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Ajit Pai and the FCC Want It To Be Legal for Comcast To Block BitTorrent (theverge.com)

Nilay Patel, reporting for The Verge: FCC Chairman Ajit Pai released his proposal to kill net neutrality this week, and while there's a lot to be unhappy with, it's hard not to be taken with the brazenness of his argument. Pai thinks it was a mistake for the FCC to try and stop Comcast from blocking BitTorrent in 2008, thinks all of the regulatory actions the FCC took after that to give itself the authority to prevent blocking were wrong, and wants to go back to the legal framework that allowed Comcast to block BitTorrent.

553 comments

  1. Next step by viperidaenz · · Score: 4, Funny

    Block all traffic except HTTP

    As a bonus, if HTTPS is blocked then lawful intercepting will be much easier.

    1. Re:Next step by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      More like custom proprietary "encryption", for your safety!
      Not a popular opinion on hackernews, but I think it's the road ahead.

    2. Re:Next step by burtosis · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Step 3: Block VPNs.

    3. Re:Next step by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      So do lawless intercepting. And that's not a Lucy but a George.

    4. Re:Next step by 0100010001010011 · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Way back in the early 2000s we figured out that's what our campus IT department was doing.

      A friend of mine wrote a simple 'proxy' server that sent a fake HTTP header that the bittorrent trackers ignored. Our school's firewall thought it was a HTTP packet and let it through.

    5. Re:Next step by 0100010001010011 · · Score: 3, Funny

      That's one way to garner corporate backlash. When my company's C-suite officers can't check their mail from home it's going to start raising IT tickets that point back to Comcast.

    6. Re:Next step by holostarr · · Score: 1

      They'll allow you to connect to VPNs, but they'll just block all popular VPN providers, then good luck circumventing anything. This whole NN business will kill the internet as we know it.

    7. Re:Next step by 110010001000 · · Score: 2

      Exactly. Why don't people see this coming? The Internet 2.0 is going to only allow "approved" devices to connect and only allow certain activities.

    8. Re:Next step by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Well then, it's time to learn some encryption techniques and roll your own.

    9. Re:Next step by gweihir · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Indeed. My university back then decided to allow all the official P2P ports, because this way they could at least shape the traffic down to a reasonable rate. They also got a legal opinion stating that they are actually not required to look at the traffic or block based on content.

      --
      Most ACs are not even worth the keystrokes to insult them. Be generically insulted by this and ignored otherwise.
    10. Re:Next step by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      HTTP proxy tricks are very popular today in Ajit Pai's ancestral home country of India, where fake HTTP headers give free data on pretty much every mobile carrier.

    11. Re:Next step by rtb61 · · Score: 5, Interesting

      You really do not get it, this is all about mass corporate censorship, not blocking applications, blocking you, putting you off line, silencing you. How bad will be the outcome, face not that bad at all because the fury of millions of geeks is going to scare the crap out of the entirely corrupt US government. Net Neutrality will be back pretty quick, once the Republicans realise they will go from dominating the US government to being an also ran for many years to come. Geeks and nerds are an unforgiving lot being subject to many harassments in the youth has often not left them in the best temperament and in adult life, they know their intellect puts them well ahead of others in the game of political discourse. Grind the fuckers until the beg for mercy, be brutal, be mean, let them really know how pissed off you are and forget about the idea of not voting them, what a pathetic message to send, you are going to campaign against them, actively for shits and giggles to put them on the unemployment line (no revolving doors for them when they can no longer win elections and have no public relations value, out on the collective assess). Put the fucking fear of the political wilderness into them, let it keep them awake at night. Don't forget to send that email, with a note of who you will be actively campaigning for, let them know who will be replacing them.

      --
      Chaos - everything, everywhere, everywhen
    12. Re:Next step by burtosis · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Step 4: charge additional fees to reinstate corporate VPNs problem solved.

    13. Re:Next step by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Business class has more leg room than economy if you catch my drift.

    14. Re: Next step by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Lol lmfao, are you serious? The federal government is going to reverse a major policy change because a bunch of nerds are annoyed?

      Lololololololololol!! Omg was that supposed to be a troll? I hope so! Because the last opinion anyone cares about is some nerd in mom's basement whining that he can't pirate gay kiddie porn anymore.

    15. Re: Next step by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

      No, the GOP is reversi a major policy to stick a finger in Obama's eye, and they're doing it because the whole policy was implemented illegally. We should not have cheered when Obama ruled through imperial fiat. We knew a Trump was coming, if not when.

    16. Re: Next step by Neuronwelder · · Score: 2

      Well said. To bad we didn't back him up, then.

    17. Re:Next step by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Probably because the internet functioned fine for decades without NN, and it was wholly preemptive, and likely a camels nose in the tent. Plus if they ever do cause your worst case scenario then the actual problem, government mandated monopolies, would need to be addressed instead of simply tighter government controls.

    18. Re:Next step by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Fuck your multiple accounts faggot.

    19. Re:Next step by houghi · · Score: 1

      Not sure how that is marked funny, not insightfull, because that is how it works now with fixed IP.
      The majoprity of the people now how a fixed connection. That means that they have an IP adress all the time. It will be reset over time, because that way when you want a fixed IP, you need to pay extra for it.
      I have an IP adress all the time already, so make it the same one instead of a different one would not change anything.
      It would not change the price the ISP pays for the IPs. It would not change the amount they need. The only thing that would change is the fact they can't charge more.

      Ports open below 1024? Pay extra, because you need a business account. (Well, not me, because my ISP has all ports open, but many don't here in Belgium.)

      So I guess it is rated "Funny, because it is true".

      --
      Don't fight for your country, if your country does not fight for you.
    20. Re:Next step by NaCh0 · · Score: 1

      You clearly don't understand corporate IT.

      The C suite will demand exceptions to the VPN policy and it will be your job to give it to them.

    21. Re:Next step by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      That's one way to garner corporate backlash. When my company's C-suite officers can't check their mail from home it's going to start raising IT tickets that point back to Comcast.

      Not going to be a problem. The natural step is for Comcast to offer the corporate level internet with includes VPN-enabled internet access for N number of employees.

    22. Re: Next step by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Most media companies didn't buy out isps for decades either, and look how that turned out...

      Is there even a major isp that doesn't own a media production company?

    23. Re: Next step by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You got it reversed. It's the government officials that are interested in underage girls. And people will vote for one of them!

    24. Re:Next step by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Step 5: Profit!!!

      There is no ???

    25. Re: Next step by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      they're doing it because the whole policy was implemented illegally.

      Uh you do know the courts explicitly told the FCC that this was how they had to implement the policy right?

    26. Re:Next step by slashrio · · Score: 1

      You had a dream...

      --
      "Trump!!", the new Godwin.
    27. Re:Next step by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The camel nose under the tent is the removal of protections offered by Title II of the Communications Act of 1934. Title 2 protected AT&T from potential illegal acts committed by its users. If ISPs lose the protections of title two they will be obliged to spy on their users to prevent illegal activities. You can expect that they will do poorly and enact all kinds censorship in pursuit of CYA.

    28. Re:Next step by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      2018 will be the year when Tor goes mainstream in a very big way.

    29. Re: Next step by Brockmire · · Score: 1

      Today is a good day to buy a cheap VPS to run your own VPN. I just bought a few for $12/yr, missing the $6/year promo.

    30. Re:Next step by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The content providers, their lobbies and more important, law enforcement and the NSA, etc, can't tolerate true private communications of any kind. So, and effort to curtail VPN use is the logical next step for them. You can be sure that the content providers will lobby hard for at least some sort of bone headed attempt at this.

  2. Ports by hackwrench · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Are ports really necessary, because this sounds like it will just result in all sessions being routed over port 80 and a cat and mouse game of avoiding deep packet inspection.

    1. Re:Ports by gweihir · · Score: 5, Interesting

      As more and more traffic is SSL, deep-packet-inspection is basically dead, except in enterprise environments where they can push their own CA into the clients and break the tunnel.

      The whole thing is stupid. A typical sign of a clueless nil-whit trying to do policy.

      --
      Most ACs are not even worth the keystrokes to insult them. Be generically insulted by this and ignored otherwise.
    2. Re:Ports by AHuxley · · Score: 1

      Re "'a cat and mouse game of avoiding deep packet inspection."
      If a movie was been written about setting up a new method of moving files and parts of files?
      Set up a service on a port that looks just like a lot of professional services that has the same encryption as a lot of a nations average commercial networked data.
      Deep packet inspection will show its all from low cost consumer ISP accounts. A provider then set out to block that "type" of usage over all its networks :)
      All that deep packet inspection would then be conflicted. What to block? Was that a commercial account? What is really a consumer account using a new p2p system?
      A valued and long term commercial user going low cost and using a few consumer accounts as part of their encrypted network?
      What to block, how to sort the valued customers using encryption from that a new protocol that looks just like much used professional encryption.

      Users would have to get some better hardware that can encrypt to keep up with faster networks.

      --
      Domestic spying is now "Benign Information Gathering"
    3. Re:Ports by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      As more and more traffic is SSL, deep-packet-inspection is basically dead, except in enterprise environments where they can push their own CA into the clients and break the tunnel.

      Sure. But all of that will happen on the slow lanes, or blocked on the roadblocked lanes. Based on the location(ipaddr) of the other end of the connection.

      The whole thing is stupid. A typical sign of a clueless nil-whit trying to do policy.

      It is logically inconsistent. But don't presume stupidity where conflict of interest or lack of concern for Free Speech are at least as plausible.

    4. Re:Ports by Dorianny · · Score: 2

      encryption solves the easiest way to identify and block torrent traffic but there are many ways to attack the network and its users. One way is to start blocking trackers and supernodes. This will not stop all traffic but just as when the original Pirate Bay tracker was taken offline, sharing will get fragmented and slower. . another is to scour the internet for the top 10000 torrents, get all the ip's originating from within their network. From there you could do things like analyze what encrypted torrent traffic looks like or even simple throttle these ip's. This are just 2 attack avenues that quickly came to my head, a security researcher would come up with much more inventive solutions, I'm sure

    5. Re:Ports by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Please, go ahead, take a look at the CAs your browsers "trust".

      Almost any country CA is in there, you basically trust every government in the world to do the right thing.

      Well, guess what, none of them do.

    6. Re:Ports by Freischutz · · Score: 1

      As more and more traffic is SSL, deep-packet-inspection is basically dead, except in enterprise environments where they can push their own CA into the clients and break the tunnel.

      The whole thing is stupid. A typical sign of a clueless nil-whit trying to do policy.

      The guy is a paid mercenary enabled by bought reactionary politicians and they are all doing the bidding of players who have vested interests in killing net neutrality and blocking torrents. If any of this is hurting tech firms then tech firms should invest some of their money in lobbying and a whole lot more in doing what the Koch brothers and other reactionary political donors do, tech firms should support progressive political candidates that think like they do. What is unfolding now is what happens when you sit with your thumb up your fundament and let the likes of the Koch brothers run riot. Bill Maher is right, it's time to fight back and fight dirty.

    7. Re: Ports by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      All that does is push movie downloader into the same darknets as the pedos and terrorists. Except now instead of finding the text message of hallasnackbar there's gigs of video encrypted too, all of which needs to be sorted, stored and decrypted.

      The NSA should make a blockchain coin that isn't doing random hashes but is cracking traffic... Hmm. Maybe that's what bitcoin is.

    8. Re:Ports by thegarbz · · Score: 1

      port 80

      What's port 80 used for? The most popular sites and content on the internet go over port 443.

    9. Re: Ports by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Or encrypt using https and their deep packet inspection can suck it. Extra points for using 443.

    10. Re:Ports by shilly · · Score: 1

      Tech companies do appear to be really really shit at creating a favourable political environment for themselves.

    11. Re:Ports by ahodgson · · Score: 2

      Progressive politicians should stop trying to screw tech companies with hiring quotas, and then maybe they'd get more support.

  3. It would be okay if competition actually existed by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

    When you have only 1 or at best 2 Internet providers available, you don't have competition.

    Society's use of and dependence on the Internet has gotten to the point where the Internet needs to be a separate non-profit utility entity.

    Comcast needs to go back to being a cable TV / entertainment company.

    The fix will be VPNs to 3rd party proxies.

  4. Did Comcast block it? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Or did they throttle it?

  5. Block on by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    If they repeal net neutrality I hope the state of NY decides to charge Comcast $1/bit for the traffic going through there.
    I'm sure they would love to not have access to the transatlantic cables.

    1. Re:Block on by BlueStrat · · Score: 0

      If they repeal net neutrality...

      The rules were never put in action. NN was never implemented except on paper, so all this time you've been without NN.

      Oh, the humanity!

      This is a ploy to put ISPs in with telecoms as common-carriers so that US LEAs/TLAs can enforce CALEA requirements. No more 'unbreakable' encryption allowed on the intertubes, Comrade!

      I think you'll find the requirements of CALEA compliance do far more damage to freedom and privacy than the status quo.

      Strat

      --
      Progressivism (aka US 'Liberalism'): Ideas so good they need a police/surveillance-state to enforce.
    2. Re:Block on by mark-t · · Score: 1

      No more 'unbreakable' encryption allowed on the intertubes...

      I wonder how they would enforce that, exactly. How can they even generally tell the difference between something that is not encrypted, and something that is encrypted but disguised as something that is not?

    3. Re:Block on by BlueStrat · · Score: 0

      No more 'unbreakable' encryption allowed on the intertubes...

      I wonder how they would enforce that, exactly. How can they even generally tell the difference between something that is not encrypted, and something that is encrypted but disguised as something that is not?

      Pretty much the same way they prohibit voice encryption for phones and bans on encryption in the Amateur Radio service. Mostly through dis-incentivizing it through extremely long prison sentences and huge fines coupled with generous rewards for tips leading to convictions.

      Strat

      --
      Progressivism (aka US 'Liberalism'): Ideas so good they need a police/surveillance-state to enforce.
    4. Re:Block on by mark-t · · Score: 2

      You mistake my question.... I'm asking how would they even be aware, for example, in what was apparently a plain voice conversation, that a supposedly unbreakable encryption was being used and it was not just two people communicating in a language that is not known to eavesdroppers?

      The thing about unbreakable encryption is that it can always be masqueraded as something entirely innocuous that you just don't happen understand, or sometimes even something that you believe that you *DO* understand, while not actually having any real clue about what was actually being communicated.

    5. Re:Block on by BlueStrat · · Score: 1

      You mistake my question.... I'm asking how would they even be aware, for example, in what was apparently a plain voice conversation, that a supposedly unbreakable encryption was being used and it was not just two people communicating in a language that is not known to eavesdroppers?

      The thing about unbreakable encryption is that it can always be masqueraded as something entirely innocuous that you just don't happen understand, or sometimes even something that you believe that you *DO* understand, while not actually having any real clue about what was actually being communicated.

      No, I understood your question. The answer is they won't be able to catch a lot of it. That's why they'll place something like a 25-year minimum prison sentence and hundreds of thousands if not millions of dollars in fines on violators they *do* catch, along with a rewards program for anonymous snitches.

      There are many crimes which are extremely difficult for the government to detect/prosecute. That's why many such offenses carry very heavy criminal penalties. Nobody wants to risk spending most of the rest of their life in PMITA prison if they *are* caught, over such an issue.

      The other part will most likely involve hardware/chip/software companies forced to produce compliant hardware/chips/software that makes using unauthorized encryption methods more difficult. That's one of the areas where CALEA requirements can come into play to force compliance.

      Strat

      --
      Progressivism (aka US 'Liberalism'): Ideas so good they need a police/surveillance-state to enforce.
    6. Re:Block on by BlueStrat · · Score: 1

      Slashdot "Fortune" below the above post:

      This is an unauthorized cybernetic announcement.

      Oh, Slashdot! By George, you've done it again! LOL!

      Strat

      --
      Progressivism (aka US 'Liberalism'): Ideas so good they need a police/surveillance-state to enforce.
    7. Re:Block on by Desler · · Score: 1

      The rules were never put in action. NN was never implemented except on paper, so all this time you've been without NN.

      If the rules were never put into action how can Ajit Pai then claim that NN was hurting network investment? Oh right, that’s because it was a lie.

    8. Re:Block on by BlueStrat · · Score: 1

      If the rules were never put into action how can Ajit Pai then claim that NN was hurting network investment? Oh right, thatâ(TM)s because it was a lie.

      Yeah, he couldn't possibly have meant investment...like going forward...to that 'future' thing you may have heard of?...might suffer because of the usual investor caution around any big market changes. It *has* to be the worst possible interpretation because anyone who disagrees with your position *must* be evil and therefor everything they do and say is equally evil. No gray, only black & white. Right? That kind of thinking you demonstrate in your post is responsible for many of the worst atrocities, brutal regimes, and wars Mankind has ever known.

      Congratulations on joining the 'club'.

      Strat

      --
      Progressivism (aka US 'Liberalism'): Ideas so good they need a police/surveillance-state to enforce.
    9. Re:Block on by fafalone · · Score: 1

      Well the problem with is our country has this thing where we frown on imposing grossly excessive punishments, otherwise we'd fight all crimes by just making them 25-life or execution. You'd have a very hard time getting simple encryption to qualify and not get thrown out as unconstitutional because it's insanely disproportionate to the harm inflicted. Now there's a few areas where we've got some batshit insane ideas about harm inflicted by the act vs. harm inflicted by trying to prohibit it, but I don't think using unapproved encryption is going to get there.

    10. Re: Block on by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      How does this argument not apply to the enforcement of NN in the first place? If ISPs knew NN would be enforced against them, they wouldn't invest in the changes necessary to violate it.

    11. Re:Block on by mark-t · · Score: 1

      The notion that they could actually *EVER* be caught assumes that a person using unbreakable encryption is otherwise using said encryption to avoid detection by the law on account of other activities they are doing which are otherwise illegal regardless of any laws about encryption. If they are not breaking any other laws, there is no reason that they would ever get caught because there is no reason to suspect they are doing anything illegal, as good unbreakable encryption is indistinguishable from innocuous communication that you may not actually understand.(and using certain types of encryption, an unauthorized person might believe that they do understand it, while in actuality the real encrypted message is something else entirely).

      Either that, or a person would have to snitch on themselves.. because is is very possible that the only people who are even going to know about an unbreakable encryption being used at a given point in time are the sender and receiver.

    12. Re:Block on by Highdude702 · · Score: 1

      If you think the government cant filter encrypted and non encrypted packets, you need to research just how deep they have their grubby paws. So you know they ALREADY capture any and all traffic leaving or entering the US borders. They know what your IP is, They will know when you try to use TOR, And they will enforce it to set examples. Just like in a lot of the country, being in posession of a marijuana seed is still a felony. With a hefty sentence attached.

    13. Re:Block on by mark-t · · Score: 1

      I'm suggesting that they wouldn't even necessarily have any reason to *know* that transmitted network packet was encrypted. Maybe its content was simply in a language that they don't happen to know... maybe it's actually steganographically encrypted (and fully indistinguishable to anyone who did not already know exactly what encryption technology was being used from a completely innocuous and unencrypted packet).

      Even if they made it illegal to communicate on the internet using anything but 7-bit ascii and plain english, the steganography approach would remain open, and completely uncatchable unless, as I said above, the people sending or receiving snitched on themselves.

    14. Re:Block on by Highdude702 · · Score: 1

      They could easily setup a filter to catch all known, and some suspicious packet types.. If they want to take it that far, believe me they will be able to enforce it. Packets are real easy to detect data type, Have you ever played with wireshark? You should check it out, its amazing the difference between clear text and encrypted packets.. But the fact of the matter is, if they outlaw encryption... we have bigger issues than NN. Don't fall into the category of "the sky is falling" we went the whole existence of the internet until 2015. And it was great! well, it started to suck once myspace became a thing... and facebook and twitter are not helping. I want the pre 2000's internet back... Even if I have to live with 1mbit internet and thats honest opinion right there... Mind you my hobby is computers and networks... Gigabit internet sounds great, but not if it keeps going along the path of the internet today.

    15. Re:Block on by mark-t · · Score: 1

      I'm going to assume from your remark that you don't know what steganographic encryption is, because if you did, you would realize that no amount of packet inspection on a packet so encrypted by a party that doesn't already know exactly what encryption is being used, and the algorithm employed will make it apparent that the contents of that packet are actually even encrypted in the first place, and not whatever innocuous content that the sender wished it to look like. This can, of course, be further layered inside of whatever protocols are ordinary for the communication, being completely indistinguishable to *EVERYBODY* other than the sending and receiving party from content they would have no evidence-supported reason to suspect of being completely innocuous.

    16. Re:Block on by Highdude702 · · Score: 1

      Oh, i know what it is, I didnt acknowledge it because its not feasible for wide scale encryption on a network. and has a lot of overhead. It may work for a few pages of words.. but thats going to be about it.... try transferring anything worth a meaning that way and see how its not viable. Also the government has some REALLY good hackers on contract. If they want you, they will get you.. That being said, I see the end of encryption being the beginning of a civil war. I am against NN, but I am for Encryption. Our lives as we know it would halt without it. Almost as much as if we had no internet at all..

    17. Re:Block on by mark-t · · Score: 1

      You presume that the sender and receiver are unwilling to pay the overhead for using such encryption. If they want to keep a secret badly enough, it's a safe bet that they will, especially if that is the only option remaining to them that still guarantees unbreakability.

    18. Re:Block on by Highdude702 · · Score: 1

      Yes you're correct, it comes back to ONLY criminals will use encryption, so the law abiding citizens will just have their data stolen and MITM bank attacks and wot not. Sounds wonderful. I can't wait!

    19. Re:Block on by mark-t · · Score: 1

      Leaving aside the speciousness of the issue that only criminals might want to use such a sophisticated encryption, this is entirely independent of whether or not law abiding citizens have any justified use for unbreakable encryption that the other parties may be able to detect (but not decrypt), because obviously they do. My point is only that preventing unbreakable encryption is inherently impossible to be actually enforceable in cases where such encryption may be truly desired by the end users.

      And, as you say, passing laws which outlaw unbreakable encryption puts law-abiding citizens at risk from their private information being obtained by nefarious parties, but worse, it does absolutely *NOTHING* to actually stop or help catch the criminals who are intent on actually breaking the law. This results in a net increase in the amount of work that law enforcement needs to do in order to mitigate harm to law-abiding citizens in this way, and more than likely represents a net decrease in the overall efficacy of law enforcement as the criminals they might have otherwise been hoping to catch continue to remain uncaught before they commit serious crimes, causing often completely irreparable harm.

    20. Re:Block on by Highdude702 · · Score: 1

      I agree with what you're saying. I was just pointing out from what i know personally, the governments length of reach in this situation. I for one will vote against any kind of encryption ban, not as a criminal as somebody that wants to keep my systems secure. But every american these days unwittingly uses encryption in their every day life. Most of the world to be honest. If unbreakable encryption is outlawed. It will be a field day for criminals, atleast once the master keys get spread around. but as we both agree the government wont know they're out because the same criminals would use unbreakable(so to say) encryption to share the information. I highly doubt we really need to worry about that anyways, I cant see that even coming close to making it into a law.

  6. Re: Appcast should block LUDDITE software! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Ok, but seriously. This will end up in cat/mouse, and the mouse will always get away. There is more incentive to share/steal/whatever-you-call-it than there will be to block it. Soon, all of these connections will be done over HTTPS, and mask all the traffic anyway.

  7. Re: Appcast should block LUDDITE software! by saloomy · · Score: 1

    You donâ(TM)t need HTTPS, any random port and self-signed certs using public key cryptography will work.

    Iâ(TM)m actually glad they go after this than something worse like mandating all CPUs only run pre-approved code, with engineering CPUs licensed by these ass-hats. With encryption and tools like VPN, we can always solve this.

