of business, especially those that have natural monopolies.
The world gets to learn while to US gets to burn.
Thanks, and may I add another Hahahahahhaha
Like that worked the first fracking time -_- . They'll just get China to create more bots and DDoS to illegitimize any suggestions like before.
I didn't come up with that idea and I really wish I could find the source. For all I know I heard it during a segment on NPR.
I did find the following, but I'm sure that's not where I heard of this.
It's like the Mexicans who voted for DT and are now facing deportation even though they were the "good hombres" (hard working people, just not american citizens).
If they aren't citizens, then they couldn't vote....
Go Trump!
There is no natural law that says that all societies will last forever - history in fact demonstrates quite the opposite. And societies don't usually collapse because of one gigantic catastrophe - they collapse because of millions or trillions of small "well whatever" failures. It's apparent in the US and some other cultures that the proportion of people who don't give a shit is growing, and once they reach critical mass we'll be living in a shithole where the only way to live let alone succeed will be through avarice and meanness. There are any number of cultures in the world where this is already the case. (I'm looking at you, Africa.)
If you think the US or the West is different, it's only because there's a critical mass of people who'll give a shit and who'll fight for what's best and right.
So fuck you for telling people to relax and just get theirs.
Barclay family motto:
Aut agere aut mori.
(Either action or death.)
Meanwhile the rest of the world will carry on pretty much as usual, but with the Internet doing what it was designed to do.
Recognize a compromised site (America) as damage and route around it.
"Nine times out of ten, starting a fire is not the best way to solve the problem." - my wife
That you didn't create the straw man does not make it any less so. Maybe you are mis-paraphrasing because that logic is equivelant to "If you know that the pendulum swings both ways you are a conservative."
Old Liberals and Progressives are well aware the pendulum swings both ways because it effects them in real life in ways beyond feelings. What is the real life impact on a Conservative when same sex couples are no longer allowed to adopt compared to the couple denied children? Only the warm glow that they are winning at denying human rights to people they don't like cuz reasons.
like Netflix, and other giant Silicon Valley bandwidth hogs who
...deliver the content and apps we actually want to use. Because I'm not paying Comcast $80/month to run bandwidth tests.
If the ISPs think they can't deliver the traffic I want efficiently, then what good are they? Why should they have my business in the first place?
Seriously, I feel your pain in having two providers neither of which was cool, how was the proposed net neutrality forced on us by the government supposed to help you?
"The FCC voted along party lines today to formally consider Chairman Ajit Pai's plan to scrap the legal foundation for the rules and to ask the public for comments on the future of prohibitions on blocking, throttling and paid prioritization. "
I fail to see the point in asking what the public thinks when they blatantly ignore what the public wants.
*sigh*
I guess we can try again in 2020.
It might be dangerous to you. If it comes down to a war between the Christian National Socialists and the Pajama Boys, I know who I'm betting on!
Could someone please tell me how special interest groups didn't just buy this vote. I don't care what your politics are, if you can't see a major problem here, do not have children!!!!
How about you go fuck yourself, you fucking apparatchik.The calm and easy belief in societal progress being a force of nature is a wonderful excuse to do nothing as rome burns. I hope that society becomes a dystopian hell where there is nothing but suffering before you die, so you can see how idiotic the drivel pouring from your lips is.
Any ISP that tries to impose a fast lane needs to go dark. Immediately. Google, Amazon and every single website on the Internet needs to cut them off with a page that explains how their ISP is screwing them, and they will be changed more for services now. Internet access has no value if you can't get anywhere. Keep this up for a weekend. Then, add a Comcast tax to everyone's bill. You buy anything on Amazon, and you get charged extra, as a separate line item. Same with Netflix. Make everyone aware of what' going on. If a week of no Internet for Comcast and AT&T customers doesn't convince them to knock it the hell off, nothing else will.
You, and society, will be fine, I promise.
Tell that to the Romans and other countless societies.
Societies rise and crumble, I promise.
Take note: this is an object lesson in how NOT to support a cause.
1. Activists for net neutrality organized protests and showed up at the home of the FCC guy, even harrassing his neighbors. This is an implicit threat of physical violence against him and his family and friends. The only point of protesting at a person's HOME is to say "we know ehrer you and your family LIVE and you are VULNERABLE".
2. Activists for net neutrality protested outside the FCC with big signs calling for sites popular with Republicans, like Drudge Report and Breitbart to be silenced. Nothing could do more to convince people that "net neutrality" == "Democrat attempt to silence the Republicans" like this action. This put a PERMANENT stain on the net neutrality thing so it can now NEVER be supportted by Republicans. Stupid activists have transformed this from an anti-big-business-monopolistic-abuse that many in the GOP would have supported into a defend-the-GOP-base-from-a-Democrat-attack matter that will be a litmus-test like abortion or gun control.
Now, "Net Neutrality" can NEVER be presented as a play for "freedom" or "openness"... it's now out in the open as a play for Democrats censoring Republicans on the Net with the help of Federal Government power.
Nicely done, stupid leftwing idiot activists!
[Citation Needed]
What the ISPs want to get back to is called Rent Seeking. They want to make money by milking something that isn't theirs.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...
They discovered they can extort money from companies they have no business relationship with by throttling bandwidth to *their own customers* (who pay for a connection with specified bandwidth, not a website) in order to harm those companies. They were stopped. Now they want that ability back.
Verizon did this blatantly with NetFlix, who was dumb enough to pay up (they should have sued them for extortion).
To anyone who believes the absurd tagline "the market will sort it out", there is no market here. The vast majority of Americans don't have a choice, those who do have two choices, and both companies are guilty of numerous violations of consumer trust (and occasionally, the law). When a local community or government attempts to address this with a community or public internet provider, the big ISPs sue or bribe (sorry, "lobby") the local government officials to get it shut down. This is not a free market if they can eliminate competition without actually competing.
To take this from another angle, a very serious question: Are ISPs an "information service" or a "telecommunications service"?
Seriously, what "information" do you get *from* your ISP? They don't even host usenet servers anymore. Everything that comes to and from your computer goes _through_ your ISP, it doesn't come _from_ them.
This is precisely the question being answered by this re-classification (they're saying your ISP is an information _service_).
- Preferences: Solaris 10 (servers), Ubuntu (desktops), Solaris 11 (personal servers) -
I'll bet the Libertarians are jumping for joy to see these business crippling regs go down the drain!
FREEDOM!!!
You, and society, will be fine, I promise.
People kept telling me this after Trump was elected. Now pre-existing conditions are back on the menu. Yeah, I'm sure society will be just fine.
I have decided to write a proper report on Net Neutrality and will be filing a very long comment. I am going over the pros and cons of net neutrality and also analyizing the forces that allowed monopolies to develop in the internet service provider area.
If anyone would like to consider signing on to the commentary or helping research, draft and edit with me just email me: r.p.nicholl*gmail.com
You're confusing your local ISP with the backbone providers. You're paying your ISP to deliver the packets, but under Net Neutrality, nobody is paying the backbone providers. The "last mile" won't be good for much if the network tying it all together is choked.
TY, We are who are, we become who we want to be.
Ya see, now the ISPs will have the control to innovate and provide better customer service. This will benefit the consumer.
I can already begin to feel the warmth of Comcast's love.
If you give something an nice-sounding name, it doesn't matter how useless or even bad it is. You'll get people to support it.
Like this "net neutrality" thing, that is a "solution" in search of a problem.
Nobody likes temporary solutions, or an endless chain of partial solutions, of half-assed solutions, of interim fixes.
Give them a solution that is the last one. The final one.
Godwin!
There's no time like the present. Well, the past used to be.