  8. BitTorrent vs. Guns by jmcbain · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Serious question here. What's the difference between these arguments?
    1. You shouldn't ban BitTorrent. It's just a protocol. Just because some people use it to steal digital content doesn't mean BitTorrent is inherently bad.
    2. You shouldn't ban guns. It's just a device. Just because some people use it to kill innocents doesn't mean guns are inherently bad.

    1. Re:BitTorrent vs. Guns by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Really?

      I would assume Comcast bans guns on its property (as many companies do). It's perfectly legal and it's commonly done.

    2. Re:BitTorrent vs. Guns by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

      There you go again, using logic with Republicans. They very strongly believe in one thing, until they don't. It's the same with Federal power vs State's rights. The GOP takes both sides of that argument depending on the issue.

    3. Re:BitTorrent vs. Guns by Frosty+Piss · · Score: 2

      Serious question here. What's the difference between these arguments?
      1. You shouldn't ban BitTorrent. It's just a protocol. Just because some people use it to steal digital content doesn't mean BitTorrent is inherently bad.
      2. You shouldn't ban guns. It's just a device. Just because some people use it to kill innocents doesn't mean guns are inherently bad.

      BitTorrent doesn't commit robberies and homicides.

      --
      If you want news from today, you have to come back tomorrow.
    4. Re:BitTorrent vs. Guns by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Well,

      If you are a lunatic using BitTorrent it's unlikely that is going to kill me.

      If you are a lunatic with a gun it's much more likely.

      As many recent and not so recent events have shown. In the USA and elsewhere.

      By the way, there is no such thing as "stealing" digital content.

    5. Re:BitTorrent vs. Guns by diamondmagic · · Score: 2

      Who shouldn't ban guns/BitTorrent? It's OK for a store to say "no guns on my property", it's not OK for the government to say "you can't own a gun on your property". An employer can say "no torrents on my network", a common carrier or the government cannot say "no torrenting on your network."

      In any event, the FCC's 2015 Open Internet Order specifically says it only applies to "legal" content, so this argument is misleading.

    6. Re:BitTorrent vs. Guns by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      BitTorrent doesn't commit robberies and homicides.

      List I checked, neither do guns.

    7. Re:BitTorrent vs. Guns by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Neither do guns.

    8. Re:BitTorrent vs. Guns by PopeRatzo · · Score: 0

      Serious question here. What's the difference between these arguments?
      1. You shouldn't ban BitTorrent. It's just a protocol. Just because some people use it to steal digital content doesn't mean BitTorrent is inherently bad.
      2. You shouldn't ban guns. It's just a device. Just because some people use it to kill innocents doesn't mean guns are inherently bad.

      Well, that's easy. The first results in people downloading movies and television shows.

      The second results in thousands and thousands of dead people every year. I would say that's a pretty substantial difference.

      --
      You are welcome on my lawn.
    9. Re:BitTorrent vs. Guns by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      False equivalence. Bittorrent has no possibility of making a person's head explode - the stakes are much higher with guns.

      You might as well use this same argument for allowing anything, and beyond the slightly pornographic fever dreams of only the most rabid libertarian, I doubt that would make for a just or humane society.

    10. Re: BitTorrent vs. Guns by lucasnate1 · · Score: 1

      Bittorrent does not kill people.

    11. Re: BitTorrent vs. Guns by GWXerog · · Score: 1

      I believe both of those arguments. The only people who don't are paid shills

    12. Re:BitTorrent vs. Guns by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I see no difference in these statements - both guns and bittorrent should be legal.

    13. Re: BitTorrent vs. Guns by GWXerog · · Score: 1

      Neither do guns. People kill people. Just like people pirate content

    14. Re:BitTorrent vs. Guns by king+neckbeard · · Score: 2

      Except torrents ARE legal content, and you can't trivially separate infringing torrents from non-infringing torrents. It's a moot point, because if you try to ban torrents, your head will be fucking caved in.

      --
      This is my signature. There are many like it, but this one is mine.
    15. Re:BitTorrent vs. Guns by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

      For example, I use Resilio to sync *MY* files between computers. It uses the bittorrent software.

    16. Re:BitTorrent vs. Guns by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Negative consequences for one results in dubious claims of lost profit for huge corporations that refuse to offer compelling legal alternatives. Negative consequences for the other results in innocent people getting killed.

    17. Re:BitTorrent vs. Guns by fustakrakich · · Score: 1

      Guess you shouldn't ban nuclear bombs either.

      Even a VCR is far more dangerous than bittorrent. You can bonk somebody on the head with the VCR, and use it for illegal copying.

      --
      “He’s not deformed, he’s just drunk!”
    18. Re:BitTorrent vs. Guns by Baron_Yam · · Score: 1

      Both have legitimate uses and both are force multipliers used to break the law more effectively, so there's no difference there.

      However, the laws broken with them ARE different. BitTorrent makes it easier to share or copy material when you do not have the legal right to do so. Firearms make it easier to kill greater numbers of people, and more rapidly, before you can be stopped.

      Society could do with a little less intellectual property protection (such protection has been expanded so far it no longer serves its purpose - which was originally to enrich society, not just the owner!), and more gun control. NOT confiscation, mind you. And no, I really don't trust the government not to say they're implementing gun control and not switch to confiscation as soon as they can get away with it. That's a problem.

      However, there's nothing wrong with saying there's no legitimate civilian use for a weapon that fires more than [x] rounds per minute or a magazine that holds more the [y] rounds. If you're hunting or going for target practice... you don't need a lead hose. High capacity or high rate of fire weapons are treasured for the capacity to kill people.

      Great, you say, because that's for keeping the government in check. I have bad news for you - the USA has a pretty strong military (and for domestic purposes the police and reserves aren't far behind) and you and your buddies don't frighten them one bit huddling in a survivalist camp stroking your firearms erotically. The only reason those nuts manage to hold off the cops is if they have hostages (unarmed family in their camps) and because the police are reluctant to simply kill them all. But make no mistake - it's a one-sided battle if it comes to that.

      The ready availability of guns in the USA favors the criminal element far more strongly than the 'prepared concealed carrier hero' - if guns were significantly more difficult to obtain, and if the culture was more about responsible ownership than machismo, there'd be less opportunity for those heroes in the first place.

      I'm not saying those guns aren't valuable just for fun (I've fired some myself back in the day), I'm saying the fun isn't worth the cost to society.

    19. Re:BitTorrent vs. Guns by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Republicans can make big corporate donor money if they allow blocking non-megacorporate things on the internet, whereas blocking guns costs them money? *Ding ding ding*?

    20. Re:BitTorrent vs. Guns by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Wrong argument. You are anthropomorphizing the guns.

      BitTorrent cannot harm anyone permanently in any way and certainly cannot be used to take a person's life. BitTorrent is a tool that is *used* to move data around and to "store" that data in a distributed way.

      Guns are a tool *used* both to protect and to harm.

      In both cases it is the actor or user that determines the merit of that tools' use. Their impact on society is very different though. It is the larger impacts that legislation or bans are meant to deal with. If people could handle both responsibly there would be no need to regulate or ban anything.

      At the heart of both problems is the fact that people are unable to use their tools with the appropriate responsibility and care. The other problem is the uneven involvement of large lobbies that perverts the conversation. Have fun trying to solve either of those problems...

    21. Re: BitTorrent vs. Guns by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Well, at least until fully cloud controlled IoT pacemakers and insulin pumps becomes the norm and no one bothers to QoS the traffic.

      BitTorrent vs Guns is a bad comparison: one is a protocol for asynchronous/decentralized file/data transfer and the other is a tool for transmitting projectiles (sometimes in mass quantities) at high speed. The former can be disruptive to networks and I certain believe it should be subjected to QoS management for benefit of VoIP, video, gaming, and the possibilities of the IoT that I mentioned in my snarkiness above. For the latter, guns (firearms) can be used for self-defense (both people and wildlife) and hunting (a bullet, a good aim, and some cleanup work can put meat on the table in rural/wilderness areas for less than a trip to the butcher); however, the same property that makes it useful for self-defense and hunting also makes them extremely dangerous for misuse and carelessness.

      My opinion is that network neutrality should exists, but not necessarily in the form of Title II. In lieu of that, I wouldn't mind 15-20 fully independent, actually competitive providers available in every area including last mile (where market forces would essentially allow people to vote with their wallet; of course, we know the chances of that).

    22. Re:BitTorrent vs. Guns by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Flamebait

      Whereas democrats only believe what the television told them that night.

    23. Re:BitTorrent vs. Guns by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      BitTorrent is designed share information. Some of it will be legal, some not, but its primary function (moving large amounts of data) is ethically neutral. You can crack down on illegal bittorrent sharing without cracking down on legal use.

      Guns are designed to kill things, that's their primary function. Guns are more likely to kill their owners than protect them. When a gun kills someone it is forfilling its main function. Guns are not ethically neutral, they are designed to kill.

    24. Re: BitTorrent vs. Guns by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Guns make it point-n-click easy to kill people. Many many more people die because of how easy guns make it to murder. One person with a gun can kill dozens, which normally is not possible (unless you have a bomb or nerve gas or other mass destruction weapon).

      BitTorrent just helps people share files. Even if all bittorrent traffic were illegal (which it is not) the cost to humanity would be virtually zero. Guns, on the other hand, facilitate the killing of thousands every year, making them an obvious danger to virtually everyone on a life or death level.

      Hmm, capcha: Imagine

    25. Re:BitTorrent vs. Guns by ilsaloving · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Except that's not the what the arguments are.

      A more accurate version would be:
      1. You shouldn't ban guns. It's just a device. Just because some people use it to kill innocents doesn't mean guns are inherently bad.
      2. You shouldn't deregulate the ENTIRE INTERNET just because you don't want a few people to pirate with bittorrent.

      Because that's what his proposed changes will do. Sure, he will get his wish and allow ISPs to arbitrarily block bittorrent. But only a truly naive and ignorant person would think that that would be the extent of it.

      Giving the major ISPs the ability to control whatever strikes their fancy would give them the ability to go godfather on the internet. You want people to be able to access your site/service at a reasonable speed/at all? Better pay a fee. Both you AND the end user. Why? Cause fuck you we can, that's why. They will be able to hold literally every internet facing small business over a barrel. Gee, that's a nice business you got there. Would be a shame if people couldn't get to it any more.

      Not only that, but free speech goes right out the window cause they would be able to arbitrarily block whatever strikes their fancy. They've already demonstrated in the past that they would happily do so before NN provisions were in place. If you think it's bad enough that Twitter or Facebook or Reddit arbitrarily censors users, imagine companies that have absolutely nothing to do with those services doing the same thing. It's like a mailman denying your ability to receive mail from a particular business cause they happen to not like that business.

      The internet has basically become a utility so critical that it's almost impossible to go without, so the ISPs will be able to jack up rates because they know you have no choice but to pay or lose access to a massive variety of services that no longer even have physical equivalents anymore. Imagine having to pay an extra electricity surcharge because you want to hang neon decorations from your window? Imagine having to pay extra gas surcharges because your basic package only allows you go to work and buy groceries, but you want to take your kids to the local amusement park? That's the ridiculous situation you are risking with your internet connectivity without Net Neutrality.

    26. Re:BitTorrent vs. Guns by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      What they both have in common is that they are arguments made by ideologues who would prefer to ignore real world outcomes and would like to stymie any discussion of pragmatic steps that may lead to less copyright infringement in case one and fewer deaths in case two. They differ immensely, of course, because one of them is implicitly linked with matters of ownership and wealth, while the other is linked with human safety.

      It should also be noted that both are essentially strawmen, because nobody is calling for a ban of BitTorrent (this is about whether or not ISPs can block it) and most people are not calling for a ban on guns (many, myself including, would like to see the federal government have stronger regulatory powers for things like stricter and more pervasive background checks, longer waiting periods, forcing manufacturers to develop and use "smart" technologies, allowing class-action suits against gun makers, etc, etc).

    27. Re:BitTorrent vs. Guns by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      ... doesn't mean guns are inherently bad.

      Great straw-man argument; no-one ever claimed guns were evil. Ever heard "Guns don't kill people, people kill people"?

      Guns need to be banned for the same reason pouring toxic sludge into a river needs to be banned: The damage caused to society, is unacceptable. American society can't ban all guns, like the UK and Australia, so some way of controlling them is needed. While the second amendment isn't absolute, it allows too much leeway in current US culture, so it needs to be removed as a right for all citizens.

    28. Re:BitTorrent vs. Guns by tepples · · Score: 2

      Packets are unlike guns in that while people who carry guns legitimately usually don't have to carry their guns across Comcast property in order to get to work on time, people who telecommute and live in Comcast territory do have to carry their packets across Comcast property in order to get to work on time.

    29. Re:BitTorrent vs. Guns by pots · · Score: 1

      Well that's something to consider, let's see. The argument for restricting guns is usually something like: "having a lot of dangerous things all over the place is dangerous." So for bittorrent... having a lot of bittorrents all over is dangerous? (in a non-physical sense?)

      From Comcast's perspective the problem with bittorrent isn't copyright (or at least it wasn't back in 2008 before Comcast bought NBC), Comcast's problem with bittorrent is network congestion. And if we equate a congested network with people who are dead from bullet wounds... there are some reasonable parallels there. It's not the majority of bittorrent users (majority of gun owners) who are the problem, it's the small number of abusers who ruin it for everyone. But, having a lot of people with guns (having a lot bittorrent users) increases the ease and speed with which a person can kill another (become an abuser) and increases the chances that a suicidal person will kill themselves successfully in their moment of weakness (I'm not sure that there's a parallel to suicide).

      Of course, one big difference is that bittorrent is such a problem for Comcast because their infrastructure is set up for asynchronous communication. This is a solvable problem, albeit one which would cost a lot of money. There's no similar solution for guns. On the other hand, the argument in favor of bittorrent has never been: "bittorrent should be restricted over a reasonable time period while ISPs update their infrastructure, and then those restrictions removed." The argument in favor of bittorrent has pretty much always been that it should be unrestricted right now.

    30. Re:BitTorrent vs. Guns by CaptainDork · · Score: 1, Insightful

      One is addressed in the US Constitution?

      --
      It little behooves the best of us to comment on the rest of us.
    31. Re:BitTorrent vs. Guns by XSportSeeker · · Score: 1, Flamebait

      For starters, guns only have one purpose. It's a tool for killing. Doesn't matter if some people see it as self defense, the only real purpose the tool has is to shoot lead at fast speeds to hurt or kill the target.

      Torrent is a platform for peer to peer data transfer. Like said, lots of people use for piracy, but a whole ton of people use it for legitimate purposes. Most services offering big files, specially on the open source community, will provide a torrent link.

      If you wanna make the analogy, it's probably closer to something like bots on social networks or mass mail... it might be used majorly for spam, but there are some legitimate uses that cannot and should not be blocked indiscriminately.

    32. Re:BitTorrent vs. Guns by gweihir · · Score: 1

      Simple:

      1. Copyright infringement is something that is possible with a lot of other protocols just as simply and it can be rectified financially if somebody overdoes it.

      2. Guns are a massive death-toll amplifier. Try to kill a lot of people with a knife, for example, and see how well that goes. Also, dead is dead and there is no way to fix that after the fact.

      --
      Most ACs are not even worth the keystrokes to insult them. Be generically insulted by this and ignored otherwise.
    33. Re:BitTorrent vs. Guns by thegarbz · · Score: 1

      To be clear are you comparing copyright violation to mass murder? I mean when we're looking at worst case scenarios for which we enact legislation in a sensible world it would make sense to go after the thing that kills millions of Americans.

      Would it kill you (pun intended) to have a bit of consistency in the way you regulate your country?

    34. Re:BitTorrent vs. Guns by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Killing is inherently bad. Sharing data is not.

    35. Re:BitTorrent vs. Guns by yodleboy · · Score: 1

      "kills millions of Americans"
       
        over how many decades? When you subtract suicides and gang bangers gang banging, the number of firearms deaths in a year are negligible. And before you say something about if they didn't have a gun they wouldn't have committed suicide, see Japan. Virtually impossible to own guns, highest suicide rates in developed world. Unless you are suicidal or regularly sell drugs in bad neighborhoods, your chances of getting killed by a firearm are significantly less than dying of lightning, fire or auto accident. More guns than people in the US and yet somehow, we're not all getting shot. Take a look south of the border where Mexicans are dying left and right at a rate that makes ours look like a non event.

    36. Re:BitTorrent vs. Guns by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Serious question here. What's the difference between these arguments?
      1. You shouldn't ban BitTorrent. It's just a protocol. Just because some people use it to steal digital content doesn't mean BitTorrent is inherently bad.
      2. You shouldn't ban guns. It's just a device. Just because some people use it to kill innocents doesn't mean guns are inherently bad.

      One key difference is that "killing innocent people" is wrong where "stealing digital content" (more accurately: "copyright infringement") is not.

    37. Re:BitTorrent vs. Guns by sims+2 · · Score: 1

      It wasn't blocked because of piracy concerns it was blocked because it was their largest consumer of bandwidth by far.

      Netflix has long since taken that crown....oh wait they made them pay to upgrade their peering.

      Funny coincidence there ain't it?

      If they had gotten away with blocking BT they would have just blocked netflix outright too.

      --
      Minimum threshold fixed. Thanks!
    38. Re: BitTorrent vs. Guns by hackwrench · · Score: 1

      Reread the 10th amendment.

    39. Re: BitTorrent vs. Guns by hackwrench · · Score: 1

      Danger and cost are different things.

    40. Re:BitTorrent vs. Guns by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      One is part of the White nationalist right wing agenda and the other is allowing people to share which means communism.

    41. Re:BitTorrent vs. Guns by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      That's a different kind of problem - lack of competition on ISP market. Should be resolved with removal of regulations to make it easier for ISPs to open. Some will be blocking packets and guns, some won't. People will decide which ones will be more profitable.

      Nationalization (full as in state ownership/management or partial as in state dictating which packets must be allowed and at what rate) isn't solution.

    42. Re:BitTorrent vs. Guns by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Gun carriers cross Confast property every second. They just don't become "entangled".

    43. Re:BitTorrent vs. Guns by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      People kill people & commit robberies ... especially so Neolith Bantu ... while guns do not commit robberies . Guns like most tools are created by white folks and whites commit proportionately few murders.

    44. Re:BitTorrent vs. Guns by eco2geek · · Score: 1

      Guns are tools made to kill. BitTorrent isn't.

      What a stupid question.

    45. Re:BitTorrent vs. Guns by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      There you go again. Blaming Republicans for your worries. Not all Republicans want to ban net neutrality, just like not all Democrats want to ban net neutrality. What you have here.. is money. Simple, direct, to the point this is about money and who is lining who's pockets. Ban lobbyists, then replace all of the senate and the congress and start over. Make it illegal for any member of the executive, legislative or judicial branch to accept money beyond their paycheck. I live with this it work and it's part of the ethics training.

      Then we might have a chance to have a government that is corporate-greed free.

      Peace.

    46. Re:BitTorrent vs. Guns by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      People kill people & commit robberies ... especially so Neolith Bantu ... while guns do not commit robberies . Guns like most tools are created by white folks and whites commit proportionately few murders.

      Just what you would expect for anyone who are not níggers. Asians commit very few crimes as well, compared to níggers.

    47. Re:BitTorrent vs. Guns by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Sigh. The dig is against republicans who want to ban BitTorrent but not guns.

    48. Re:BitTorrent vs. Guns by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Or... maybe its just a category error to conflate the two things.

      I've been convinced that we need far, far stronger gun control in the US because of a lot of epidemiological research that I have no interest in arguing about here. But I do not think there should be any limits on the bittorrent protocol (or any protocol for that matter). And I don't see a contradiction because dying is 10000000x worse than failing to make money on a digital good. The difference is so stark that comparing the two isn't just apples and oranges, its bullets and comedy.

    49. Re:BitTorrent vs. Guns by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      > One is addressed in the US Constitution?

      Both are in the bill of rights:

      Bittorrent (and any other method of communication) is a 1st amendment issue
      Guns are a 2nd amendment issue

    50. Re:BitTorrent vs. Guns by swillden · · Score: 2

      There you go again, using logic with people. They very strongly believe in one thing, until they don't.

      --
      Note to ACs: I usually delete AC replies without reading them. If you want to talk to me, log in.
    51. Re:BitTorrent vs. Guns by UnknownSoldier · · Score: 1

      More people die to automobiles then guns. /sarcasm Ban automobiles in the name of safety!

      Banning a (common) tool just because a few idiots mis-use it is idiotic. i.e. My use case is not your use case.

    52. Re:BitTorrent vs. Guns by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You're an idiot. Some news article saying Pai is possibly going to block bittorrent doesn't make it a Republican position by any means. It's people like you constantly being duped into being partisan, so the people with money can get away with stomping all over us.

      As someone else might have said, let them see to try to take away our guns. Another might say, let them see them try to ban a protocol. It's pretty much impossible.

      So go and be hyper-partisan for no good reason about people that love freedom. When you go vote for a dem that says, "I'll pass net neutrality...I'll make it law" and then the government makes all the rules on who wins and looses, then you find out that they wrote into the law the people with money can run the net how they want, you'd feel awfully duped about believing in these thugs actually doing something they say, but instead of standing on principles, they write a 400 page law that defines whatever they wanted, and keep voting themselves in and giving themselves more money, all the while controlling the media on how all so great they are for protecting your rights. So keep believing the media, and keep attacking your fellow freedom lovers.

    53. Re:BitTorrent vs. Guns by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I'll give it a shot. Most people use guns for legitimate, legal reasons, but there are obvious exceptions. Plus, ownership of guns in the US of A is constitutionally protected.

      OTOH, most people use torrents for piracy. While a lot of people consider that a legitmate use, the law generally doesn't, and there's no constitutional protection for a using a protocol.

    54. Re:BitTorrent vs. Guns by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Your argument was good until you used the word "erotically". With that one stroke you proved yourself to be a self-entitled douchebag. Just saying...

    55. Re:BitTorrent vs. Guns by luther349 · · Score: 1

      Comcast wants to charge you 200$ a month to check your email.they hate people use that 100mbs to download things.

    56. Re:BitTorrent vs. Guns by PopeRatzo · · Score: 1

      Sigh. The dig is against republicans who want to ban BitTorrent but not guns.

      Clearly. The word "innocents" is the giveaway. To Republicans, the only "innocents" are unborn fetuses and pedophiles.

      --
      You are welcome on my lawn.
    57. Re:BitTorrent vs. Guns by lucm · · Score: 1

      The internet has basically become a utility so critical that it's almost impossible to go without, so the ISPs will be able to jack up rates because they know you have no choice but to pay or lose access to a massive variety of services that no longer even have physical equivalents anymore.

      The problem with this is that net neutrality removes a big incentive for the ISP to build and improve their network. It's just like what happened in Venezuela when the government forced stores to sell flat screen TV for $50 so the poors could get nice TV; what do you think happened, most TV manufacturers went bankrupt or simply stopped selling their stuff in Venezuela. Now you can find some $50 TV if you wait in line but they're total shit. That's the internet with net neutrality, an expensive network that nobody wants to pay for.

      I think there's some kind of middle ground here that nobody seems interested to look into. Black and white, as usual.

      --
      lucm, indeed.
    58. Re:BitTorrent vs. Guns by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      1. Jesus had long hair and cared for the needy and ill
      2. Cut your hair, get a job, no healthcare freeloaders

    59. Re:BitTorrent vs. Guns by duke_cheetah2003 · · Score: 3, Informative

      The problem with this is that net neutrality removes a big incentive for the ISP to build and improve their network.

      Na, it doesn't. The big guys just want you to think that. They created this artificial situation Ajit Pai points to. Of course they held back deployment since NN. What better way to prove to the regulators that it's harming them. Total BS. This deal was sealed and paid for a long time ago, just pushing the papers around.

    60. Re:BitTorrent vs. Guns by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Except the Internet is virtually free for an ISP of any decent size. Really, it's about 1% of your bill. The other 99% is a mix of tech support, sales, and marketing. Talked to the network manager at my local ISP. I asked them if they had any plans of getting Netflix open connect (local CDN). They said they were not interested. He told me that bandwidth is so cheap, he couldn't care if everyone was streaming multiple 20Mb 4k videos and using 100% of their bandwidth during peak hours. Their trunk is is about 85% idle during peak hours. They keep enough bandwidth provisioned on their trunk to handle the occasional DDOS so customer's aren't affected. $49/m+tax for a business point-to-point self-healing passive fiber and pings to Chicago game servers that compete with the USB polling delay.

      They advertise using at least their $80 250/250 package if you want to host your own web-site, and will happily sell you a static /29 for $10/m. They openly advertise "dedicated guaranteed bandwidth". In the fine print, they say you should never experience any latency or loss because of their network or their connection to their upstream provider. They don't oversubscribe their internal network at all. "All customers will have access to all of their bandwidth at all times in all theoretically possible cases"

    61. Re:BitTorrent vs. Guns by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      This argument is BS.
      There has been no change in investment for periods pre or post NN regulation.

    62. Re:BitTorrent vs. Guns by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Of course the real fallacy of banning guns is the belief that laws would stop the criminally insane. The law abiding citizens are not the problem. Likewise with bittorrent. There are many valid uses for bittorrent in the distribution of software and media. But by all means, lets give ISPs the power of banning it if their stock holders think its bad. The protocol will just morph into something indistinguishable from normal allowed traffic and be slightly less effecient in its operation ... which will be offset by increased network speeds. The only real answer appears to be to stop producing digital media. That or turn off the internet.

    63. Re:BitTorrent vs. Guns by Altrag · · Score: 1

      Comcast's problem with bittorrent is network congestion

      Comcast's problem with bittorrent is that they don't control it or profit from it. Generalized traffic shaping wasn't banned under the previous NN rules. They banned shaping specific traffic based on non-technical reasons such as "Google paid me extra to make Youtube go faster than Dailymotion."

    64. Re:BitTorrent vs. Guns by Altrag · · Score: 1

      For suicides specifically.. as with other gun violence, the point isn't that these things would be stopped. The point is that they'd be less deadly when they occurred. That is, suicide attempts may remain constant (or even go up due to more possibility for second and third attempts..) but suicide rates would be lower.

      Japan and other East Asian countries tend to be a bad comparison because they have other social reasons for their high suicide rates. Better to compare the US to the likes of Canada, Australia or Western Europe. Of course the gun nuts don't want to do that because comparing culturally similar countries tends to show the opposite of what they want to "prove."

    65. Re:BitTorrent vs. Guns by Altrag · · Score: 1

      Name a use case for a gun that doesn't involve:
      a) Harming a person,
      b) Harming an animal, or
      c) Destroying a target.

      A gun's only purpose is to do damage. It has zero other use cases once you abstract away the thing you're doing damage to. There are few other devices or tools in existence that can make that claim.

      Of those three use cases, (b) is the only one with any validity as a productive use -- and even then, only if you're hunting for actual food rather than just because you like watching things die.

    66. Re:BitTorrent vs. Guns by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      "BitTorrent doesn't commit robberies and homicides."

      No, it does something far worse.
      It threatens the wealth of the 1%.
      Laws are to protect billionaires and their offspring. Fuck the poor people.

    67. Re:BitTorrent vs. Guns by UnknownSoldier · · Score: 1

      > a) Harming a person,

      So the police / armed guard / army / etc. aren't supposed to use them to shoot back at the people who use them illegally and immorally? Either everyone has the right or no one does.

      > b) Harming an animal, or

      You DO realize that self defense against an animal that wants to kill you is valid, right?

      > A gun's only purpose is to do damage.

      That's an incomplete and myopic POV.

      That is true ONLY when fired. You are selectively looking at the reactive consequences and blindly ignoring the pro-active ones.

      Gun ownership _also_ functions as a prevention tactic. When guns are banned crime goes up because the criminals know that "ordinary" citizens won't fight back.

      Likewise we see the exact opposite. Disarming Realities: As Gun Sales Soar, Gun Crimes Plummet

      Banning guns is a lame attempt to treat the symptom and ignore the cause. You could ban all the guns in the world and it wouldn't make a dam difference. You need to to go the heart and soul of the issue instead of focusing on banning a single tool that is a symptom of a much larger disease.

      That said, do I own an gun? No, because a) I don't need one to kill a person, and b) violence is the final action in a failed relationship -- you've already failed, gun violence is just sealing the deal.

      > There are few other devices or tools in existence that can make that claim.

      That's completely irrelevant to the discussion.

    68. Re:BitTorrent vs. Guns by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      BitTorrent doesn't commit robberies and homicides.

      Huh. Neither does a gun.

    69. Re:BitTorrent vs. Guns by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Let's ask the Venezuelans if they had guns now, would they be OK to use them ONLY for hunting, as you think they should.....

      https://tech.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=11396521&cid=55614093

    70. Re:BitTorrent vs. Guns by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The problem with this is that net neutrality removes a big incentive for the ISP to build and improve their network. It's just like what happened in Venezuela when the government forced stores to sell flat screen TV for $50 so the poors could get nice TV; what do you think happened, most TV manufacturers went bankrupt or simply stopped selling their stuff in Venezuela. Now you can find some $50 TV if you wait in line but they're total shit. That's the internet with net neutrality, an expensive network that nobody wants to pay for.

      I think there's some kind of middle ground here that nobody seems interested to look into. Black and white, as usual.

      There is no middle ground. Ajit Pai wants to sell us that there is a middle ground and therefore no real problem. And your argument on Venezuela has not even the slightest similarity to the NN case. Nobody is going to force a flat fee for all internet access. Every ISP under NN will charge their customers for their customers bandwidth and will use that money to pay for the infrastructure and interconnect deals. That's how it works.

      Without NN ISPs will also be able to charge other ISPs customers for their traffic and I don't like billed twice personally. Especially if it is the 'business protection fee' style.

    71. Re:BitTorrent vs. Guns by thegarbz · · Score: 1

      over how many decades?

      The "it's not that bad" excuse.

      When you subtract suicides

      The let's ignore a part of the statistics excuse

      and gang bangers gang banging

      The lets ignore a large subset of crime award.

      Ding ding ding ding ding. Congratulations. For you 3 out of 3 you have won our prize of the day: "The illogical fucktard defending 'omg meh guns' award"

    72. Re:BitTorrent vs. Guns by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Both are addressed in the constitution, neither with the actual word used commonly today.
      Free communication comes before guns, simply because it was considered more important.

    73. Re:BitTorrent vs. Guns by dave420 · · Score: 1

      BitTorrent wasn't designed to kill.

    74. Re:BitTorrent vs. Guns by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The irony of your post is that you don't seem to understand this argument works both ways. Talk about a filter bubble.

    75. Re:BitTorrent vs. Guns by Mordaximus · · Score: 1

      Serious question here. What's the difference between these arguments?

      1. You shouldn't ban BitTorrent. It's just a protocol. Just because some people use it to steal digital content doesn't mean BitTorrent is inherently bad.

      2. You shouldn't ban guns. It's just a device. Just because some people use it to kill innocents doesn't mean guns are inherently bad.

      In my pre-coffee state, it occurs to me your argument is making a false equivalence.

      BitTorrent is just a protocol. It can be used to transmit copyrighted (not stolen!) material. It can be used to acquire copyrighted material. There are laws against both those actions, therefore there is not need to ban BitTorrent itself. Or to make the argument more tangible, you could transport stolen goods in a van, or sell stolen goods from a van. It doesn't follow that you should ban vans.

      A gun is just a delivery system that delivers bullets. Bullets can be used to kill people. There are already several laws against that. So likewise there should be no need to ban guns. But to me it raises the question: why is there no law limiting the acquisition of bullets? Seems to be that would be far more effective than trying to ban guns, and it would be in the spirit of "Well regulated militia" that people oft gloss over.

    76. Re:BitTorrent vs. Guns by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      tell this to MAFFIIA(muffia?)

    77. Re:BitTorrent vs. Guns by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Have you ever held a real assault rifle, or a $100k hand crafted shotgun and spent days and weeks holding it at all times closely, knowing that it will save your life or fill your dinner table if necessary? That's love at the first sight and at the repeated touch right there.

    78. Re:BitTorrent vs. Guns by kbg · · Score: 1

      That really isn't equal comparision in any way. If you had used cars instead of guns it would maybe have been better argument.

      You see guns are special objects. For most other objects their primary purpose is not directly to kill people, although some can be used in such a way indirectly. Therefore guns are special objects, which are hard to compare to anything else.

      The second problem with that argument is that no one is trying to ban guns entirely. Most people just want to have some serious regulations on their usage and limit what people can get them.

    79. Re:BitTorrent vs. Guns by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Serious question here. What's the difference between these arguments?

      The amount of money and influence the lobbyists have.

      The former is the telco's bribing politicians to say they need to be able to do rent seeking to improve their business model.

      The latter is the NRA saying "yarg, any attempts to control guns and keep them out of the hands of crazy people is teh unconstitutional".

      In this case, the FCC is pretty much ran by someone who is a long term shill for the telcos, and will pretty much give them anything they want.

      Unfortunately Republicans believe that a "free market' is best accomplished with monopolies and regulatory capture. The reality is, they have no interest in "free markets", just maximising corporate profits and imposing morality.

      It's not about logic, it's about enforcing their belief systems.

    80. Re:BitTorrent vs. Guns by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Logic? What a laugh. You libs are so pretentious. If you want to use "logic" then why only focus on guns? Why not mention cars? People get killed by cars. What about hammers, knives, airplanes, rope, pretty much anything that can be used to harm someone?

    81. Re:BitTorrent vs. Guns by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Serious question here. What's the difference between these arguments?
      1. You shouldn't ban BitTorrent. It's just a protocol. Just because some people use it to steal digital content doesn't mean BitTorrent is inherently bad.
      2. You shouldn't ban guns. It's just a device. Just because some people use it to kill innocents doesn't mean guns are inherently bad.

      BitTorrent doesn't commit robberies and homicides.

      Neither do guns.

    82. Re:BitTorrent vs. Guns by coofercat · · Score: 1

      It's not just about copyright infringement - it's also because BitTorrent makes the flow of data stop being "big (american) corp -> you" and makes it into "just about anyone -> you". From your ISPs point of view, that makes upgrading their crappy network harder because they can't just ask BigCorp for some money.

    83. Re: BitTorrent vs. Guns by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      To the copyright industry, the perceived potential loss of a single penny is a far greater tradgedy then the loss of thousands of lives.

    84. Re:BitTorrent vs. Guns by Xyrus · · Score: 1

      Let's ignore the false equivalency you set up for a moment, as that blows your whole argument out of the water.

      BitTorrent was designed to efficiently distribute data. That's what it does. Similar to how electrical grids distribute electricity, or plumbing systems distribute water. Can these be used for ill-intentioned actions? Sure, but that is not their primary function.

      Guns were designed to kill. They fire high speed projectiles in order to cause lethal amounts of damage. It doesn't matter if you're shooting a deer or shooting a human, the purpose is the same: to kill. With great power comes great responsibility, but there's no real responsibility when it comes to who can get this power. I can literally walk into a gun shop and walk out with enough weapons and ammo to take out a small town.

      Both of these are tools, and are not "inherently" good or bad. It's the intention of the user that makes that difference. However, guns are inherently a powerful tool of destruction. Such tools should have regulations in place to keep such powerful tools from falling into the wrong hands, and as can be seen the consequences of not having such regulations in place (or not enforcing them) can have drastic consequences.

      --
      ~X~
    85. Re:BitTorrent vs. Guns by riley · · Score: 1

      Oh look. It's the false equivalence argument. Let's up that... 3. You shouldn't ban nuclear weapons. They are just devices. The fact that they can kill thousands of people doesn't mean they are inherently bad. North Korea _should_ have them as a deterrent. 4. You shouldn't prosecute murder. Some people are bad and _need_ to be removed, and you should never take away someone's rights to protect society,. See how stupid those are? That's because making an equivalence between two things that have absolutely nothing to do with each other is a common and silly tactic used to steer the conversation away from the actual issue and towards making someone defend their position as though it were the other (e.g. making someone against restricting a network protocol defend it as though it were something that could cost hundreds of lives if someone misused it). If you have an argument, make it on it's merits rather than this sort of tripe.

    86. Re:BitTorrent vs. Guns by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You're falling for the trap. Many of us Republicans believe in Net Neutrality. You can see plenty of dissent within even the comments on The_Donald, despite the mods there pushing another story.

      It's the lobbyists who are working to pit us against each other who are doing a divide and conquer on us. Most people believe that providers shouldn't pull this kind of nonsense, the lobbyists are working to split us apart based on R vs. D animosity regarding any possible solutions.

    87. Re:BitTorrent vs. Guns by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      One of those statements is about guns, the other is about BitTorrent.

      Guns are, as stated, devices. Designed with the sole purpose of killing people.

      BitTorrent is, as stated, a protocol. Designed with the sole purpose of enabling decentralized data sharing.

      Seriously, if you see any similarity whatsoever between these things you have some sort of cognitive impairment.

    88. Re: BitTorrent vs. Guns by CaptainDork · · Score: 1

      Didn't see BitTorrent.

      --
      It little behooves the best of us to comment on the rest of us.
    89. Re:BitTorrent vs. Guns by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Exactly. Sadly is a behavior not circumscribed to a particular political party. Nor to a single state, country, geographical region, etc

    90. Re:BitTorrent vs. Guns by yodleboy · · Score: 1

      and you win the award for fucktard that can't understand that actions have consequences. suicide is a conscious choice as is earning your living in a criminal manner. tell me again why the much larger number of non-suicidal and law abiding members of the population should be punished for the actions of these groups? And yes your "millions" comment has no meaning unless it's pointed out that it's over a span of decades. FAR more people die from smoking and auto accidents. Go ahead and tally those numbers up for the same period, I'll wait. Chose any span of years you want. Non gang/drug related homicides by firearm are a mere blip compared to those.

      Have you ever even SEEN a real firearm, in person? Stop demanding your nanny state protections.

    91. Re:BitTorrent vs. Guns by TekBoy · · Score: 1

      There's no difference. I lean Republican and support both of those arguments. Don't take away my tools because other people are stupid. I want guns and net neutrality. Sadly Democrats want me to choose one.

    92. Re:BitTorrent vs. Guns by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      To be clear are you comparing copyright violation to mass murder?

      No need to go that far, single instance is just as comparable.

      I mean when we're looking at worst case scenarios for which we enact legislation in a sensible world it would make sense to go after the thing that kills millions of Americans.

      Tobacco?

      Would it kill you (pun intended) to have a bit of consistency in the way you regulate your country?

      You can go to jail for longer for copyright violations than for homicides.

    93. Re:BitTorrent vs. Guns by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      More people die to automobiles then guns. [investors.com] /sarcasm Ban automobiles in the name of safety!

      Why do idiots like you harp in with bad statistical analysis? Try comparing the amount of exposure to automobiles in use versus firearms instead.

      Banning a (common) tool just because a few idiots mis-use it is idiotic. i.e. My use case is not your use case.

      Regulating a common tool is however, reasonable, responsible, and necessary, but what's that got to do with the price of bacon? You do realize the OP wasn't going the direction you think, right?

      > a) Harming a person,

      So the police / armed guard / army / etc. aren't supposed to use them to shoot back at the people who use them illegally and immorally?

      That's the problem, isn't it? What about when they use them illegally and immorally?

      Either everyone has the right or no one does.

      Nope!

      > b) Harming an animal, or

      You DO realize that self defense against an animal that wants to kill you is valid, right?

      You do realize that very few animals want to kill you, think about killing you, or will bother killing you, in fact, the animals that are most likely to kill a human being are ones against a gun would be very ill-chosen as a tool.

      That's a foolish assertion. What's up with that? Are you trying to make yourself, and by extension, the whole gun-rights brigade look stupid? At least Devil's Advocate as a competent.

      > A gun's only purpose is to do damage.

      That's an incomplete and myopic POV.

      That is true ONLY when fired.

      A gun that can't fire is no use at all. Or a gun that is useful, when not fired, is replaceable with a hunk of carved soap.

      You are selectively looking at the reactive consequences and blindly ignoring the pro-active ones.

      You are being selective as well. What's up with that?

      Gun ownership _also_ functions as a prevention tactic. When guns are banned crime goes up because the criminals know that "ordinary" citizens won't fight back.

      Interesting...

      Likewise we see the exact opposite. Disarming Realities: As Gun Sales Soar, Gun Crimes Plummet

      That you don't cite the other. Just this one. Of course, the problems with that statistical analysis are manifold, but then you've known that since learning about how messed up the Kleck and Gertz survey was.

      Banning guns is a lame attempt to treat the symptom and ignore the cause. You could ban all the guns in the world and it wouldn't make a dam difference.

      Evidence from other countries indicate that's untrue as assertions go.

      You need to to go the heart and soul of the issue instead of focusing on banning a single tool that is a symptom of a much larger disease.

      That said, do I own an gun? No, because a) I don't need one to kill a person, and b) violence is the final action in a failed relationship -- you've already failed, gun violence is just sealing the deal.

      Nope. Violence is never the final action, you shouldn't think that at all. It's merely one step that leads to more things happening.

      > There are few other devices or tools in existence that can make that claim.

      That's completely irrelevant to the discussion.

      Which discussion? You haven't narrowed it down, you're just randomly blathering.

    94. Re:BitTorrent vs. Guns by Agripa · · Score: 1

      The internet has basically become a utility so critical that it's almost impossible to go without, so the ISPs will be able to jack up rates because they know you have no choice but to pay or lose access to a massive variety of services that no longer even have physical equivalents anymore.

      And like driver's licenses or travel by means other than walking, it is the perfect target for control by a hydraulic empire. Why wouldn't the government take advantage of this?

    95. Re:BitTorrent vs. Guns by shutdown+-p+now · · Score: 1

      How many dead people is sufficient?

      Because you could easily make the argument like that regarding strong crypto - if only NSA could intercept everything, who knows how many terrorist attacks would have been prevented?

      In fact, that is exactly the argument that they're making.

    96. Re:BitTorrent vs. Guns by strikethree · · Score: 1

      Seriously?

      The logic is the same for both arguments. The only difference is in the subjects.

      I suspect I must be missing something? Am I supposed to let my opinion on Bit Torrent affect the logical outcome when applied to guns or vice versa?

      I have to be missing something. (That people are not rational?)

      --
      "Someone needs to talk to the tree of liberty about its ghoulish drinking problem." by ohnocitizen
  9. Misleading headline by diamondmagic · · Score: 3, Informative

    How does the article manage to make the jump from "The FCC does not have the statutory authority to manage computer networks" (which is true) to "Ajit Pai wants ISPs to block content" (not true).

    The FCC's own 2015 Open Internet Order says it only applies to "legal" content anyways. Among other things, this excludes most BitTorrent traffic and gambling.

    Title II also contains many compulsory provisions entirely incompatible with Net Neutrality, like censorship of explicit material.

    If you want Net Neutrality, write to your representative and tell them the Internet is a Title I service.

    1. Re:Misleading headline by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      If you want Net Neutrality, write to your representative and tell them the Internet is a Title I service.

      But this hasn't worked up till now. Telling people to just continue to write messages (like the 20 million submitted to the fcc during the comment period) does not seem to be accomplishing anything. Not that I have a better idea, but the thought of just write messages and that will solve it has been proven to be useless on this issue

    2. Re:Misleading headline by diamondmagic · · Score: 1

      That's why I'm saying write your representative, and not the FCC.

    3. Re:Misleading headline by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      But those censorship provisions are the secret reason this issue is being drummed up so much.
      If the politicians had any interest in solving this, they'd do exactly as you say - write a bill to classify as title 1.
      Instead they are secretly salivating at the regulatory power that title 2 gives them, because the absence to of a law is creating problems of its own.
      If they get it under title 2, they'll be allowed to start shutting down opposition, and begin building the great firewall of the United States (you know - to protect us from terrorists. ...and pedophiles too of course. You don't support terrorists and pedophiles, do you?)

      I'm old enough to have seen this story before. Spoiler alert: it doesn't end well.

    4. Re:Misleading headline by vux984 · · Score: 3, Informative

      Why? So you can be ignored by someone else?

      (That was his whole point.)

    5. Re:Misleading headline by diamondmagic · · Score: 1

      Representatives do frequently care about their constituent's concerns, especially if it's a service they provide to constituents, or if you can make a reasoned, non-partisan argument detailing specifics (and not just FUD).

      Do note the average person writing to their representative will be writing about an above-average-controversy, however.

    6. Re:Misleading headline by king+neckbeard · · Score: 1

      But we aren't the constituents. The corporations are.

      --
      This is my signature. There are many like it, but this one is mine.
    7. Re:Misleading headline by Aighearach · · Score: 1

      Your argument seems to be that the FCC doesn't have the authority to do what it already has been doing, even though the Courts consistently said they do have that authority.

      You're repeating a really stupid talking point and just taking it as fact, instead of taking it as ideas, and using the ideas that actually make sense and hold up.

    8. Re:Misleading headline by duke_cheetah2003 · · Score: 1

      Title II also contains many compulsory provisions entirely incompatible with Net Neutrality, like censorship of explicit material.

      Better shut the whole thing off then! But besides that, there's a whole slew of exemptions on Title II's rules when it comes to the internet. They weren't completely stupid when they put the regulations together. Check out the actual regulatory documents. I'm not sure if that's one of them. I'm not so sure what you're implying is even true. I mean, phone sex? Title II originated from telecom. And you can bet your panties phone sex is a big thing and they wanna keep doing their business, so I doubt rules against that would have ever it made into Title II. But, IANAL and all that.

      Look, at the core, the regulations are really not a big deal, I don't understand why this administration is hell bent on tearing them down. They use terms like heavy-handed, and stifling innovation. I mean seriously, how the fuck does rules that basically say 'treat everyone fairly, no fast lanes, no blocking, feel free to do traffic management as needed to provide reliable service.' hinder anything? It's very design is to NOT HINDER, give everyone the same treatment.

    9. Re:Misleading headline by Altrag · · Score: 1

      Its called "rational thinking." Companies exist to make money. ISPs will make more money if they prioritize their own media subsidiaries over external traffic.

      I'm sure Pai doesn't want ISPs to "block" content per se.. he's just completely uncaring if they do so. I mean if you don't like your ISP's network management practices you can always switch to a competitor.. right? Right? Oh except for the fact that there is no competitor in many jurisdictions and for those that do have "competition," its almost always just two options (cable or telephone company) and both are doing the same damned things for the same damned reason -- it makes them more money.

    10. Re:Misleading headline by Altrag · · Score: 1

      Wow. Diamondmagic just wrote this heartfelt, technically accurate and yet completely understandable and reasonable argument for net neutrality!

      But then again, Verizon paid me $100,000. Guess we know which way I'm voting.

    11. Re:Misleading headline by diamondmagic · · Score: 1

      The courts repeatedly struck down the FCC's authority to establish rules. Finally the FCC just gave in and said "screw it, we're now calling the Internet the same as telephone and cable TV so we do have these powers."

      Of course, Title II contains a lot of statuatory rules that are in direct opposition to Net Neutrality, which is why they didn't go this route day 1.

      Also, Information Services and Telecommunication Services are defined in US Statute, not by the FCC, and the Internet is plainly the former.

    12. Re:Misleading headline by diamondmagic · · Score: 1

      ISPs will make more money if they prioritize their own media subsidiaries over external traffic.

      This is covered by existing law.

      Oh except for the fact that there is no competitor in many jurisdictions and for those that do have "competition," its almost always just two options (cable or telephone company) and both are doing the same damned things for the same damned reason -- it makes them more money.

      70% of Americans have two or more choices for wired ISPs that provide over 10Mbps Internet service, more if you include wireless options, which is increasingly popular among many people who use only a mobile phone. Only 10% of Americans have only one choice of ISP at any speed. (Source)

      Pai noted that 2015 was the first non-recession year that Internet investment decreased over the previous year. It doesn't seem unreasonable that TItle II, with it's much greater regulatory requirements (including things like compulsory censorship!) will actually hurt competition more than the alternative.

    13. Re:Misleading headline by diamondmagic · · Score: 1

      Corporations aren't allowed to pay money to representatives. If you've got evidence to the contrary you should submit it to the FEC.

      The FEC does aggregate individual contributions by the individual's employer, but note by this metric Bernie Sanders was one of the biggest recipients of Verizon employee contributions.

    14. Re:Misleading headline by shilly · · Score: 1

      You say "70%" as though it's a good thing and evidence there's not much of a problem. But that figure means that nearly 100 million Americans are stuck with a single wired ISP providing 10Mbps service, or have no options at all. 100 million!

      That is an absurdly shitty situation.

      And of course, 10Mbps is pathetically slow. Let's look at the figures for 25Mbps, which is better but hardly good: for 25Mbps, fully 63% of the US population has only a single wired ISP offering the service, or have no option at all. That translates to more than 200m people!

      If we talk about what actual fast broadband looks like -- 100Mbps, the numbers are much much worse. Almost everyone is limited to just a single option or has no option at all: 92% of the population, 290m+ people.

      You are way too complacent

    15. Re:Misleading headline by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      In this fight, no one I'm aware of is arguing against the free flow of packets. That's a very good thing and needs to be done for obvious reasons.

      The problem really is title II. It classifies the internet the same as the radio. So let's look at some highlights from what radio underwent besides the ongoing enforcement of "decency".

      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fairness_Doctrine
      For 40 years, this bit of administrative law required broadcasters to have equal time for dissenting opinions. Pro-lifer on for 10 min? You need a pro-choicer on for 10 min. Imagine the consequences of that for the huffington post, the drudge report, or climate change websites,

      The bottom line is fighting for title 2 is making the FCC the defacto kings of the internet. Sure, they promised the free flow of packets as their first royal decree, but what's next? They'll have the power of censorship and creating the great firewall of the USA - you sure you want to give them that power? I don't. You sure they wont use it for evil (all in the name of "national security" and fighting terrorists and pedophiles, of course)? I'm not.

    16. Re:Misleading headline by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Read the second link. The proximate cause of the initial regulation was exactly that, so it's quite understandable to assume that by rescinding that regulation Comcast is going to go back to doing what they were doing before they were stopped from doing it.

      However, I think the first time one of the big telecoms does something like this they'll be shooting themselves in the foot. As soon as they start playing this game, tons of special interest groups are going to come out of the woodwork to sue their asses to get certain traffic blocked (for whatever reasons), followed by competing groups suing to block the blocking.

      Only real winners here are the lawyers, as usual.

    17. Re:Misleading headline by doesnothingwell · · Score: 1

      But then again, Verizon paid me $100,000, and they write the bills for me. Guess we know which way I'm voting.

      You forgot a small bit.

      --
      They can have my command prompt when they pry it from my cold dead fingers.
    18. Re:Misleading headline by Aighearach · · Score: 1

      Don't be an asshole, either you're ignorant of the legal cases, or misrepresenting them.

      This is slashdot, don't be too shy to give your real idea, don't worry, if you say something intelligent we'll understand it.

      Feel free to go and look up the history in the SCOTUS before replying. But it is clear from your garbling of all three branches of government and their involvement that you won't.

      Don't just wave your hands and imply that you have an idea, form an idea, and then cough it up.

    19. Re:Misleading headline by Altrag · · Score: 1

      No they can't walk into a senators office with a suitcase of cash anymore. But they can (and absolutely do) contribute massive amounts to PACs and SuperPACs which essentially amounts to the same thing in the end, but is perfectly legal.

      "Oh this $1000 dinner isn't a bribe.. its a campaign contribution! I'm just exercising my company's right to free speech! Oh and by the way you have a cushy 6-figure job as VP of whatever the fuck you want waiting for you after you leave office if you play ball!"

    20. Re:Misleading headline by Altrag · · Score: 1

      This is covered by existing law.

      Yes, the law (well regulation) that Pai is trying to repeal.

      And don't worry, they'll do it cleanly enough to avoid anti-trust legislation as well ("we prioritize anyone who pays us the $100,000 per month +data usage high speed fee! So its not anti-competitive! Yay capitalism!")

      70% of Americans

      So 3 in 10 are shit out of luck. That's not a brilliant start.

      two or more choices

      Yeah. One cable-based provider and one phone-based provider are the only two choices for a large number of people. And both are chomping at the bit to start screwing over the country as soon as possible. Hence this phrase from my prior post: "and both are doing the same damned things".

      Again, why wouldn't they? They don't even need to be colluding.. its in both companies' interests to jack up rates and cut service as much as the regulations allow. As long as they both play the same game, there's no chance of real competition without a third party coming in to upset the game.. and of course the incumbents do everything in their power to prevent that from happening.

      And entrenching a third option isn't sufficient. I mean its better, but after a bit of short-term shakeup, you'll just end up with three providers all stretching regulations as far as possible in order to minimize costs and increase profits. To have a really competitive environment, the system has to allow for the possibility of someone getting pissed off and thinking they could do a better job, and being able to actually attempt doing so. Without that possibility, you tend to end up with an old boys club no matter how many old boys are in it at any particular time.

    21. Re:Misleading headline by diamondmagic · · Score: 1

      Your argument doesn't apply to any other industry, though. And Title I and Title II don't get applied based on how monopolistic the industry is, it's applied based on the type of distribution method it uses, and computer networks like the Internet clearly fall under Title I.

      According to the FCC, Title II decreased investment, so if you're really looking to increase competition for competition's sake, you would support Pai's initiative.

    22. Re:Misleading headline by diamondmagic · · Score: 1

      PACs aren't allowed to give to campaigns either.

  10. Obama giveth, and OrangeTweeter taketh away by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Troll

    Tough break. Elections have consequences.

  11. Re: Good by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    No you aren't. Stop lying.

  12. Makes perfect sense by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    What Comcast et al really want is to hit up content producers for money so that people can access their content. Blocking Bittorrent closes a back channel that would otherwise allow content to reach users with Comcast and friends taking their cut.

  13. Re:Good by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Fuck everyone else, you got yours

  14. Re: Good by hackwrench · · Score: 0

    You stole it first. Property is theft.

  15. Re:Good by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Copyright infringement is not stealing. Educate yourself and come back when you understand the difference.

  16. I think Ajit Pai is wrong by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I want to go back to the legal framework as was under Tom Wheeler.

  17. Malwares are starting to do Port Redirectors by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    You have a point & one I've seen happening in some malware in port redirectors routing communique they used before on "non-std. ports" to COMMONLY USED ONES like Port 80 (reminds me of SOAP in a way).

    APK

    P.S.=> I think your point is that adaptation vs. defenses etc. WILL happen - well, they DO & ARE happening... apk

    1. Re:Malwares are starting to do Port Redirectors by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You have a point & one I've seen happening in some malware in port redirectors routing communique they used before on "non-std. ports" to COMMONLY USED ONES like Port 80 (reminds me of SOAP in a way).

      APK

      P.S.=> I think your point is that adaptation vs. defenses etc. WILL happen - well, they DO & ARE happening... apk

      Eat a nígger dick.

    2. Re: Malwares are starting to do Port Redirectors by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You make a valid piont, sir. Well played.

  18. Re:Good by fazig · · Score: 1
    The last time I checked ISP already have all the rights to block/throttle the distribution of unlawful content. See: https://transition.fcc.gov/Dai... page 49.

    Further, the no-blocking rule adopted today again applies to transmissions of lawful content and does not prevent or restrict a broadband provider from refusing to transmit unlawful material, such as child pornography or copyright-infringing materials.

    So what's up with these claims that the FCC is 'finally' going up against copyright-infringement?

  19. Hahahahaha by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I will be asking my government to protect net neutrality.

    Best was is to force a public vote where by 80% of the population has to be in favour of the change.

    Fortunately at this stage we still have a "government for the people, by the people" rather than one that gives way to big businesses interests over the peoples.

  20. Re: Appcast should block LUDDITE software! by Narcocide · · Score: 2

    Comcast already throttles all encrypted traffic.

  21. What a wart by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Ajit Pai and these corporations lobbying against net neutrality are like a particularly pernicious wart.

  22. Re:Good by mark-t · · Score: 5, Informative

    You know, not all content shared by bittorrent is illegal.

    Every quarter, I get an update email on a software package that I use which is actually distributed via bittorrent, because it lightens the load on the main server when everybody is trying to get the file at about the same time.

  23. can't someone just kill this fucker already? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    why does all of society have to get fucked because of one asshole?

    1. Re:can't someone just kill this fucker already? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      What a fascist idea.

    2. Re:can't someone just kill this fucker already? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      better than one piece of shit ruining something for millions

  24. Re: Appcast should block LUDDITE software! by mikael · · Score: 1

    They will block random ports and unapproved services unless you pay a premium. But WebSockets lets you effectively run a VPN between a server and the client PC. All the individual connections used to download images, video and scripts go through one permanently on and encrypted https connection.

    --
    Vintage computer adverts: http://www.vintageadbrowser.com/computers-and-software-ads
  25. Let this sink in by DeplorableCodeMonkey · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    People are losing their shit because of this, but not Twitter's announcement that they are planning to monitor users' off site behavior and weigh it against whether to let them stay.

    This is why I can no longer get worked up about Net Neutrality. Comcast is not going to throttle small web sites unless they enter into private deals. Twitter, a vocal proponent of Net Neutrality, however, has no problem actively discriminating about who can use their platform.

    So again, the people who like to use this XKCD cartoon can take their argument and shove it up their asses. Net Neutrality is looking more and more like a case of projection (in the psychological sense) by highly censorious people who are attempting a bait and switch that just so happens to line their pockets more.

    1. Re: Let this sink in by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      You do realize you DONT have to use twitter, right?. Nobody is forcing you. But there isn't any completion for ISPs. We are forced to use certain companies. I have 2 choices. My old house I had 1 Choice. ShiT I had more choices in 2000 than I do now in 2017(AOL, EarthLink, compuserve, direct tv dsl). Something's wrong with that picture.

      You know how many Twitter alternatives there are? Get a clue Man.

    2. Re:Let this sink in by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Here's the door: [ ]

    3. Re:Let this sink in by ilsaloving · · Score: 1

      Comcast is not going to throttle small web sites unless they enter into private deals.

      Are you the CEO for Comcast? No? Then don't presume to state what they will and will not do. *Especially* when they already have a track record for pulling dirty tricks.

      Your argument is so breathtakingly absurd it's incredible. So because Twitter censors in ways you don't like, you feel it is completely reasonable to hand the few major ISPs the ability to do the exact same thing, but to the entire internet? Do you know that ISPs have *already* done the very same censoring that you are so upset about, in the past before NN provisions were in place?

      Do you even understand what Net Neutrality is?

      Net Neutrality is looking more and more like a case of projection (in the psychological sense) by highly censorious people who are attempting a bait and switch that just so happens to line their pockets more.

      No, clearly you don't. And based on that statement, you're so far into left field that you're not even wrong.

    4. Re:Let this sink in by phantomfive · · Score: 1

      The problem is you often have no choice in your ISP. If there were a dozen around to choose from, you could choose the one that offered net neutrality, and someone else could choose the one that offered a lower price (in exchange for advertising or something).

      Unfortunately, we don't have that situation. ON the other hand, the obvious solution is to make it easier for ISPs to exist.

      --
      "First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
    5. Re:Let this sink in by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      People are losing their shit because of this, but not Twitter's announcement that they are planning to monitor users' off site behavior and weigh it against whether to let them stay.

      This is why I can no longer get worked up about Net Neutrality. Comcast is not going to throttle small web sites unless they enter into private deals. Twitter, a vocal proponent of Net Neutrality, however, has no problem actively discriminating about who can use their platform.

      So again, the people who like to use this XKCD cartoon can take their argument and shove it up their asses. Net Neutrality is looking more and more like a case of projection (in the psychological sense) by highly censorious people who are attempting a bait and switch that just so happens to line their pockets more.

      You complain about “people” a lot, while not actually offering any insight to which way you stand on common carrier status.

      Is CC something that should ALSO be applied to outfits such as Twitter, or is it something that should be done away with? Somewhere in the middle? Do you actually have a reasoned opinion in the matter or do you just attack “people” straw men like a “deplorable” caricature?

    6. Re:Let this sink in by Altrag · · Score: 1

      Comcast is not going to throttle small web sites unless they enter into private deals

      By what reasoning? All logic suggests that they'd benefit most from a) charging websites to be accessible and b) blocking (or slowing traffic enough that it may as well be) websites that compete against either their own media subsidiaries or their paid "partners."

      Twitter, a vocal proponent of Net Neutrality, however, has no problem actively discriminating about who can use their platform.

      If Twitter blocks you from their platform, you can no longer use Twitter. If Comcast blocks you from their network, you can no longer use any platform. There's a bit of a scale difference in play there.

    7. Re:Let this sink in by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Another option which is presently available: Compete. Meet your neighbors, set up community-based networks (wireless, wired, or whatever works best), and perhaps set up links and routing between these networks. Neutrality might be somewhat of a lost cause, as this would be entirely in the hands of your neighbors, though you could formalize a bit, agree amongst each other how to operate, and, if you think it can be protected against the established powers, establish and fund a non-profit organization to manage the network.

    8. Re:Let this sink in by phantomfive · · Score: 1

      Another option which is presently available: Compete. Meet your neighbors, set up community-based networks (wireless, wired, or whatever works best), and perhaps set up links and routing between these networks

      I've never heard of such a scheme succeeding (other than what I do, which is have an open wifi hotspot). If it worked somewhere, I'd be interested to hear about it.

      --
      "First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
    9. Re: Let this sink in by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You do realize you DONT have to use the ISP throttled plan, right? They will have a full speed plan available. In the same way you can choose 12, 50, or 100MBps today.

      You know the internet existed before 2012, right? Get a clue Man.

    10. Re:Let this sink in by shilly · · Score: 1

      Why do you think that option is available? There are countless stories about existing ISPs shutting down new competitors with the force of law, whether municipal or cooperatives or otherwise.

    11. Re:Let this sink in by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Don't treat it as simply a zero-cost connection to the Internet - If that's all you want, you might as well just buy your connection from the local monopoly, as that will likely be cheaper and less of a hassle. Don't regard an outbound connection to the Internet as a required or primary feature (though some may be inclined to provide it). Assume that, even if just to get started, your network needs to be of value solely by virtue of local services it carries.

      Right upfront, express your concerns accurately and honestly and promote the project as a grassroots effort to establish and maintain a network outside of corporate control. Principal concerns should be email and local messaging, software updates (ideally, with the ability to validate certificates), basic technical skills, audio streaming & broadcast, and providing basic services at minimal or no cost. Whether or not you get to use your network to also troll random Slashdot users and watch cat vids on youtube should be considered side-issues.

      Wifi is not the only connection available:
      Physical ethernet cables between houses you have adjacent properties, or utility pole access, or within apartment buildings if property management allows or is supportive.
      Transmission over spectrum which is essentially unregulated, which is intended for public use, or which a permission or license can be obtained (visible light, microwave links, HAM radio, etc) (though standard wifi equipment is likely your best choice due to its availability). (Or blatant lawbreaking and use of spectrum allocated to someone else if you want to take the risk and give the powers that be an excuse to shut you down)
      If all else fails, write data onto SB drives and visit people in-person to share (as apparently has been done in Cuba).

      Keep in mind, if your concern is being shut down, if you are sufficiently motivated and operating carefully, major ISPs and government are going to have a very hard time regulating away what you and your friends have [informally] agreed amongst each other to do.

  26. Re:Good by boudie2 · · Score: 2

    I might have read your book "I'm Always Complaining But Nobody's Listening". Actually I downloaded it on bit torrent and made copies for all my friends. Most of them said you should have gotten a real job. Sorry.

  27. Deregulation now works both ways by AHuxley · · Score: 0

    What a few existing networks with near monopolies in some regions of the US saw as a law change to offer one less service they had to offer will be the opening to real competition.
    A large telco, ISP might enjoy some short term profit in keeping its prices up and removing services.
    With the new freedom to not support a services comes the freedom for anyone to now enter the ISP marketplace with more services.
    Full support of more networking protocols will set a better quality telco and ISP apart from its low quality competition.
    Deregulation will not allow for monopolies.
    Consumers have the ability to select and pay for new providers that support any service wanted.
    When one provider stops a service, other providers can step up with their own support.
    When one service is block, better brands will rush in to sell their product in that opening in a new and very competitive marketplace.
    Any provider can offer any set of services it wants. A provider can now enter the US market and sell any services it wants.
    If the competition wants to stop a service, other providers can now sell plans that offer that service.
    Net neutrality ensured only a few big telcos could offer networking services to all of the USA. With that need to comply with the US gov setting net neutrality, dynamic new services and products can now enter the US telco market.

    --
    Domestic spying is now "Benign Information Gathering"
    1. Re:Deregulation now works both ways by ilsaloving · · Score: 5, Insightful

      There is so much wrong with this I don't know where to begin, but your argument basically boils down to "the free market will fix it".

      And there is more than ample evidence that that flat out will not happen.

      There are still plenty of areas where there is only one provider, sometimes none. Cities that tried to start their own ISPs were sued and forced to abandon their efforts. There are more than enough dirty tactics employed by the encumbant ISPs to make it incredibly difficult for small ISPs to get off the ground, and eliminating net neutrality will just give the existing ISPs that much more power to crush emerging competition.

    2. Re:Deregulation now works both ways by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      dynamic new services and products can now enter the US telco market.

      Over whose lines?

    3. Re:Deregulation now works both ways by Baron_Yam · · Score: 1

      your argument basically boils down to "the free market will fix it".

      And there is more than ample evidence that that flat out will not happen.

      Like... recent history. Or even the present.

      There are (many) instances in which a free market does not work, and when the free market fails the situation tends to settle into a consumer-abusive equilibrium.

    4. Re:Deregulation now works both ways by AHuxley · · Score: 1

      Re "Cities that tried to start their own ISPs were sued and forced to abandon their efforts. There are more than enough dirty tactics employed by the encumbant ISPs to make it incredibly difficult for small ISPs to get off the ground, and eliminating net neutrality will just give the existing ISPs that much more power to crush emerging competition."

      Big telcos got so greedy in the short term they just lobbied away their very best gov backed laws to block all emerging competition.

      That was the real problem to low cost entry set by big gov regulation. Only a select few established telcos could say they had full "net neutrality" gov compliance and could use that as a way to block new providers.
      With one less artificial regulatory barrier removed the US telco market will become more dynamic. New providers can enter a once restricted and over regulated market.
      Small ISPs will finally able to get off the ground as they will not have to spend big on proving they are following gov regulation.
      Cities can now build a network. Any network to any local standard. A network in the past would have to show support for net neutrality and only a near federally approved monopoly provider could offer that compliance.
      Now anyone can build any type of network within a framework of local laws.

      --
      Domestic spying is now "Benign Information Gathering"
    5. Re:Deregulation now works both ways by AHuxley · · Score: 1

      Given a network does not have to meet expensive federal "net neutrality" standards?
      A walled community, any community with cash, city, group of people can set up their own modern optical "lines".
      No more having to stay on network insulated with paper and protected by lead.

      --
      Domestic spying is now "Benign Information Gathering"
    6. Re:Deregulation now works both ways by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Because the cities wanted to break their own agreements with the cable/phone companies.

      The agreements for right away and who can do what on a pole were made long before the internet was a thing.

      NN will not be more than a blip on the radar. SJWs just want to get riled up because reasons. You know NN was not a thing for a long time, right???

      Also, NN would allow ISPs to control spam and phishing sites but blocking them. Right now they would be in a gray area.. but if an operator could show that a certain IP block is causing 10-15% of their congestion then they could do something about it.

      Lastly, paying your fair share is not a bad idea. Right now advertising just plain sucks.. its inefficient and poorly targeted.

    7. Re:Deregulation now works both ways by Altrag · · Score: 1

      Small ISPs will finally able to get off the ground as they will not have to spend big on proving they are following gov regulation.

      That's hardly a huge cost anyway, so its kind of a non-issue. In fact all the packet inspecting and traffic shaping equipment needed to intentionally break net neutrality tends to be more expensive than the "dumber" equivalents.

      The biggest cost is getting the right-of-ways and laying the fiber. The legal side can take years (and being injuncted every step of the way by the incumbents, making it take even longer) and then the cost of digging up the ground, laying the cables and reconstructing the street/pavement/whatever you dug up for hundreds or thousands of miles.. that adds up fast.

      Cities can now build a network.

      I'm not sure how this follows. It may be one less argument the incumbents can use to block publicly-built networks, but they've got plenty more up their sleeves. In fact I can't think of any of these cases where the deciding factor was NN implementation (though I'm sure I don't know of every such case.) Most of the ones I've seen is either based on the city having a pre-existing agreement from decades ago that explicitly gives the incumbent a monopoly, or an argument based on some vague Ayn Rand-style BS about the government encroaching on the rights of private corporations.

      Now anyone can build any type of network within a framework of local laws.

      If they have a few billion dollars to blow with maybe a return on investment over several decades at best while fighting continual legal battles against the established players.

    8. Re: Deregulation now works both ways by misnohmer · · Score: 1

      Except that they are not proposing complete deregulation. The government continues to protect the Telco's from competition by giving them rights you cannot get as a new company, so even if you wanted to compete with Comcast, they get the right to hang their cables on public utility polls, your new company doesn't. They get easement rights to bury their wires and fibers through public AND private properly rent free, new company doesn't. If it were a true deregulation, the Comcasts of the world would have to negotiate and pay property owners rent for laying cables there. I would offer Comcast the same deal as they offer their customers, low price for 6 months, then back to ever increasing regular rates.

    9. Re:Deregulation now works both ways by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The free market could fix it, if we had one.

      We don't have a free market. We have a market that's heavily distorted by more regulations than you would believe.

      That was true before net neutrality ever came up. It will continue to be true long after no one remembers NN anymore.

    10. Re:Deregulation now works both ways by Agripa · · Score: 1

      There is so much wrong with this I don't know where to begin, but your argument basically boils down to "the free market will fix it".

      And there is more than ample evidence that that flat out will not happen.

      There are still plenty of areas where there is only one provider, sometimes none. Cities that tried to start their own ISPs were sued and forced to abandon their efforts. There are more than enough dirty tactics employed by the encumbrance ISPs to make it incredibly difficult for small ISPs to get off the ground, and eliminating net neutrality will just give the existing ISPs that much more power to crush emerging competition.

      So the free market gets the blame for not existing do to government regulation? That is sure convenient.

  28. Good question by mnmn · · Score: 5, Insightful

    It's actually a good question. Bittorrent and guns are both tools that are enablers for crime. Banning the tool instead of the crime affects legitimate use of the tool by law-abiding citizens.

    Here's the difference:

    The law is supposed to allow as much freedom as is possible, up to a certain extent. It then puts up a wall even for legitimate uses once the chance of damage has gone high enough. You can legalize hand grenades for recreational use too, or how about selling plutonium for educational purposes. Plutonium doesn't kill people, people kill people. But at that point the chance of damage is so high, basically screw it all and ban it, even for legitimate uses.

    This balance was moved with flights where sharp objects and liquids are banned.

    On the flip side, a baseball bat can kill a person, and so can riding a bicycle without a helmet. But at this stage, damage potential is relatively small and personal freedoms are important. Instead of trying to put in a sliding scale for everything (bats of certain sizes, faster bicycles, similar to liquid amounts for flights), it's just better to leave personal freedoms be, because a cyclist falling or an angry person with a bat cannot kill dozens of people.

    This is why knives are legal to own, hand grenades are not, and guns of different sizes/capacities is where that threshold lies. With this argument, I believe assault/automatic rifles, high capacity magazines have been proven to cause excessive damage compared to the rights and personal freedoms of wanting such firearms. This is in contrast to say bolt action hunting rifles with 5 rounds. And certainly illegally downloading movies and music which you most likely would not be paying for anyway (and impact the financial earnings of artists by a small amount), is far far away from this threshold.

    --
    "Give orange me give eat orange me eat orange give me eat orange give me you." -Nim Chimpsky
    1. Re:Good question by Neo-Rio-101 · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Banning the tool instead of the crime affects legitimate use of the tool by law-abiding citizens.

      The difference with guns - especially the assault types obtainable in the US - is that they have no legitimate use.
      You would have to define killing other people as legitimate for you to be able to use that argument with guns.

      --
      READY.
      PRINT ""+-0
    2. Re:Good question by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Cars enble crime too. As do phones. We should get rid of them.

    3. Re:Good question by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Be honest with yourself, the difference is you like one of them, and don't like the other.

      That is the point. You came up with the argument afterwards. The argument doesn't matter, it's irrelevant. You will make up any argument to support your point.

    4. Re:Good question by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      While we are at it, ban the internet itself, its used by everyone good bad and ugly. This is clearly total ignorance of the truth that the public domain is just plain nasty.

    5. Re:Good question by fafalone · · Score: 0

      Well our Constitution provides a well-regulated militia as the primary reason for owning a gun. And the Amendment was specifically for enabling the overthrow of a tyrannical government, as well as having the population armed in case of foreign invasion. Self defense is also an entirely valid purpose. So yes, killing people is absolutely defined as a legitimate reason to own guns, as it should be. Even for the guns that scare people even though they're responsible for only a tiny fraction of gun deaths (assault rifles), which are of the most importance for the reasons the 2nd Amendment exists.

    6. Re:Good question by Loki_1929 · · Score: 2, Insightful

      The difference with guns - especially the assault types obtainable in the US - is that they have no legitimate use.
      You would have to define killing other people as legitimate for you to be able to use that argument with guns.

      Self defense is not a legitimate use? You don't believe in self defense? Just lay down and die?

      --
      -- "Government is the great fiction through which everybody endeavors to live at the expense of everybody else."
    7. Re:Good question by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Depends on the gun. A high powered semiautomatic rifle with a bump stock and a high capacity magazine is clearly designed for the purpose of killing as many people as possible in as little time as possible, without being *technically* an illegal assault rifle.

      A bolt action hunting rifle is legitimately useful in certain rural areas, where the wildlife is sufficiently dangerous or delicious.

      Personally, I think we should take the same approach as drivers licenses. Certain vehicles (go karts, some small dirt bikes, etc.) require no license to operate, but may be restricted from operating on the some roads. Most vehicles require a license, with different classes of licenses for some vehicles. For any sufficiently dangerous tool, be it a car or a weapon, it seems reasonable to restrict its use to people who have taken the time to study its operation and pass a test demonstrating their ability, and illegal to sell it to anyone not licensed to operate it.

      As it stands, there is *no* mechanism by which I can legally operate a crossbow where I live, short of acquiring a physical disability or reaching retirement age. But I can by AR-15s in town--they even have a deal where, if you buy enough guns to fill a truck, you get to keep the truck. This seems insane to me.

    8. Re:Good question by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Banning the tool instead of the crime affects legitimate use of the tool by law-abiding citizens.

      The difference with guns - especially the assault types obtainable in the US - is that they have no legitimate use.
      You would have to define killing other people as legitimate for you to be able to use that argument with guns.

      I'd argue that killing other people is legitimate in some cases. Imagine a group of well-armed people come to your town with the aim of taking control and enslaving you and your family and friends. Certainly there are pacifists that would argue that intentionally killing the aggressors to prevent the invasion is wrong, but there are plenty of people that would feel justified in defending themselves against such invasion.

      At the very least, if you would ban such guns on pacifist grounds then you would naturally advocate the dissolution of the US military. In fact, with the US military gone, the need for assault weapons would be diminished.

    9. Re:Good question by sdinfoserv · · Score: 5, Informative

      The MAIN difference here is that GUN RIGHTS are specifically spelled out under the Constitution. If you bother to look even further, and read the Federalist Papers (documents and thought by the founding fathers), you will clearly read that The Founding Fathers of the United States firmly believed it was the right and responsibility of every Citizen to stand against tyranny, and gun ownership was a necessary balance as the last step against a corrupt Government.

    10. Re:Good question by sdinfoserv · · Score: 1

      “I hold it that a little rebellion, now and then, is a good thing, and as necessary in the political world as storms in the physical. Unsuccessful rebellions, indeed, generally establish the encroachments on the rights of the people, which have produced them. An observation of this truth should render honest republican governors so mild in their punishment of rebellions, as not to discourage them too much. It is a medicine necessary for the sound health of government.”
      -Thomas Jefferson

    11. Re:Good question by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Guns vs Bittorrent is an apples vs Oranges discussion and really you people should be ashamed for making such absurd arguements devoid of basic logic and reason.

      We have a 2nd amendment right to keep and bear arms in order to discourage home-grown and foreign-grown oligarchs and dictators from being able to institute what amounts to anything inbetween slavery and genocide, with the added bonus of being able to engage in self defense when the need arises. You may have never had to defend yourself in your life, or escape institutionalized slavery, or met a seriously psychopathic human being clawing for scraps of intimacy and pleasure by tearing others to shreds, but the fact is, we live in a horrible world where people who have power need to be forced into understanding life is invaluable and precious, and robbing that from someone else is the path to losing it for yourself. Without guns, the Russians could bribe congress to have the cops go door to door and murder dissidents and there's nothing you could do about it; having them sit in a safe makes such people think twice. Furthermore, if 1,000 protesters stormed the chase bank tower in downtown chicago, murdered the entire executive staff, then surrendered to the police, none of them would go to jail because no jury would convict them. Crime is what the public thinks it is, it isn't the black and white description on a piece of paper. Whenever someone makes absurd arguements like "guns are an enabler of crime", what they are really saying is "Please give me your weapon, I want to kill\enslave you" or they are just gullable and if they are gullable, take them for everything they are worth. Anyone who thinks less guns = less crime is living in an ivory tower.

      Bittorrent is fundementally a discussion about copyright. We grant publishers and producers the privelage of copyrights on their works to improve the quality and volume of works entering the public domain. When copyright lasts longer than a human lifetime, there is zero public interest in the people participating in copyright because nobody can see the public domain being enriched. We have a self-appointed media oligopoly that thinks it should have a stranglehold on culture fighting a losing battle against technology by engaging in what amounts to psychological warfare and racketeering. 10TB = 3 years of 2-3 movies a night and we can do 2PB of storage in a 2U rackmount for $500k today. Somewhere between now and 10 years from now the internet won't even be needed to get all the video and music you'll ever want to watch or listen to on cheap storage. What happens then? Publishing is an obsolete business and propping it up has produced an environment where nobody is innocent; if bittorent enables crime, why are you going to the movie and giving some robber-barron racketeer gangster that is, in all certainty a murderer too, your hard earned money when you go see a movie?

      Banning the bittorrent protocol will motivate the people behind bittorrent to make it a truely ephermal protocol and once that is done, there's nothing an ISP can do to stop it. We are way too far down the line with encrypting data in web browsers for an ISP to ever block the traffic and there are multi-billion dollar businesses who are really sure they don't want ISP's competing with them. TOR is just the beginning there.

    12. Re:Good question by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      And the Amendment was specifically for enabling the overthrow of a tyrannical government

      If that is truly the case, then we are screwed. The guns we are still legally allowed to posses leave us hopelessly outgunned by that hypothetical tyrannical government.

    13. Re:Good question by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Banning the tool instead of the crime affects legitimate use of the tool by law-abiding citizens.

      The difference with guns - especially the assault types obtainable in the US - is that they have no legitimate use.
      You would have to define killing other people as legitimate for you to be able to use that argument with guns.

      You've probably never been robbed or assaulted.

      The chance that someone can kill you in a fraction of a second protects a lot of people from robberies and assault.

      Assault types ensures that even if someone comes with a bunch of other people, it doesn't help.

      Banning guns might work in cities and densely populated areas where other people know when bad stuff happening and there are ways to avoid problems. In rural areas and suburbs, it is necessary for safety and protection.

    14. Re:Good question by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Assault-type rifles have the useful purpose of butchering-out thieving wettbakkks , wilding Bantu savages & drooling Trotsky progressives , while functioning causally to inhibit and winnow rogue Gub'mnt agents. Pretty important eh pad're for the republican yeomanry ? Assault rifles ... I keep mine well maintained, cause while law-abiding citizens have only seconds to repulse violent aggression, police are minutes away.

    15. Re:Good question by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      You cannot legally purchase an "Assault Rifle" in the US without having a Class III license. That is because what is truly meant by that phrase was a fully automatic weapon.

      The media loosely calls any AR type rifle "Assault" because they don't understand the difference between what Eugene Stoner's company was named and what they've been parroting from their fellow chowder heads Hint... it was the Armalite Company founded in the 1950s where they develped prototype weapons for our soldiers in battle. The AR series was the Armalite Rifle plain and simple. It included the AR7 (a survival rifle meant for pilots chambered in 22LR, the AR15 which is the select-fire rifle who's military equivalent is the M16 (select-fire and fully automatic)) chambered in .223.

      The legitimate use is simple... they don't have a lot of kick so they can be handled by smaller-framed individuals. Try looking up the shotgun fail videos on youtube to see why a shotgun isn't the right weapon for self defense for many of our population.

    16. Re:Good question by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Your argument fails as soon as you go down to "X is good because we say it's good." Saying "it's in the Constitution" does nothing to argue the inherent goodness of something.

      Go look at the Middle East, Sudan or Somalia and tell us that weapon ownership has overthrown government tyranny.

    17. Re:Good question by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      they have no legitimate use

      Keeping politicians afraid of an uprising is a perfectly legitimate use. And, yes, scary guns are better at that.

    18. Re:Good question by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

      If you bother to look even further, and read the Federalist Papers

      Indeed. in Federalist 29, Hamilton wrote:

      Little more can reasonably be aimed at, with respect to the people at large, than to have them properly armed and equipped; and in order to see that this be not neglected, it will be necessary to assemble them once or twice in the course of a year.

      So, lets make membership in a local militia with regular exercises a requirement for gun ownership.

    19. Re:Good question by UnknownSoldier · · Score: 2

      > This balance was moved with flights where sharp objects and liquids are banned.

      You mean 9/11 being used as the excuse for the complete and total joke of Theater Security Logic or Security Retards ?

      The bigger crime is that the sheeple do fuck all about it.

    20. Re:Good question by swillden · · Score: 1

      Banning the tool instead of the crime affects legitimate use of the tool by law-abiding citizens.

      The difference with guns - especially the assault types obtainable in the US - is that they have no legitimate use. You would have to define killing other people as legitimate for you to be able to use that argument with guns.

      So, then what do the 99.999% of guns that are never used in any crime get used for, if they have no legitimate use?

      --
      Note to ACs: I usually delete AC replies without reading them. If you want to talk to me, log in.
    21. Re:Good question by Xylantiel · · Score: 0

      No, what you say is originalist bullshit. Even at the time the constitution was drafted there was a debate about whether the right to bear arms should be codified as a collective or an individual right. The "well-ordered militia" language that actually went into the constitution was a compromise.

    22. Re:Good question by Baron_Yam · · Score: 2, Insightful

      > And the Amendment was specifically for enabling the overthrow of a tyrannical government, as well as having the population armed in case of foreign invasion.

      Those purposes no longer apply. You're not going to get through the cops, the FBI, the ATF, the national guard, the reserves, and the US military to overthrow your government. And if a foreign force gets by the world-supreme US military, no gun you carry will make a lick of difference.

      >Self defense is also an entirely valid purpose.

      Only because the bad guys also have guns. If they didn't (or had them less frequently) you wouldn't need one. There are quite a few Western countries that have had a great amount of success with those types of policies.

      > So yes, killing people is absolutely defined as a legitimate reason to own guns, as it should be.

      If you're in law enforcement or security, sure. Other than that it should be hunting and the range, because the more people walking around thinking they're Rambo, the more dangerous society gets.

    23. Re:Good question by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Were you personally there over 200 years ago? Are you just a mere mortal, but you have possession of a flux capacitor and a vintage Delorean? So... I'm just trying to determine how you can prove that the language of our constitution and the bill of rights was a compromise as this is ground-breaking. Wow.. way to open a big pile WTF with zero proof. I'll have to call BS as you have no verifiable information on what happened back then unless you were there in the thick of it and have evidence. Of course you could be a Vulcan and have lived long enough.. but the Vulcan Race, much like your post.. is at best fiction. The rest of your argument is therefore invalid unless it comes from some kind of verifiable documentation from that time period and includes multiple references from irrefutable sources.

      Back under the bridge... we refuse to pay your toll.

    24. Re:Good question by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      This is a pretty good argument.

      There's a fairly new technology that is going to be heavily regulated if not outright banned at some point: so-called "drones". These things have become so capable so quickly that the law hasn't really kept up. The risk is huge though. Imagine a programmable swarm of drones each carrying a small destructive device (explosive, chemical, biological, whatever). You can't jam or geo-fence everything. Imagine how smart a frone might be made in 10 years, either off-the-shelf or with mods: say, embedded facial recognition or the ability to find and track a cellphone. You could make a fire-and-forget assassination device.

      It's a little hard to believe that a drone-based attack hasn't happened already.

    25. Re:Good question by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I'm all for requiring every gun owner to join a well-regulated State militia, complete with training one weekend a month and two weeks out of the year, physical fitness tests, etc. Don't want to be in the well-regulated militia? Fine: give up your gun.

    26. Re:Good question by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Not to mention you could simply change or amend the constitution at any time. Most countries do this frequently to fix bad wording or just keeping up with the times.

    27. Re:Good question by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Except that fists and baseball bats kill more people than 'assault weapons'. All you have to do is look at the yearly FBI crime reports to see this.

      If people REALLY wanted to fix gun violence, there are far more effective solutions than banning guns. The vast majority of gun violence happens in low-income areas by a certain demographic that is not politically correct to identify. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/mar/20/mapping-gun-murders-micro-level-new-data-2015

      Provide jobs, do something about the drug trade, enforce the existing laws, etc. If you took the homicides out of those 127 small urban areas mentioned in the above article, America's homicide level would be equal or less than most of the western countries it's compared to.

      Also, 'Assault' weapons are simply semi-automatics with cosmetic differences. They're basically hunting rifles. (No, most people don't use single-shot bolt-action rifles to hunt with, because their one or two guns do multiple duty as hunting, target shooting, and home protection)

    28. Re:Good question by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The MAIN difference here is that GUN RIGHTS are specifically spelled out under the Constitution.

      The Constitution used to say that women could not vote.
      The Constitution used to say that alcohol was illegal.
      The constitution used to say that slavery was legal.

      The Constitution is a living document under version control. It is not etched in stone. It has been modified many times. We can modify it again.

    29. Re:Good question by aybiss · · Score: 2

      Hilariously tired argument. How is that stand against tyranny going?

      --
      It's OK Bender, there's no such thing as 2.
    30. Re:Good question by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      How is this "informative"?

      Regurgitation of American scripture may be a religious exercise for those believers in our gods the founding fathers, but to those of us who understand the historical context and how it relates to today's mass shootings this is kind of internet preach is beyond trying to make an argument about anything. Hell I agree that taking guns away won't fix anything in this country but your clueless spouting of "GUN RIGHTS" and "Founding Fathers" as a mantra doesn't make an argument for anything but the lack of your ability to think for yourself.

    31. Re:Good question by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Well why aren't any self proclaimed constitutionalists protesting to reinstate my 2nd amendment right to make pipe bombs?

    32. Re:Good question by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The world is full of cowards. They are terrified by the responsibility of owning a gun. They are also terrified that their neighbors might shoot them with a gun (accidentally or on purpose). Rather than find courage, take responsibility, get the necessary skills and contribute to the necessary culture, they try to use the law to make their demons vanish.

      Their cowardice harms us all.

    33. Re:Good question by Altrag · · Score: 3, Insightful

      I don't believe self defense is a legitimate use. Not because I don't believe you shouldn't have the right to defend yourself, but because if your attacker is constantly worried that you'll pull a gun, they're going to be damned sure to pull theirs first. Either way, someone ends up shot and possibly killed. And since the attacker is usually the one with the opening advantage, the risk that you get killed in such a scenario becomes higher in a gun-prevalent society. Its the same story you hear about cops over and over again -- they don't want to risk anyone they stop pulling a gun on them so they make sure to shoot first when you make even the slightest misstep at even the most benign traffic stop.

      Of course, being the one guy who doesn't have a gun in a gun-prevalent society is a problem also, making the US gun troubles significantly harder to solve -- its a downward spiral of violence that's extremely difficult to climb back up. You buy a gun because you're scared of a robber. So your neighbor buys a gun because he's scared of you. So his boss buys a gun because he's scared the employee will go ham some day. So the other employees buy guns in case the boss goes ham. So all their neighbors buy guns.

      And at the end of the day you have dozens or hundreds of gun purchases out there based on one individual's fear of a situation they may or may not ever encounter, which ends up increasing the risk that they will encounter it because that 6-degree neighbor of a guy who's boss hired a guy who's neighbor bought a gun.. that guy way at the end of the chain turns out to be the robber that you're now in a shootout with.

    34. Re:Good question by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You've omitted another important argument in favor of the private possession of firearms: namely that a militia comprising armed citizens could defend the homeland in lieu of a standing army. The founding fathers adamantly opposed a standing army: Madison said, "A standing military force, with an overgrown Executive will not long be safe companions to liberty." Nobody today, however much they advocate for protecting the citizen's right to bear arms, also inveighs against the standing army that we not only maintain but employ in foreign entanglements on an ongoing and permanent basis. That we maintain permanent camps of troops in Europe would astound the Founding Fathers, and that we have waged continuous (albeit undeclared) war in the Middle East and North Africa for seventeen years would sadden them. Worse than that is the expense at which we maintain this vast military strength and the compromises we have for that strength made against the liberties they envisioned for us. The Second Amendment was meant to protect us not only from domestic threats but also from foreign ones, hence the clause about a "well-regulated militia." To defend the Second Amendment without questioning our foreign entanglements and standing army is disingenuous.

    35. Re:Good question by Altrag · · Score: 1

      Compensating for either an irrational fear or a small penis, primarily.

    36. Re:Good question by Orgasmatron · · Score: 0

      its a downward spiral of violence that's extremely difficult to climb back up.

      Meanwhile, in reality... gun ownership - way, way up. crime - way, way down.

      --
      See that "Preview" button?
    37. Re:Good question by Uberbah · · Score: 1

      Except that fists and baseball bats

      More irrelevant examples. You can't use fists or baseball bats to mow down a roomful of people in a matter of seconds.

    38. Re:Good question by Uberbah · · Score: 1

      Keeping politicians afraid of an uprising is a perfectly legitimate use. And, yes, scary guns are better at that.

      Lulz. Ask the Confederates how well that worked out for them, and they had an army, equivalent weapons, and the best generals. How are you and your fellow Wolverines going to fend off Predator Drones with your dick extenders?

    39. Re:Good question by Uberbah · · Score: 1

      The chance that someone can kill you in a fraction of a second protects a lot of people from robberies and assault.

      Where, in an alternate universe where all muggers let you know in advance that they intend to rob you so you get your gun off?

    40. Re:Good question by Uberbah · · Score: 1

      Are you just a mere mortal, but you have possession of a flux capacitor and a vintage Delorean?

      Don't need one. All you have to do is read the section on Treason and the part where Congress can suspend habeas corpus in the event of a rebellion, to realize anyone who says the 2nd Amendment is about being able to resist the government is full of shit.

    41. Re:Good question by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It took Venezuela 4 years from loss of gun ownership to totalitarian regime.

      http://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-18288430

      https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/28/opinion/venezuela-maduro.html

      Gun grabbers need to seriously let that sink in......

    42. Re:Good question by Uberbah · · Score: 4, Informative

      If you bother to look even further, and read the Federalist Papers (documents and thought by the founding fathers), you will clearly read that The Founding Fathers of the United States firmly believed it was the right and responsibility of every Citizen to stand against tyranny, and gun ownership was a necessary balance as the last step against a corrupt Government.

      Except that's all gun nut bullshit. Article III, Section 3:

      • Treason against the United States, shall consist only in levying War against them, or in adhering to their Enemies, giving them Aid and Comfort. No Person shall be convicted of Treason unless on the Testimony of two Witnesses to the same overt Act, or on Confession in open Court.

      Article I, Section 9:

      • The Privilege of the Writ of Habeas Corpus shall not be suspended, unless when in Cases of Rebellion or Invasion the public Safety may require it.

      If gun cultists ever try and use the 2nd Amendment the way they think it was meant to be used, the government will throw their asses in prison without a warrant, and if they get a trial, hung for treason.

    43. Re:Good question by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Ahem....
      https://tech.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=11396521&cid=55614093

    44. Re:Good question by Uberbah · · Score: 1

      You've omitted another important argument in favor of the private possession of firearms: namely that a militia comprising armed citizens could defend the homeland in lieu of a standing army.

      Don't need one. The U.S. has only ever had one real invasion and that was in response to a war it started in 1812. No, Japanese forces setting up shop on remote territory islands for strategic reasons is not a real invasion.

      The U.S. doesn't need to protect itself from the rest of the world. The rest of the world needs protection from the U.S.

    45. Re:Good question by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Tell that to the Venezuelans, you worthless tool.....

      https://tech.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=11396521&cid=55614093

    46. Re:Good question by Uberbah · · Score: 2

      One has nothing to do with the other.

    47. Re:Good question by Uberbah · · Score: 1

      And the Amendment was specifically for enabling the overthrow of a tyrannical government

      Which has specifically been nonsense. The Constitution defines treason as making war on the government, and allows Congress to suspend habeas corpus in times of rebellion or invasion. Meaning, if the gun cultists try and use the 2nd Amendment how they think it was meant to be used, the government can arrest them all without warrants and then hang them for treason.

    48. Re:Good question by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The MAIN difference here is that GUN RIGHTS are specifically spelled out under the Constitution.

      The MAIN difference is that the founding fathers had a better grip on P2P protocols than the current government.

    49. Re:Good question by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The MAIN difference here is that GUN RIGHTS are specifically spelled out under the Constitution (...) and gun ownership was a necessary balance as the last step against a corrupt Government.

      If one wants to look at differences, then one ought to remember that back then guns fired one single bullet and then took 20+ seconds to reload. I doubt the Founding Fathers imagined a world where a terrorist could be in a hotel room 20 floors up and then fire hundreds of rounds into innocent people.

    50. Re:Good question by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      With this argument, I believe assault/automatic rifles, high capacity magazines have been proven to cause excessive damage compared to the rights and personal freedoms of wanting such firearms.

      On what do you base this position? Assault/automatic rifles have been used to kill, to my knowledge, zero people in the US in the past year. (Counterexample, anyone?) Rifles of all types have been used to kill 248 people, versus 5562 for handguns, in 2014, the last year for which data are available (ref).

      If anything, the data support a ban on handguns - particularly in poor, urban areas - while legalising assault rifles. (At least, if a ban were actually effective.)

    51. Re:Good question by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It's going pretty well. As the saying goes, there are four boxes to be used in defense against tyranny: soap, ballot, jury and ammo, to be used in that order. The ballot box is still holding nicely, and if anyone were to try to bypass it - say, if the Republicans were to declare Democrat campaigning to be subversive, and suppress it; or if the Democrats were to declare Republican campaigning to be hate speech, and suppress it - I'm confident that the jury box would stop them.

      The ammo box is a last resort, for when the Gestapo are rounding their political opponents up to put them in concentration camps: your average thugs will feel differently about abducting someone in the dead of night if they know that every window they pass may hold an unfriendly citizen with a rifle.

    52. Re:Good question by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The MAIN difference here is that GUN RIGHTS are specifically spelled out under the Constitution. If you bother to look even further, and read the Federalist Papers (documents and thought by the founding fathers), you will clearly read that The Founding Fathers of the United States firmly believed it was the right and responsibility of every Citizen to stand against tyranny, and gun ownership was a necessary balance as the last step against a corrupt Government.

      The problem with that is that against a corrupt government, you need automatic weapons and mortars and a non-trivial death toll in order to make an impact. In short, mass killings. Do you want mass killings and domestic terrorism or not? Regulations aimed at squashing those will most certainly squash any of the original intent of keeping a corrupt government at bay as well because weapons don't get to decide about when a government has become corrupt.

    53. Re:Good question by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      So, then what do the 99.999% of guns that are never used in any crime get used for, if they have no legitimate use?

      The 99.999% of guns that aren't used, have no use at all.

    54. Re:Good question by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The MAIN difference here is that GUN RIGHTS are specifically spelled out under the Constitution.

      The right itself is NOT enumerated, rather its existence referenced. You need to look at the Bill of Rights - the 1689 one - and the context of the formation of the USA as the last of a series of civil wars if the 17th and 18th centuries.

    55. Re:Good question by NaCh0 · · Score: 1

      I registered with the Selective Service when I turned 18 so my militia requirement is satisfied.

    56. Re:Good question by Feral+Nerd · · Score: 1

      The MAIN difference here is that GUN RIGHTS are specifically spelled out under the Constitution. If you bother to look even further, and read the Federalist Papers (documents and thought by the founding fathers), you will clearly read that The Founding Fathers of the United States firmly believed it was the right and responsibility of every Citizen to stand against tyranny, and gun ownership was a necessary balance as the last step against a corrupt Government.

      The vast majority of Americans who cite the second amendment to me can't even tell me what it says word for word , they can't even convey the general gist of it which is douby funny, firstly, because the 2nd amendment is only one sentence, and secondly because I can recite it word for word and I'm not even an American citizen. What they usually regurgitate is something that boils down to this:

      "It being of paramount importance that all citizens of the United States including robbers, pirates, dealers of addictive narcotics, other members of the criminal class and the nations various types of bat shit crazy lunatic have full and unrestricted access to guns there shall be no attempt by the government to control gun ownership or to monitor it in any way. Furthermore the government shall also be forbidden to mandate that gun owners show that they are well trained and disciplined users of firearms as a precondition for owning a firearm."

      What the second amendment actually says is:

      "A well regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed."

      What that means is that the constitution guarantees the right of US citizens to own a gun for the purpose of forming a 'well regulated', meaning well disciplined and trained, militia. That's all the 2nd amendment says. Today the largest examples of the kind of militias that the writers of the second amendment had in mind is commonly known as the 'United States National Guard' although the second amendment does arguably also allow states to operate their own militias as long as they are 'well regulated'. The most interesting aspect of this is that the US government could under the second amendment mandate that all aspiring gun owners undergo a training course in fire arms operation prior to acquiring their first gun since the second amendment does say 'well regulated' which effectively means as I pointed out before 'well trained and disciplined'. Furthermore the 2nd amendment might also allow the government to reject people who it deems to be insufficiently disciplined to be part of any 'well regulated' militia.

    57. Re:Good question by thegarbz · · Score: 1

      The Founding Fathers of the United States firmly believed it was the right and responsibility of every Citizen to stand against tyranny, and gun ownership was a necessary balance as the last step against a corrupt Government.

      Yes, except the founding fathers could not predict a future where:
      a) despite gun ownership the citizens would be annihilated in any conflict against a whole world of superior weapons
      b) citizens don't care about tyranny at all and are too busy shooting each other to defend themselves from the continuous assault on them by their own governments

      Remember the founding fathers were people. Imperfect and fallible.

    58. Re:Good question by Orgasmatron · · Score: 0

      Maybe, maybe not. But his "spiral of violence" idea is pure fiction.

      --
      See that "Preview" button?
    59. Re:Good question by houghi · · Score: 1

      That was because 250 years ago, guns COULD help stand against tyranny. Now? Not so much. Please update what is needed at least every 100 years or so.

      --
      Don't fight for your country, if your country does not fight for you.
    60. Re:Good question by SlashDread · · Score: 1

      One could argue that limiting certain -type- of speech, f.e. the bittorrent protocol, (or a message to 4chan boards) is certainly not in line with the constitutions free speech protections

      Furthermore, limiting the -type- of guns (lets say we ban 50MM cannons from being owned by citizens) is in no way a limit of the spirit of said gun right.

      And who are you kidding really? When the US army has nukes, and an enormous army, how is your little gun going to save you from an evil Gubberment?

    61. Re:Good question by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Hilariously tired argument. How is that stand against tyranny going?

      You've not been jailed for posting that opinion, so not too bad so far.

    62. Re:Good question by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      (a) Selective service isn't a militia, for many reasons including the fact that its a federal organization and not state regulated.
      (b) Its the opposite of Hamilton's intent, he though requiring full-blown military training was too much of a burden, in Federalist 29 he also wrote "A tolerable expertness in military movements is a business that requires time and practice. It is not a day, or even a week, that will suffice for the attainment of it."

    63. Re:Good question by fafalone · · Score: 0

      Those purposes no longer apply. You're not going to get through the cops, the FBI, the ATF, the national guard, the reserves, and the US military to overthrow your government. And if a foreign force gets by the world-supreme US military, no gun you carry will make a lick of difference.

      You're making a fatal error in that argument, that 100% of law enforcement and the military will oppose the people. In any situation that leads to civil war, it's highly likely those in the military and law enforcement will not have unified support against civilians. With foreign invasion, that couldn't happen now... but in 40 years? 80 years? You think no world power can ever rise? Once you take away the right it's gone. The threats change, and you won't think of re-arming the population until it's too late.

      Only because the bad guys also have guns. If they didn't (or had them less frequently) you wouldn't need one. There are quite a few Western countries that have had a great amount of success with those types of policies.

      Well, the bad guys do have guns. Restrictions on guns only prevent law abiding citizens from owning guns. Even if you implemented a confiscation program, it would pretty much exclusively disarm law abiding citizens. The guns are here already, if you could make them all magically vanish you'd have a point, but since you can't... Other countries never had close to the number of guns we have, and it's absurd to suggest we could replicate such policies here. And this is all to speak nothing of countries that have our gun ownership rates but don't have our gun violence problem.

      If you're in law enforcement or security, sure. Other than that it should be hunting and the range, because the more people walking around thinking they're Rambo, the more dangerous society gets.

      Is that why the cities with the most repressive gun laws have the most gun crimes? Oh wait... But anyway, given the legitimate reasons for killing people we discussed above can't magically vanish from the Earth forever, there remains entirely legitimate reasons to own guns for the purposes of killing humans in a number of scenarios where it's legal, even if you want to go ahead and discount overthrowing the government.

      Even if you think the world will never change and you can somehow disarm criminals as well, and further that hunting and target shooting aren't valid reasons to own a gun-- the *2nd amendment still exists*, no matter what you think of the reasons it does. If you want to move to amendment the constitution, more power to ya, that's the right way to go about it. It won't happen, for what I believe are legitimate grounds in perhaps the only issue where I agree with the right, but that would be the right way to go about it. Simply ignoring it sets a god awful precedent that will bite you square in the ass one day.

    64. Re:Good question by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The MAIN difference here is that GUN RIGHTS are specifically spelled out under the Constitution.

      No, the constitution spells out the right to bear arms, then arms are interpreted to mean guns.
      In the same way the constitution spells out free speech (Before the gun amendment even.) and then it is interpreted to include all forms of communication, including porn and bribery.
      Bittorrent is far more related to free speech as mentioned in the constitution than the former two.

    65. Re:Good question by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Treason against the United States, shall consist only in levying War against them, or in adhering to their Enemies, giving them Aid and Comfort. No Person shall be convicted of Treason unless on the Testimony of two Witnesses to the same overt Act, or on Confession in open Court.

      See, I can also conveniently mark specific texts as bold.

      Note the interesting usage of the words and respectively or.
      It clearly shows that Enemies to the United States aren't limited to those engaged in direct War.
      Aid and Comfort is up to interpretation, but typically Comfort is interpreted as housing someone, for example by housing them in your hotel.

    66. Re: Good question by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Good cogent arguments. And how does this relate to net neutrality?

    67. Re:Good question by fafalone · · Score: 1

      Flamebait, really? Long gone are the days where people could have rational arguments without just getting downmodded by crazy zealots that go 'oh, pro-gun argument, mod as troll/flamebait'. Slashdot needs to rethink its moderation system. I obviously disagree with the person I'm replying to but I respect and challenge his argument, not mod him as a troll and ignore it. Seriously, fuck this.

    68. Re:Good question by kbg · · Score: 1

      That is right. Self defense is not a legimate use to own a gun. You can use self defense just not with guns. The problem in the first place is that everybody can have guns and that escalates the self defense problem.

    69. Re:Good question by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      you make incorrect assumptions all the way.
      1. that attacker has upper hand. Not(always) true.
      2. He will know you have gun. Not true.
      3. that offender will have access to gun if shoots first.

    70. Re:Good question by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Banning the tool instead of the crime affects legitimate use of the tool by law-abiding citizens.

      The difference with guns - especially the assault types obtainable in the US - is that they have no legitimate use.
      You would have to define killing other people as legitimate for you to be able to use that argument with guns.

      Guns; even "assault types obtainable in the US"' most definitely DO have legitimate use.
      It called self defense; from either a single person or an entire government.

      And killing other people is sometimes defined as legitimate.
      It's called "justifiable homicide". As opposed to murder which is not legitimate.

    71. Re:Good question by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      you are an idiot. hand grenades are legal to own.... As are fully automatic weapons, missiles, tanks(with working main gun), grenade launchers, etc. Know the law before you spout bullshit to the world. Sure some states have banned destructive devices, machine guns, suppressors, or all of the above. That said some states allow them. Do a little research. it will surprise you what is legal(though admittedly expensive) weapon wise. if you need somewhere to start look UP NFA firearms or NFA destructive devices. Also you do not know what an assault rifle is.. a legally owned assault rifle(M16), to my knowledge, has not been used in a crime in a very long time(an AR15 is NOT an assault rifle). Nor is it even remotely similar to an M16 in any way shape or form where it counts. It may LOOK the same on the outside but the internals and even the milled out portion of the lower receiver is different. I hate to tell you but you cant put the parts that make an M16 fully automatic into an AR15 without doing some machining. It is also illegal to do so without filing the proper paperwork and paying the fees needed to the ATF.

    72. Re:Good question by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Went great the list time it was needed. Notice you aren't part of England.

    73. Re:Good question by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Seems to be going pretty well actually.

    74. Re:Good question by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      no no, your right, we should just give up at the first sign of hardship. because every fight in our lives is supposed to be an easy one and the second it starts going the other way we should just give up.

      You are the one with the tired argument, and your argument is exactly why things are getting worse. If you want to give up at the first sign of hardship then fine go ahead but remember that there will be people here still fighting the fight for your rights because every battle against the consolidation of power is a battle for the future. Your future, the future of your family and the future of the country depend on it and while you may be willing to live in a world where the few control the many, there will always be people who understand what that leads to. So please show your foolishness by using the length of time to dismiss an argument, but the truth is that the longer the argument goes on the more important it is.

    75. Re:Good question by angel'o'sphere · · Score: 1

      In which country ?

      --
      Cost free eBook I read (by iBook/Kobo/Amazon/ObookO/Gutenberg etc.): "The Green Odyssey" by Philip Jose Farmer.
    76. Re:Good question by dgatwood · · Score: 1

      That was because 250 years ago, guns COULD help stand against tyranny. Now? Not so much. Please update what is needed at least every 100 years or so.

      "A well regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear nuclear weapons shall not be infringed."

      Somehow, this does not fill me with confidence.

      --

      Check out my sci-fi/humor trilogy at PatriotsBooks.

    77. Re:Good question by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      > So, lets make membership in a local militia with regular exercises a requirement for gun ownership.

      So, you want to make the NRA a militia? Because that's what you'd accomplish here. You realize that, right?

    78. Re:Good question by Xyrus · · Score: 1

      The bible says we should kill women by stoning for adultery. Do we do that?

      The Constitution was written long before the age of automatic weapons and being able to mow down a town single handedly for a couple hundred bucks. Do you honestly think the found fathers would look at the gun atrocities of today and say, "Eh, what can you do?"

      As far as standing against tyranny, I hate to burst your gun-toting bubble but you aren't going to stand against a tyrannical government with the military might of the US with guns. Your guns aren't going to do jack against tanks or GPS guided JDAMs. If the government were truly tyrannical, the gloves would be off. There wouldn't be any more rules, and the government would swat you and your gun-nut friends away like you were mosquitoes using whatever methods they saw fit. The best you could do is apply guerrilla/terrorist tactics, but on their turf? With our level of surveillance? And that's assuming people would even be unhappy enough with the tyrannical government that they'd even side with you in the first place. Just because someone is labeled a tyrant doesn't mean they aren't popular (Hitler was very popular in Germany, until things got weird).

      No, guns are not going to stop a modern day tyrannical government with the power and resources of the US. Not going to happen. Even if you had millions of followers, it still wouldn't happen. You could have entire states backing you and it still wouldn't happen, because a mad crazy tyrannical government would have no problems dropping nukes on you until you were piles of radioactive ash, collateral damage be damned.

      If you want weapons capable of killing lots of people then there should be measures in place that ensure that your not going to use them to kill a lot of people. It's really not that hard of a concept to understand.

      --
      ~X~
    79. Re:Good question by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      So, you want to make the NRA a militia? Because that's what you'd accomplish here. You realize that, right?

      At which point they would fall under control of the state governments, making them accountable to all voters, not just donors (which currently includes god damn russian oligarchs) So yeah, I'm OK with that.

    80. Re:Good question by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Only because the bad guys also have guns. If they didn't (or had them less frequently) you wouldn't need one.

      Tell that to women who are raped at knifepoint. Actually, no, please don't tell any rape victims that their right to self-defense is illegitimate.

    81. Re:Good question by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      or, gun ownership way way up, mass shootings way way up.

      Look, the only western country with a murder and mass shooting problem is the US, and it is also the only western country with a gun ownership problem.

    82. Re:Good question by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Failing to grasp basic English isn't an argument. What you want the second amendment to say and what the second amendment actually says are two completely different things, and you might have better luck in finding the latter when you ditch the former.

    83. Re:Good question by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I think that you read that wrong.

      What is suggested here is not that militia membership is a requirement to own a gun. What is being suggested here is that all citizens have a responsibility to be armed and ready to defend against tyranny, and periodically assembly is necessary to ensure that they comply.

      The current tyranny and corruption spreading throughout our government is a direct result of a very large number of good people doing nothing.

    84. Re:Good question by sp0tter · · Score: 1

      The difference with guns - especially the assault types obtainable in the US - is that they have no legitimate use. You would have to define killing other people as legitimate for you to be able to use that argument with guns.

      Store Owner Defends self and store with AR-15 rifle against 3 armed robbers https://www.youtube.com/watch?...

      --
      you don't eat crackers in the bed of your future--or else you'll get all scratchy
    85. Re:Good question by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Nope, I did not read it wrong. You are putting a modern spin on the writing. What Hamilton wrote is background for understanding the 2nd amendment in the context of when it was written. Hamilton did not call for militia membership, he assumed it as normal function of membership in civil society. Its modern, ayn randian, hyper-individualist thinking that has divorced that basic assumption from the right to bear arms.

    86. Re:Good question by Dread_ed · · Score: 1

      The "militia," at the time the Constitution was written, was defined as all able bodied men age 17 and older.

      Training was not required, nor was registration or membership. By existing as such a person you were considered militia.

      --
      When the only tool you have is a claw hammer every problem starts to look like the back of someone's skull.
    87. Re:Good question by Dread_ed · · Score: 1

      Oh they're not "doing nothing." They are overwrought and overrun with fighting the good fight. The only problem is their targets are designated by the government/media complex. Keeping the good among us overwhelmed, off balance, and strictly controlled is how our "leaders" stay in control.

      Well, that, and killing them off in useless wars...

      --
      When the only tool you have is a claw hammer every problem starts to look like the back of someone's skull.
    88. Re:Good question by Dread_ed · · Score: 1

      Well-regulated means "Well equipped" in today's language.

      Militia means "18 or over and in good health" in today's language.

      Just because you are too ill informed to understand the concepts being discussed does not allow you to create your own interpretation of the meaning and have it be valid.

      Personally, I prefer the idea of universal military training followed by an optional reserve system with voluntary participation up to retirement age. It might look very similar to what you thought up from your horrible misunderstanding of the second amendment.

      The difference between us is that I know that what I prefer is not supported in the Constitution and I would never argue that it is.

      --
      When the only tool you have is a claw hammer every problem starts to look like the back of someone's skull.
    89. Re:Good question by Dread_ed · · Score: 1

      Your post implies that once you are employed, appointed, or elected to the government you are immune from treason charges. You are so set against guns your brain has ceased to function logically. It is not a catch 22 invalidation you goofball.

      One part of what you wrote is right though. If members of our political system attempt to circumvent the Constitution in a significant enough manner to engender a violent response from those of us who aren't as logically compromised as you are, you can be certain that those caught will be hung. Not so sure about the trial part though, as any government willing to violate the constitution in a flagrant enough manner to rile up the 2nd amendment loving crowd so much that they march on their own politicians would not give two shits about trials, evidence, attorneys, etc.

      And this is why we have the second amendment.

      --
      When the only tool you have is a claw hammer every problem starts to look like the back of someone's skull.
    90. Re:Good question by Dread_ed · · Score: 1

      Not if you are inside the country. You need planning, secrecy, and coordination. You need to decapitate the tyranny, apply pressure to those who are working for the tyrannical leaders under duress, and motivate the indifferent to join against the tyrannical.

      All of that can be done with hard noses, handguns, and hunting rifles.

      --
      When the only tool you have is a claw hammer every problem starts to look like the back of someone's skull.
    91. Re:Good question by Dread_ed · · Score: 1

      The Constitution is not a "living document." It is a self referential document with self described means for revision. The same level of authority that says it can be modified also says "gun ownership is legal."

      If it can be revised it can also be revised to remove the provisions for revising it as well. You understand this, correct?

      --
      When the only tool you have is a claw hammer every problem starts to look like the back of someone's skull.
    92. Re:Good question by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The "militia," at the time the Constitution was written, was defined as all able bodied men age 17 and older.

      Lol. Why it is you neo-fascists always have the most shallow sound-bite understanding of the topics you are the most worked up about? Its like you are all religious fundamentalists.

      Seriously, you are trying to argue with the federalist papers by using NRA talking points. GTFOH

    93. Re:Good question by Uberbah · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Your post implies that once you are employed, appointed, or elected to the government you are immune from treason charges.

      Where was that, exactly.

      I am so pro-gun gun my brain has ceased to function logically.

      FTFY

      as any government willing to violate the constitution in a flagrant enough manner to rile up the 2nd amendment loving crowd so much that they march on their own politicians would not give two shits about trials, evidence, attorneys, etc.

      Except that crowd is the worst bunch of bed-wetting tough guys on the planet. Talk a good game right up until its time to put their necks on the line, in which case their shit is immediately lost.

      Now, back to the point. The Constitution completely and unequivocally calls bullshit on the gun cultist storyline about the 2nd being about giving citizens the right to fight their government with force.

    94. Re:Good question by ahodgson · · Score: 1

      The founders were very clear in the their personal writings that they considered the right to own guns a fundamental individual right and the cornerstone of liberty. Many of them argued against having a Bill of Rights at all because they were afraid people would try to narrowly construe them as all encompassing, instead of a highlight of the most important freedoms.

    95. Re:Good question by Uberbah · · Score: 1

      See, I can also conveniently mark specific texts as bold.

      You sure can! You can also make non-sequiturs.

      Aid and Comfort is up to interpretation, but typically Comfort is interpreted as housing someone, for example by housing them in your hotel.

      Which has what to do with the subject at hand: gun nuts who think the 2nd Amendment gives them the right to resist their government with firearms.

    96. Re:Good question by Altrag · · Score: 1

      They have something to do with each other. Just not the thing the GP wants to believe.

    97. Re:Good question by Altrag · · Score: 1

      Show me the direct correlation and you might have a point. In particular, try to convince me that all those guns would have had any effect in stopping the totalitarian regime from taking over. It doesn't matter how many AKs you have in your basement when the government shows up with a bloody tank and flattens your house.

      There are plenty of countries with gun laws that are still perfectly democratic. Arguably more-so than the US with your two-party system and the "left-wing" party is still fairly far right of what any other country would call center. And then throw on the electoral college who can, at least in theory, completely ignore the will of the people and elect whoever the hell they feel like into the White House. And to top even that, your presidents can effectively rule unilaterally via executive order and the last few have been doing so more and more. Sure SCOTUS can veto those executive orders but still, its potentially leading down a dangerous path since you're now relying on just two branches of government to balance each other out and the third being practically irrelevant. That's 1/3 of your checks and balances gone.

    98. Re:Good question by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      And the small difference that the contract that establishes the United States governance promises that the free keeping & bearing of guns is an activity that will not be infringed by government law. When a government agency or agent violates this right, they lose all legitimacy of governing power.

    99. Re:Good question by shutdown+-p+now · · Score: 1

      I don't think it would be reasonable to require this for guns that are practically useful for personal self-defense, hunting, or recreation. This would be revolvers, and bolt/lever/pump-action firearms.

      For semi-auto handguns and long guns, sure, why not?

    100. Re:Good question by shutdown+-p+now · · Score: 1

      You can legalize hand grenades for recreational use too

      It may come as a surprise to a lot of people, but hand grenades are legal in US for recreational use. So are grenade launchers, and grenades for them. The only catch is that you have to pay a $200 transfer tax to the ATF whenever you acquire one (either launcher or grenade) - so it's a very expensive hobby, especially if you actually blow them up rather than just collect them. But, it is legal, in most states at least.

    101. Re:Good question by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      "the risk that you get killed in such a scenario becomes higher in a gun-prevalent society."

      And yet, all of the evidence (based on the fact that gun-banning cities are the ones with the highest number of crimes/gun-related deaths [excluding suicide]), and cities/ States where the Second Amendment is followed more closely have lower crime/gun-related deaths.

      "-- its a downward spiral of violence that's extremely difficult to climb back up."

      It is actually very easy to solve. You punish the perpetrator, not the item. Too often, violent criminals are afforded far easier sentences than they should have had, thus they are not 'rehabilitated' at all, and are released back on the street to further predate on innocent people.

      Additionally, those with mental issues are not given the help they need, in fact, too often these services are derided for their cost to society or given a stigma that causes those who need them to avoid them, so these people are left in the general public with no supervision to cause mayhem on innocent people.

      If you actually go and look at the statistics presented by the FBI, you would find that the rate of violent crime/gun-related deaths (excluding suicide) have actually been dropping steadily, especially since the sunset of the misnamed Federal Assault Weapons Ban (they weren't actually "assault weapons" as that is a fake term coined by those who seek to ban a certain type of cosmetic features by demonizing them in such a way as to sway public opinion).

    102. Re:Good question by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      That was because 250 years ago, guns COULD help stand against tyranny. Now? Not so much. Please update what is needed at least every 100 years or so.

      I had this view for quite some time. An article in a right-leaning news rag convinced me that I should at least re-examine that view. Its main point was that the Afghan insurgency is a reasonably effective stand against [what the insurgency views as] tyranny.

      This doesn't jive well with my actual position of "Sure, have a ten-round long gun, but no ARs or handguns" since the Taliban is heavy into Kalashnikovs. It is, however, a not-insignificant hole in the "resistance is futile, so why even try" argument.

      Sorry to post AC.

  29. So we are going back to laws that prevent this. by will_die · · Score: 1, Informative

    Under Title II it is allowed to block bittorrent. Title 2 is not net neutrality and it is foolish to push for it.

    We are not going back to ISPs blocking bittorrent(when was that?), we are going back to the clinton rules that ruled they could not; in addition we now have ISPs being required to document if they are going to block ports or traffic.

    1. Re:So we are going back to laws that prevent this. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      They are not going to block bittorrent. If you ban/block bittorrent, then that implies all P2P download protocols (otherwise, people will just switch)

      Believe it or not P2P downloads have been used legally for legitimate commercial software purposes for quite some time now, just ask Blizzard or Microsoft
      It's a whole lot easier (and cheaper) for a developer to seed a torrent for an update than to host all the direct downloads. It's also (usually) much quicker for the end user.

      You may not even realize you are using P2P. i.e. the client just handles the download without disclosing the protocol to the end user Have you noticed that windows 10 updates have a P2P option? how do you suppose MS is doing that. If you block P2P, then all that nifty upgrade "infrastructure" goes away and everyone is back to slowly downloading massive updates from a relatively small number of servers. ...you think windows update is slow now? Try removing the P2P download option for everyone

    2. Re:So we are going back to laws that prevent this. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      This is not entirely accurate as key legal cases had not taken place during the Clinton era. In 2010, it was ruled that ISPs could block peer-to-peer traffic. As a result, a new law came out to block this. In 2014 it was ruled that this law was an overreach for the FCC and couldn't apply to Title I entities. So ISPs were reclassified as Title II. Moving ISP's back to Title I doesn't reverse these ruling that _have_ happened. This is a key difference between clinton/bush era internet and what is being proposed today. At that time ISPs didn't really know what they could get away with. That makes sense as parts of these laws tried to prevent them from doing what they wanted. But now that these parts have been removed due to previous legal cases the ISPs do know what they can do and are basically on an honor system to avoid abusing it.

      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Verizon_Communications_Inc._v._FCC_(2014)

  30. Re: Good by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Here is an analogy to explain why this is a big deal: the police can currently discourage crime by arresting offenders after the fact and interrupting crimes in progress, this is what ISPs can do now. The proposal would be like if police could stop crime by shutting down parts of town where crime occurs even though not all of the traffic through that part of town is illegal.

  31. Re: Appcast should block LUDDITE software! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Comcast won't gain business by providing an inferior service.

  32. Chickens coming home to roost by Okian+Warrior · · Score: 1

    Serious question here. What's the difference between these arguments?
    1. You shouldn't ban BitTorrent. It's just a protocol. Just because some people use it to steal digital content doesn't mean BitTorrent is inherently bad.
    2. You shouldn't ban guns. It's just a device. Just because some people use it to kill innocents doesn't mean guns are inherently bad.

    This is what you get when you break the rules.

    The existing net neutrality law was a) an overreach by a federal department that didn't have the authority, and b) didn't implement net neutrality, as normally understood.

    Which is more important: fixing this one issue, or allowing federal departments to make rules outside their jurisdictions?

    I love it when people bemoan how bad things are when this one narrowly-defined problem is thrown up as proof - positive proof, I say! - that everything about our government is bad.

    Because it's *so* much easier to carp and complain than it is to a) draft a suggested net neutrality law, b) petition congress to pass that law, and c) bring the issue up during the elections.

    We had a previous article about how the big players (Google, Facebook, and others) were bemoaning the loss of neutrality, that the "request for comments" wasn't a vote (and that 7 million bot entries with exactly the same text weren't considered significant), and how the internet is going to hell and a handbasket, but...

    ...we don't see those big players getting consensus on what net neutrality actually means, drafting common-sense legislation that could be voted on, and advocating for the issue to be resolved.

    Your president did a whole bunch of crap moves that shouldn't have been done in the first place, including ordering the killing of American citizens without trial, making up immigration law out of whole cloth by executive order (contradicting existing laws), and political profiling by the IRS.

    The real issue, beyond this “net neutrality,” is the Federal Communications Commission’s manufacture of authority to regulate the internet despite clear congressional instruction that the internet remain unregulated. In 2014, courts struck down the FCC’s 2010 self-aggrandizement under the 1934 Communications Act and 1996 Telecommunications Act, so the agency doubled down by writing a new rule that equated the internet with telephony.

    That creative interpretation allowed the FCC to claim the sweeping discretion it had used to manage the AT&T phone monopoly throughout the 20th century. Moreover, while the FCC touts the regulation as ensuring that the internet remains free of censorship, the rule impinges on the First Amendment rights of internet-service providers.

    This is nothing more than your chickens coming home to roost.

    If you want this fixed, do it right next time.

    1. Re:Chickens coming home to roost by Altrag · · Score: 1

      fixing this one issue

      I'd pick this one. Mostly because if the government doesn't regulate it, the 3 or 4 massive service providers will regulate it for them, and you can bet the ISP's "regulations" won't be in your best interest.

      But you know, come back and let me know how its working out for you when you're back to getting 512kbps speeds on your $100/mo fiber connection to every site that isn't a Verizon's "partner."

  33. Re: Appcast should block LUDDITE software! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    lol. competition? what is that?

  34. Re:Good by omnichad · · Score: 1

    Data is innocent until proven guilty - how can you possibly determine beforehand with encrypted communications? BitTorrent is only a protocol - and not a bad one for sharing any large file. Even beats http from one single user to another for reliability.

  35. Re:Good by mark-t · · Score: 2, Interesting
    Actually, I've always thought that a fairly good argument can be made that it is stealing... unless you are going to assert one of the following:
    • 1. when the person who is supposedly "stealing" does not get the same worth out of what they stole as the person that they stole it from means that it is not stealing;
    • 2 that the thing that is being "stolen" was, in the opinion of the "thief", never rightfully possessed by the person who originally had or controlled it in the first place, and thus not really stealing;
    • 3. something which is intangible is unceremoniously exempt from any attempt to classify unauthorized acquisition as stealing, or;
    • 4. things which other people may not deem to have any value cannot be stolen.

      Barring the above rationalizations, copyright infringement can be thought of as theft on the grounds that copyright entails an exclusive right to dictate who may copy a work. Exclusive, by definition, means that nobody else is doing it, and so when a person commits copyright infringement, they are literally depriving the copyright holder of some measure of the exclusive control that the rights holder was supposed to have over that work. Obviously for any single unauthorised copy, the amount of exclusivity lost is very minor, but the cumulative effect of multiple unauthorised copies can still be substantial.

  36. This is perfect! Let them do it! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    If they start selectively blocking ports, then that will encourage people to use anonymizing services like TOR. Might as well let them force the hand of the people to make the entire Internet go dark. Let them bring their restrictions, we'll just turn the entire Internet into the Darkinternet. Oppression leads to motivating the masses, and I cannot see a better motivation for people to start anonymizing ALL traffic than Orwellian traffic restrictions. If everyone on the planet started a TOR node, we could finally overcome the adoption vs. latency/throughput issue and bring about the wild west of the 'Net once more! Let's go ahead and bow down to our FCC overloads for their supreme ignorance of cause and effect, and just let them cause the new digital freedom revolution. I for one will drink to this cause, cheers!

    1. Re:This is perfect! Let them do it! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Tor will be one of the first things blocked. VPNs will follow quickly.

  37. Re:Good by Aighearach · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Before bittorrent, downloading linux distributions could take days, and it cost the distro money for the server load. With torrents I can download a whole distro in a few minutes! And it doesn't add to the costs of publishing the distro.

  38. Re: Appcast should block LUDDITE software! by tepples · · Score: 0

    Comcast won't gain business by providing an inferior service.

    It will when Comcast charges $60 for 1000 GB/mo while its cellular competitors are charging $60 for 10 GB/mo.

  39. The internet has destroyed America by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    America was great in the '50s before the Internet, before the PC, before dropping the gold standard, before Apollo, before the civil rights movement, etc.

    We must Make America Great Again!!! There will be a little pain while we roll back all of these things that destroyed the America of Our Great Leader's childhood, but everything will be much better in the end as it was in the beginning.

  40. Re:Good by tepples · · Score: 2

    things which other people may not deem to have any value cannot be stolen.

    If lawfully made copies of a work are not available now or in the near future, the work's copyright owner probably sees no value in making it available.

  41. Re:Don't even think about shared guilt by Xenx · · Score: 1

    As long as there is no competition in the ISP market, they can do almost anything they want. We need them as much as they need us, but they know we don't have an alternative.

  42. Trump is playing a dangerous game by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Taking away both bread and circuses is not a good idea

    1. Re:Trump is playing a dangerous game by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I don't give a shit about your circus, because I can use my tech skills to get free internet anywhere I want. I'm sure as shit not paying Comcast to post this fucking comment. You're right about how there isn't any bread, though. For some fucking reason I can't use my tech skills to get a job.

  43. Re: Good by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    As a copyright holder and active content creator I call your BS. You will gain nothing from having to pay the gatekeepers to allow your content free passage because that is where this will be going

  44. I'd like to announce my new protocol ByteFlow! by quantaman · · Score: 5, Insightful

    It's just an arms race, the moment you block BitTorrent someone makes a new protocol. You block that protocol too and they make a 3rd protocol that disguises itself as normal traffic.

    Soon Comcast is gives up entirely, or gets in an arms race with the protocol authors trying to detect P2P traffic with legitimate traffic getting caught in the crossfire.

    --
    I stole this Sig
    1. Re:I'd like to announce my new protocol ByteFlow! by RhettLivingston · · Score: 1

      No race. Right from the start you go straight to block all and whitelist a few deemed mediocre enough to provide all that the poorest people need (according to those who have whatever they want). That is your basic tier. Everything else costs more.

    2. Re:I'd like to announce my new protocol ByteFlow! by luther349 · · Score: 1

      its a slippery slope you let them ban one thing even tho BitTorrent has many other uses. then they start blocking ftp because someone might host something. then you block all but approved http become someone might host something. its always been about trying to remove the internet freedom.

    3. Re:I'd like to announce my new protocol ByteFlow! by Linsaran · · Score: 2

      Then you'll start getting weird formats and protocols like Uuencode that extend existing protocols in ways that they were never originally designed to do. Like binary files over usenet. The new protocols will introduce additional (and arguably unnecessary) overhead, but allow you to use the whitelisted services to do things they weren't intended for. Heck I remember back in the napster days of the late 90s using steganography to put arbitrary binary files into a valid mp3 container, because napster wouldn't share non mp3 audio files.

      --
      In a bit of shameless internet panhandling, I accept Litecoin Donations at Lbd2oH9QsthD1GfuUXPyka12YxvWJYnBVf
    4. Re:I'd like to announce my new protocol ByteFlow! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      This is why we have so many port settings for configuring email

    5. Re:I'd like to announce my new protocol ByteFlow! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      How about just looking at legitimate protocols that have been blocked as a part of anti-competitive practice like voip or strangling competing web services. All this was happening before title II. the old FCC moved to title II because they were spending too much time fighting anti-competitive practices and a federal court had told them without categorising ISPs as title II they had no right to regulate them at all. Telecommunications companies in many places in the US have a monopoly on access. Telecommunications companies with large customer bases have the ability to throttle or block access to those customer bases. The fact is they have proven that they can and will do this for financial or competitive purposes. It's not about some edge protocol that is convenient to law breakers. It's about the ability for the average person to have create a business without being quashed by larger businesses that don't want the competition.

    6. Re:I'd like to announce my new protocol ByteFlow! by Altrag · · Score: 2

      The answer to this (actually the answer to all of it, really.. assuming net neutrality isn't enforced) is to slow down a user's traffic based on how much traffic they've already transferred. Adjust it every 30 seconds based on say a 2 minute window or something so that its somewhat responsive as people change their tasks throughout the day.

      Basically an automated punishment system for people using "too much," driving them to turn off their bittorrents or other high-bandwidth applications at least during the times they want to be using their own connection (and even when those applications are left running, you're still slowing them down to whatever rate you consider sufficiently punishing without cutting them off completely.)

      So for example if you're just browsing the internet, you get your full 200mbps or whatever, but if you're continually using 150+mpbs of that for a long enough period of time, you get throttled down to 50 and then to 20 and then to 10 or whatever. And then once you're no longer taking up a significant portion of that 10mpbs for 2 minutes, you would get pushed back to 20 then 50 then your full 200mbps.

      I mean I'm sure that would lead to a bit of an arms race as someone develops a bittorrent client that stops transmitting for 10 seconds every 2 minutes or whatever metric they need (so you get the full 200mbps for 90% of the time rather than 10mbps for 100% of the time or the like) but I suspect it would be a race that the ISPs would win by simply adding more granularity to the metrics.

    7. Re:I'd like to announce my new protocol ByteFlow! by evought · · Score: 1

      I mean I'm sure that would lead to a bit of an arms race as someone develops a bittorrent client that stops transmitting...

      At least some bittorrent clients already have configurable bandwidth throttles. Other clients (e.g. rsync, wget) often do as well. You can also throttle your clients at your own router, before your traffic leaves your internal/home network,

  45. Hippies have destroyed America by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Hippies created the Internet, the PC, and Free Software. We need to get rid of the hippies. But don't worry, our hipster thought leaders the tech billionaires are already doing everything possible to banish hippies from society forever.

  46. Uh Oh by linuxguy · · Score: 1

    It will be interesting to see the mental gymnastics conservatives have to go through to defend this.

    Give ISP the freedom to mess with your pipe. Nickel and dime you for opening any port that is not HTTP/HTTPS. That sounds like a great idea. Why haven't we been doing it already?

    1. Re:Uh Oh by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It will be interesting to see the mental gymnastics conservatives have to go through to defend this.

      Give ISP the freedom to mess with your pipe. Nickel and dime you for opening any port that is not HTTP/HTTPS. That sounds like a great idea. Why haven't we been doing it already?

      If you really are a 'linuxguy' who can formulate such a question, you must clearly also be a troll. Obviously it's already done with the server prohibition terms of service except for the 'business class' tier. They don't do it with finer granularity because I'm guessing the NSA enjoys the public not understanding the issue in the level of nuance that would result.

    2. Re:Uh Oh by Agripa · · Score: 1

      It will be interesting to see the mental gymnastics conservatives have to go through to defend this.

      Give ISP the freedom to mess with your pipe. Nickel and dime you for opening any port that is not HTTP/HTTPS. That sounds like a great idea. Why haven't we been doing it already?

      And the end result will be that every protocol duplicates HTTPS. That should do wonders to aid traffic shaping and surveillance.

  47. Back to the stone-age by gweihir · · Score: 1

    There is a lot of completely legal software distribution over BitTorrent these days. This guy wants to go back to the stone-age. He probably is deeply afraid of the freedoms network-neutrality gives to people and companies.

    Well, the western world is in decline. Desperately keeping old business-models alive and blocking new ones is a traditional sign of that.

    --
    Most ACs are not even worth the keystrokes to insult them. Be generically insulted by this and ignored otherwise.
  48. Re: Appcast should block LUDDITE software! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    This would give them free reign to BLOCK it.

  49. Re:Don't even think about shared guilt by ravenshrike · · Score: 1

    Comcast tries it and the demand for last mile municipal internet or for Congress to pass a law, which is really the way NN should be implemented anyway, will increase exponentially. Especially if Netflix and Amazon Video are smart and don't renew their non-throttle contracts with Comcast when they come up.

  50. Re:Good by thegarbz · · Score: 5, Insightful

    As a copyright holder, I've been very happy with Agit Pai so far.

    On behalf of all of the internet, fuck you and the horse you rode in on. Your assault against the internet and the platform which you should see as an enabler in the name of a few bad apples should be met in kind. I hope you get what you want.

    I hope your precious Agit Pai enables mega corporations to stamp on your little copyright. May you be screwed over in more ways than you're proposing to screw the common man. God speed.

  51. Negative into a positive? by computational+super · · Score: 1

    This will just spur BitTorrent developers into developing something even harder to stop. I see this as a bump in the road to a truly uncensorable internet.

    --
    Proud neuron in the Slashdot hivemind since 2002.
  52. Re: Good by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    No it isn't. Where did you get that idea? You are confusing criminal law from corporate policy. Corporate policies are just as valid as laws, but don't require the burden of proof that criminal laws do. So criminals get away with crime, and Comcast gets to screw you.

  53. Re: Good by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Firstly, how in the hell can anyone see that as reasonable?
    This proposal has bugger all to do with stopping piracy, it gives them no tools they didn't already have, and everything to do with charging again for something that's already been paid for.

  54. Re: Good by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Redundant

    He stole something that didn't exist before he created it? Ok, you fucking peasant. Slashdot has really gone downscale over the years. Nothing here now but PC Gamers, and helpdesk peons.

  55. What Would Mal Say? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    The difference with guns - especially the assault types obtainable in the US - is that they have no legitimate use.

    To quote Mal from Firefly- "If someone tries to kill you, you go ahead and try to kill 'em right back".

    Self-defense, as well as the defense of others, are a perfectly legitimate example of killing somebody that needs to be killed. Of course there is nuance...

  56. Re: Don't even think about shared guilt by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Itâ(TM)s not just Comcast, though.

    AT&T, Verizon, Timewarner, the list goes on.

    Comcast just happens to be listed for this one article.

  57. Re:Don't even think about shared guilt by Xenx · · Score: 1

    I'm not saying Congress couldn't pass a law, but they're also paid off by corporations. Financially it would be in their best interest not to.

  58. Doesn't just "allow" blocking - forces it by RhettLivingston · · Score: 1

    One of the best defenses to a civil suit for not blocking something that was used to cause harm is that it wasn't legal to do so. If you wipe out that defense by allowing ISPs to block ports, the ISPs gain a responsibility that turns into a liability, and the lawyers will do the rest.

    1. Re:Doesn't just "allow" blocking - forces it by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      One of the best defenses to a civil suit for not blocking something that was used to cause harm is that it wasn't legal to do so. If you wipe out that defense by allowing ISPs to block ports, the ISPs gain a responsibility that turns into a liability, and the lawyers will do the rest.

      The issue has always been the courts/judiciary shirking its responsibility to police the exponential growth in Free Speech issues created by the computer/internet age. The ISPs want to make our lives miserable with every little tax they can imagine? Let 'em eat the responsibility of policing the cyberscape. Sounds poetical.

  59. Re: Good by hackwrench · · Score: 1

    It did exist before he created it because everything existed before time, everybody created everything, and time machines get everything to every point in time.

  60. Re: Good by mSparks43 · · Score: 1

    i think iâ(TM)d kinda like to live in a world with the former usa disconnected from the internet for a bit. could be fun.

  61. Re:I hope some nut shoots this guy by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    he deserves a taste of communal vengeance for his arrogance.

    I hope some court issues an order to Slashdot to take this comment down on the grounds that it might be (mis?)interpreted as incitement of assassination. Just to make a point.

  62. Re: Appcast should block LUDDITE software! by UnknowingFool · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Talk about an apples to oranges comparison. What the OP is saying is if you have Comcast, most likely you can't get another suitable ISP this no competition. Mobile isn't a viable substitute. Satellite isn't a viable substitute. For many consumers, there isn't another cable company they could use and fiber isn't everywhere.

    --
    Well, there's spam egg sausage and spam, that's not got much spam in it.
  63. I know you will think I'm very, very old, but: by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    I can remember when the U.S. had a government.

    1. Re: I know you will think I'm very, very old, but: by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Too bad all of the slashtards were too busy circle-jerking about how pointless it is to vote...

    2. Re:I know you will think I'm very, very old, but: by CaptQuark · · Score: 1

      It still has a government. A government by the people. If you aren't communicating your displeasure to your congress person, you are not helping the situation.

      --

    3. Re: I know you will think I'm very, very old, but: by Type44Q · · Score: 1

      Had your IQ checked lately?

    4. Re: I know you will think I'm very, very old, but: by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      What if, as a felon, I'm not allowed to vote or own a gun? How do I influence my representative? They're cracking down on truck rentals too...

    5. Re: I know you will think I'm very, very old, but: by dwillden · · Score: 1

      You write and or call them. There is no check when submitting comments to any elected official to see if you are a voter, Many congress websites will ask for your address or at least zip code to verify that you are a constituent but otherwise there is no check on ability to vote.

      --
      I'm too lazy to compose a creative sig.
    6. Re:I know you will think I'm very, very old, but: by darth+dickinson · · Score: 2

      Since when has that helped anything? You're lucky to get a form letter back, and nevermind trying to get them on the phone.

    7. Re: I know you will think I'm very, very old, but: by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You should kill yourself, criminal scum.

    8. Re:I know you will think I'm very, very old, but: by ahodgson · · Score: 1

      http://www.upworthy.com/20-years-of-data-reveals-that-congress-doesnt-care-what-you-think

    9. Re: I know you will think I'm very, very old, but: by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Youâ(TM)re adorable! Maybe it used to be of the people, by the people and for the people.

      Nowadays itâ(TM)s of the corrupt, by the bought and for the corporation.

  64. Re:Don't even think about shared guilt by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I am paying over $100 for premium service. But if this premium service becomes throttled....then well, no more fat bills for comcast.

  65. Welp. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    There you go again being a fucking dumb cunt.

    Shall not be infringed.

    I'm sorry, but, "ABLOOBLOOBLOO REPUBLICANS STATES RITES" isn't a fucking excuse for shitting on the Constitution, no matter how badly you want it to be.

  66. Why can they currently block port 25? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Is Comcast not currently allowed to block bittorrent?

    Many ISP's currently block port 25. If bittorrent can't be blocked then why can they block SMTP?

    1. Re:Why can they currently block port 25? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Is Comcast not currently allowed to block bittorrent?

      Many ISP's currently block port 25. If bittorrent can't be blocked then why can they block SMTP?

      Laughs are priceless. Bittorrent can be trivially blocked just like they do with servers. They add a ToS clause saying you can't use bittorrent, and then if they are really bothered by your use of it, they can cease doing business with you. Or, like you said, just do what they already do with port 25.

  67. Re:Good by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Blizzard's update system is P2P
    MS has a P2P option in it's update menu.

    Those are not of course the only ones, but should be sufficient to illustrate the point.
    Banning P2P is not only short sighted, but it's not what their corporate lobbyist masters want anymore

  68. Time for content providers to send their own messa by locutus2k · · Score: 1

    While I love the idea of banners posted by content providers about this, clearly it has been proven that the FCC (politicians) are only listening to the ISPs (conspiracy theorist part of me says the bribes paid to politicians). Maybe its time for the content providers (Amazon, Twitter, Facebook, Google, Netflix, and throw in Cloudflare) to send a different message. In addition to the banners, why not slow down all traffic between the content providers and .gov to the 56k range?

    This might drive home the point that while the ISPs and the .gov control the highway, its the content providers that own the service stations. If the FCC makes it legal to speed up/slow down traffic, then it sounds like it'd be perfectly legal to turn their own rules against them.

  69. In Soviet Russia and Eastern Block by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    You were not allowed to read foreign newspapers , and books had to be approved by the committee. Radios were modified so only approved radio stations were received.
    How many stars on the flag should we change to sickles today?

      I am sicked by the resurgence of jack booted born-again Stasi wearing the stars and stripes, one hand listening to phones, reading IM's and SMS and recording your internet for amusement. With China and Russia and the UK trying to keep up. Easy to blackmail future opposition leaders etc.

    The FCC has been infiltrated with communist thinkers and committee chairman.
    Pity that both sides don't recognize the pure evil, and are freedom deniers.

    Just a matter of time before they round up VPN users and put them into concentration camps.

    1. Re: In Soviet Russia and Eastern Block by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      if you don't like your internet provider switch. its that easy. get government out of regulating what businesses are doing.

    2. Re: In Soviet Russia and Eastern Block by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      kind of hard to do that with an oligopoly you moron. that's the problem.

    3. Re: In Soviet Russia and Eastern Block by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      that's what i said moron. government is imposing the monopolies. its all the governments fault. idiot.

    4. Re: In Soviet Russia and Eastern Block by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      How, the fuck, is government imposing a monopoly on ISPs?

  70. Re:Good by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Under copyright laws, everyone is a copyright holder. Any work you create your own is automatically placed under copyright. Most copyright owners will be hurt by this.

  71. Let's make this guy anathema by DCFusor · · Score: 2

    Maybe if we get loud enough calling this guy Ajit the traitor to all that is good, someone will get around to saying "you're fired".
    Think about it - if you're a pretty unpopular executive and someone under you is considered a total ass by a huge majority, and what they're pushing doesn't particularly butter your bread...why not fire them and get a huge boost in popularity overnight?
    Remember when we all worried that Wheeler, being an ex cable co lobbyist (just like the current jerk) was going to screw us, but he turned into a hero instead? We probably can't hope for that in this case, but we can hope someone else takes action on it. Of course, this really belongs in Congress, but we know they are ALL owned, ,it's not a partisan thing at all...

    --
    Why guess when you can know? Measure!
    1. Re:Let's make this guy anathema by Xyrus · · Score: 1

      Like the rest of the Trump administration, he's a corrupt asshole looking to give hand jobs to his corporate buddies so he gets the golden reach around when he leaves his post.

      Everything he has done so far has been EXACTLY what the telecoms have wanted. He doesn't give a shit about America or anything else. He just wants to line his pockets, and you can bet that's exactly what he's aiming for when he walks through the revolving door.

      But this is what America wanted. Corrupt rich corporatist assholes. That's what they voted for, so that's what they're getting. Enjoy.

      --
      ~X~
    2. Re:Let's make this guy anathema by DCFusor · · Score: 1

      Yeah, inject low info partisanship into everything...prove you're a fool. Wikipedia mentions who appointed Ajit Pai...Barack Obama, in 2012. What america wanted was to get rid of the then-current batch of rich corporatist assholes. Like the ones who sold our uranium to the Russians and other things too numerous to list here.

      --
      Why guess when you can know? Measure!
  72. Block Comcast by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I'll block comcast from my house. Hopefully everyone else will do the same. If there's no other internet providers, either move or download large files at work and use your phone for email etc.

  73. Blocking bittorrent won't accomplish anything by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    They'll just move to using bittorrent over TOR instead. Then what are they going to do, block all the TOR nodes, too? Are we going to start burning books next? Fuck Ajit Pai, fuck Comcast, and fuck this whole Administration. They can all die in a fire.

    1. Re:Blocking bittorrent won't accomplish anything by luther349 · · Score: 1

      you know BitTorrent over tor does not work. tor cant work threw udp witch most of BitTorrent uses these days. second thats just a stepping stone to blocking everything it will move to blocking ftp vpn unapproved http and so on.

  74. Re: It would be okay if competition actually exist by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    yeah and its the government to blame for that. self imposed monopolies.

  75. That's the FCC's argument. (Verge is full of shit) by raymorris · · Score: 0

    That's what chairman Pai wrote, that the Comcast and torrents issue should have been addressed under anti-trust and consumer protection laws, rather than the failed way they tried to it, which the court threw out due to lack of legislative authority.

    His statement that what they did was a mistake is true almost by definition - the court threw it out. The "pages of legal arguments" the the Verge whines about is Pai explaining how the government could have regulated Comcast's behavior in a way that would stand up in court. The FCC isn't Congress, they can't make laws. They have to regulate within the framework of law that Congress passed, using the authority granted by Congress. The approach they tried wasn't legal and that's why the court threw it out.

  76. Retroshare by Thor+Ablestar · · Score: 1

    Just migrate to RetroShare. It uses SSL so attempts to block SSL would block just everything.

    Also, RS has self-contained chats and forums needing no browser so the deanon attempts via browser usual for TOR are expected to fail.

  77. Per The Law As Currently Instituted.... by Ferretman · · Score: 1

    ...the FCC is of course correct...legally if not particularly morally. The infrastructure has been built over decades with both public and private funding--it would be interesting to see what the percentage of each is--but assuming it's most likely private the FCC and the telecoms are correct. They built it, they own it.

    If this is remotely a good thing? No. Personally I think the Federal government should compensate the various telecoms for the infrastructure as it would be a 'taking" in the public interest and make it all a utility.

    Maybe it'll happen, maybe it won't. Taking private property isn't the answer, not without due process, no matter how good or righteous it might make one feel.

    Ferret

    --
    Sic gorgiamus allos subjectatos nunc
    1. Re:Per The Law As Currently Instituted.... by oh_my_080980980 · · Score: 1

      What kind of bullshit is this ass-hole. We built the fucking internet and gave fucking billions to the telecomss to wire people - which they did not. The internet was 100% public funded. Hello Arpanet. The only thing the telecoms were suppose to do was wire the last mile which they haven't done, which they were contractually obligated to do. Ask New Jersey.

      Pull the other one ass-hole.

  78. Re: GOP - Grand Ole Party NO MORE! by CohibaVancouver · · Score: 5, Informative

    I have watched the news religiously. It is mostly covering Republican pedophilia and barely ever mentions a Democrat for more than a quick bit then moves on.

    It's because the Democrats like Franken admit wrongdoing, apologize and take steps to make good. So the news story goes away. In Franken's case, his accuser accepted his apology. So there's no story any more.

    Republicans like Trump and Moore just shout FAKE NEWS NEVER HAPPENED LIARS SLUTS THE LOT OF THEM!!! so the story continues and continues...

  79. Re: Appcast should block LUDDITE software! by Powercntrl · · Score: 2

    This will end up in cat/mouse, and the mouse will always get away.

    Actually, no. The cat vs mouse analogy implies that while a cat is extremely adept at catching prey, mice are such prolific breeders that even a skilled predator can't exterminate them completely. While mice are oblivious to the fact their compatriots are being picked off, we humans aren't the same.

    We can be bribed or threatened not to fuck with the cat. It generally works.

    --

    ---
    DRM is like antifreeze, to the MPAA/RIAA it's sweet, to the consumers it's poison.
  80. Re:Good by dkman · · Score: 3, Informative

    Exactly. And game companies like Blizzard use customized bit torrent clients to distribute patches/updates. It's a lot easier to push out an update to a few million users when those users pitch in to help out.

    --
    I refuse to sign
  81. Re:Good by jezwel · · Score: 1

    Yep I have had good times with Blizzard downloads maxxing 100Mb connection, especially for larger downloads. Reinstalling 16+GB of D3 when it had a problem was not an issue, less than 20 mins IIRC.

  82. Yes, let's force all internet traffic into VPNs by basicprimitives · · Score: 1

    Only complete idiot may believe that regulating internet is possible. As soon as you block BitTorrent or anything else, people will start using VPN access to some servers in non-regulated areas of internet via secure protocols and the only outcome is going to be extra load on DHS servers to decrypt that traffic only to find out that it pumps porno or other media crap. Comcast will continue to suck! Setting up BitTorrent to work only when VPN is active is question of 5 minutes.

    1. Re:Yes, let's force all internet traffic into VPNs by oh_my_080980980 · · Score: 1

      You know you can block VPN traffic....

  83. This is stupid by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    It would be trivial to modify the protocol to avoid being blocked. Which is why all those threats about ISPs charging by website/service are not threats at all. ISPs can't block anyone's traffic. There will always be ways around it. Always.

    1. Re:This is stupid by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It would be trivial to modify the protocol to avoid being blocked. Which is why all those threats about ISPs charging by website/service are not threats at all. ISPs can't block anyone's traffic. There will always be ways around it. Always.

      There will always be ways for the (smarter elements of) the mob, pedophiles, Snowden's of the world to sneak a few mb across the net here or there. But anything mainstream, that lots of people would be using every day, is easily enough noticed by the ISP, at which point they highlight some vague CYA ToS phrase, and say "we have terminated your subscription, exercising our liberty to decide who we allow to be our customers". It's the wedding cakes for homosexual customers issue. Common carrier is the nuance icing on the cake.

  84. I may do a lot of things but? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    See subject: I will NOT steal YOUR food - RoTfLmAo!

    * Hahahahahaha...

    APK

    P.S.=> I'm not so cruel as to make you starve - you NEED the protein... apk

    1. Re: I may do a lot of things but? by Brockmire · · Score: 1

      He doesn't eat dicks, he just does butt stuff. He just said so. See his subject.

  85. Re:That's the FCC's argument. (Verge is full of sh by Desler · · Score: 3, Insightful

    That's what chairman Pai wrote, that the Comcast and torrents issue should have been addressed under anti-trust and consumer protection laws, rather than the failed way they tried to it, which the court threw out due to lack of legislative authority.

    Except the FTC would have limited powers of enforcement and would essentially be a paper tiger.

    http://thehill.com/blogs/pundi...

    His statement that what they did was a mistake is true almost by definition - the court threw it out.

    The courts threw out the previous version but upheld the current version.

    The FCC isn't Congress, they can't make laws.

    And yet Ajit Pai is making up his own rules all the time. But just like the lie of “judicial activism”, the right is always fine with something as long is it’s for things they like. It’s always “activism” whenever they disagree.

  86. Re:Good by Ryanrule · · Score: 1

    World of Warcraft and many other products use BitTorrent for patches.

  87. Ajit prop by Dripdry · · Score: 1

    Are we sure he isn't using a pseudonym?
    He's apparently "political propaganda", but instead of being just a symbol we gotta eat it. He's an agit pie.
    Boy do we ever have to eat it...

    --
    -
  88. Re: GOP - Grand Ole Party NO MORE! by Karmashock · · Score: 1

    Cite names please.

    Otherwise you might as well be talking about muppets.

    --
    I've decided to stop wasting my time responding to AC trolls/sockpuppets... so if you want a response from me... login.
  89. Well by Ol+Olsoc · · Score: 1
    It's interesting how many people on Slashdot adhere to the Republican/Trump Agenda.

    So y'all need to stop complaining about what you voted for. It is no secret at all that Republicans have been gunning to kill Net Neutrality, even when the country was dying in the grips of th e Kenyan Terror baby, and Acorn. it is a great opportuninty for the people they work for to make a lot of money. This is good.

    You won, now enjoy the spoils of your hard earned victory.

    --
    The shepherds did so well protecting the flock that the sheep no longer believed that wolves existed.
  90. Re:That's the FCC's argument. (Verge is full of sh by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    FCC's mandate is related to the promotion of Free Speech right?

  91. That's one argument. Wikipedia is 12GB by raymorris · · Score: 0

    There is certainly an argument to be made that free speech should allow a company to provide access to full Wikipedia, for free. Since the entire text of the whole English Wikipedia is 12GB, and a typical user won't read more than 0.01% of that. Figuring an average article size of 40KB, someone reading 75 Wikipedia articles per month would use only 3MB. Someone might certainly be able to provide a free wireless plan which includes 75 articles of Wikipedia access free each month, or have a wireless plan that costs $1 / month and has access to Wikipedia and similar educational sites. Those 3MB only cost the provider pennies. There is a free speech argument that someone should be allowed to do that, as a public service or otherwise. The organization offering this would probably also provide access to their own web site, of course.

    On the other hand, 3MB is TWO SECONDS of video on pornhub. Providing access to watch pornhub costs the provider thousands of times as much as providing access to Wikipedia. If the government says "you may not provide free access to Wikipedia unless you also provide free access to pornhub", the practical effect is that they just made it illegal to provide low-income people with free access to Wikipedia. By artificially making it cost thousands of times as much, they prevent it from happening. (This isn't theory, this actually happened - the free wireless plan offering educational content was actually cancelled due to "net neutrality" requirements.)

    There are of course counter-arguments, reasonable arguments to the contrary. I'm not expressing any opinion one way or the other about which arguments are best, but that's the first amendment argument. It's certainly a cogent argument.

    1. Re:That's one argument. Wikipedia is 12GB by JaredOfEuropa · · Score: 2

      I smell a rat. That free educational access plan might well have been introduced precisely to bring up this argument against net neutrality. Same as our providers who started plans with unlimited Spotify access just around the time the discussion on net neutrality started here in the EU. It’s similar to cities whose budgets are cut (here they get money from tbe national govt): they never say they’ll cut overhead, but instead they’ll loudly proclaim they’ll have to shut down public swimming pools and libraries. It’s all politics.

      --
      If construction was anything like programming, an incorrectly fitted lock would bring down the entire building...
    2. Re:That's one argument. Wikipedia is 12GB by dgatwood · · Score: 1

      There is certainly an argument to be made that free speech should allow a company to provide access to full Wikipedia, for free.

      No, not really (and even if there is an argument, it is moot) for multiple reasons:

      • Wikipedia without access to the citations and external links is a half-a**ed experience that is far inferior to primary sources.
      • Providing services is not speech. If it were, prostitution would be legal.
      • Nobody in their right minds would accept a free wired internet service that provides access to only one website. (The net neutrality laws do not apply to wireless ISPs).
      • Even if they did, a provider that provides access to specific websites doesn't meet the legal definition of an ISP, and thus wouldn't be covered under the net neutrality laws as written.
      • Even if it did, it would still be okay as long as the other sites were blocked. It would be a violation of the existing rules only if the ISP did metered billing by the megabyte and excluded only that traffic. Metering is almost nonexistent in the non-mobile ISP world, so this is highly unlikely.

      In short, this argument is so purely theoretical that it is moot. By contrast, the things these rules were intended to prevent are not theoretical, and caused actual harm.

      --

      Check out my sci-fi/humor trilogy at PatriotsBooks.

    3. Re: That's one argument. Wikipedia is 12GB by Bartles · · Score: 1

      What net neutrality laws?

  92. Re:Time for content providers to send their own me by Orgasmatron · · Score: 1

    Government employees shouldn't be doing that shit at work anyway. Just block those services to government IPs entirely.

    --
    See that "Preview" button?
  93. move along, nothing to see but us trolls here by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Heck I remember back in the napster days of the late 90s using steganography to put arbitrary binary files into a valid mp3 container, because napster wouldn't share non mp3 audio files.

    And that was because SFTP wasn't invented until what year? Of course at the low level all communication over usenet was binary. A simple fork of the FOSS nntp server implementations could have easily included a more native binary file transfer workflow. But since residential ISPs did not treat their subscriber's nntp server traffic on neutral terms compared to their gmail client traffic, there was insufficient marketplace for such server applications, and they didn't get developed.

    One of these days perhaps the waves of regulations drafted by people whose VCRs were blinking 12:00 at home (if they couldn't afford human servants) will get unwound and the basic ability to use an s/ftp server application on a general purpose computer will become as much of a thing as napster ever was. One of these decades I mean.

    hashtag home irc server persecution in residential isp terms of service for non-'business class' plans
    hashtag net neutrality never seemed to effectively protect the kind of traffic i wanted to use my access for so I'm not all broken up about this issue

  94. Comcast Blocking BitTorrent Isn't Right by WindowsStar · · Score: 1

    Ok so some people use BitTorrent for illegal means, however it is also used for many other LEGAL means. I use it to get my Linux Distos that is the fastest way to download them. Also my paid legal backup system uses BitTorrent to transfer my 5TB of files to my 5 locations and keep my backup in the cloud. I use this backup system because it works very well and it is cheaper than others because they leverage BitTorrent. My multi camera video surveillance system at all 5 locations uses yup you guessed it uses BitTorrent to keep my video data off site for review as needed and also so I can view live video on my cameras on my smart phone no matter where I am. Next I use BitTorrent to sync my files from my office computer to my home computer and my laptop so I always have my current files. Unfortunately Comcast is the only internet provider in several of the places I have my business. So Comcast is going to cripple my legal use of BitTorrent because some people use it for illegal means. That's like making all cars illegal because some people use them to rob banks!!! Holy Crap, please Comcast don't block BitTorrent you will break 75% of how my business works!!!!

  95. Re:Good by Powercntrl · · Score: 1

    If you were to download a movie you had no intention of purchasing, you've deprived the copyright owner of absolutely nothing. They were never going to get a sale from you in the first place, and you have not deprived the copyright holder of their right to exclusive distribution (the copyright holder can still sell their IP, same as before).

    However, since we're talking about BitTorrent, where anything you download is immediately shared with other users, you're facilitating copyright infringement by design (unless you're sharing files which can be legally shared, obviously).

    If you snuck into Disneyland, they'd very likely charge you with trespassing - not theft of the admission fee. When you gain access to property, whether real or intellectual, without permission of the owner - you have broken a law, but it's not theft.

    --

    ---
    DRM is like antifreeze, to the MPAA/RIAA it's sweet, to the consumers it's poison.
  96. Asinine question by Uberbah · · Score: 1

    Bittorrent has never killed a person, much less thousands of people a year in the U.S. alone.

  97. Hinduism by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    What else can you expect from a Hindu like Ajith Pai who follows a religion that is based on elitism and tyranny?

    1. Re:Hinduism by hyades1 · · Score: 1

      To be fair, Trump's whole administration follow a religion based on elitism and tyranny, and most of them aren't Hindi.

      --
      I've calculated my velocity with such exquisite precision that I have no idea where I am.
    2. Re:Hinduism by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      They are Hindus in theory. Just like Hitler and his aryan supremacy theory, these scums derive their ideology from the Hindu mind-set.

  98. will it still be legal to by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    block my ass from getting raped by the feds and the megacorp internet providers and media companies?

  99. Re:Good by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    lol you're not a copyright holder

  100. hashtag rigged system by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    It's about the ability for the average person to [] create a business without being quashed by larger businesses that don't want the competition.

    It includes the nuance of the quashing. Obviously a lot of businesses people want to start are destined for quashing because the business world is a cut throat survival of the fittest kind of arena. Generally it's going to take a compelling new product/tactic to not get quashed by the big playas out there. What it is about in my opinion is being allowed to create a business that is not required to be dependent on any other business (beyond paying a reasonable rate for the utility-like service of shuffling data packets across their networks). But folks like Google and Microsoft and Comcast make it their bottom line to have as many new and existing businesses as dependent on them as po$$ible. They make their public policy choices accordingly. I fear that the FCC is little more than a thin veil for implementing the wishes of the big establishment corporations.

  101. Re:Good by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    At the end of the day, Ajit Pai (not Agit Pai) is one son of fukking corrupted thief, he is born in a thief family, his sister is a thief, and so is his grandkinds (whenever they get born). So dont be surprised when Ajit bends to the bigger bidder, and fukks all of us.

  102. Re:Good by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Only if you download the whole movie. Until then, whatever you download and share is garbage.

  103. if you wanted to compare filesharing w/ murder by Rujiel · · Score: 1

    ... then that would be a great argument

  104. Re:Don't even think about shared guilt by SuricouRaven · · Score: 1

    They'd pass a law. It'd just be full of deliberate loopholes.

  105. Re:Good by SuricouRaven · · Score: 1

    It's interesting to note that the Blizzard updater never mentions bittorrent, anywhere - even though it is a bittorrent client. I think they don't want to be too openly associated with a technology of somewhat sordid reputation.

  106. Re: GOP - Grand Ole Party NO MORE! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Also, "maybe touched someones butt" is slightly different from, "police escorts had to be instructed to keep him away from preteens"

  107. Re:Good by Uberbah · · Score: 1

    Actually, I've always thought that a fairly good argument can be made that it is stealing

    Impossible as they are entirely different categories of crimes. May as well try and equate speeding and arson, as they both involve property and breaking the law.

  108. Re:Good by houghi · · Score: 1

    Downloading? I went to the store to buy mine.

    --
    Don't fight for your country, if your country does not fight for you.
  109. Inquiring minds want to know by Miles_O'Toole · · Score: 1

    Is it true they're planning a biopic of Ajit Pai with the working title, "Scumdog Millionaire"?

    --
    Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former.
  110. Re: GOP - Grand Ole Party NO MORE! by DNS-and-BIND · · Score: 1

    Uh, it's so their buddy franken can keep his seat. The media has a well-known leftist bias.

    --
    Shutting down free speech with violence isn't fighting fascism. It IS fascism!
  111. Re:Good by Hal_Porter · · Score: 1

    As opposed to being totally happy with being associated with Warcraft which is basically the video game equivalent of crack cocaine.

    --
    echo -e 'global _start\n _start:\n mov eax, 2\n int 80h\n jmp _start' > a.asm; nasm a.asm -f elf; ld a.o -o a;
  112. Re: Appcast should block LUDDITE software! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Block all encrypted traffic? Do you think they are suicidal?

  113. Ajit Pai by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Somebody should do a cartoon - Ajit Pai the dot-head guy.

  114. Re: I know you will think I'm very, very old, but by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    You may not be able to cast a vote, but you can still raise hell for your representative - question them through written communication, question them at public town hall appearances, question them during media interviews that have call-in time, question them through the press. Question their voting record as loudly as possible if they don't vote the way you would like, and get as many other people to question them too. Make sure they can't have a public appearance or media interview without getting asked your question.

    They can either speak to your issue, or the story quickly becomes that they refuse, and people start asking why.

  115. Re:Next step: sue comcast when you get hacked by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    If Comcast are going to be allowed to block traffic because and is illegal then why shouldn't Comcast block traffic because ?

    If Comcast were to start actively blocking some of my traffic and not other traffic then it would seem that Comcast is taking responsibility for DDoS attacks, hack attacks, phishing attacks, use of Comcast customers on botnets, etc.

    The RIAA/MPAA may want this and it MAY seem like a good idea at first but I think Comcast doesn't really want to be actively responsible for deciding what Internet traffic reaches your home.

    As always, think of the children: "My 6 year old saw a picture of a naked woman because Comcast let it through!"

  116. Re: Appcast should block LUDDITE software! by MachineShedFred · · Score: 1

    They won't lose any either, as their subscribers have essentially the choice between Comcast, and no internet service.

    --
    Slashdot still doesnâ(TM)t support Unicode after it was added to the HTML standard in 1997.
  117. Ajit Pai wants to turn the internet into cable TV by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Ajit Pai is trying to turn the internet into cable TV.

    Why are you Americans putting up with this ?

  118. Re: It would be okay if competition actually exist by MachineShedFred · · Score: 1

    The next block to your fix is throttling https / 443, and outright blocking OpenVPN connections using anything else. Yes, this is stupid, but it also allows Comcast to be able to shake down^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H offer "fast lane service" to more companies and content providers, all in the name of protecting intellectual property rights.

    --
    Slashdot still doesnâ(TM)t support Unicode after it was added to the HTML standard in 1997.
  119. New obfuscated HTTP based Torrent protocol ... by Qbertino · · Score: 1

    in 3,2,1 ...

    --
    We suffer more in our imagination than in reality. - Seneca
  120. Re: Appcast should block LUDDITE software! by dougdonovan · · Score: 1

    if it weren't for bit torent, you would be out of work and we know there are no jobs in india.

  121. Ok? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Apparently it's legal to deplatform TheDailyStormer and prevent white nationalists (or anyone else) from riding in Ubers, finding dates on Tinder or booking rooms via Airbnb. Why should only some companies be forced to treat everyone equally?

  122. good guy by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    The only way to stop a pirate with bittorrent is a good guy with bittorrent.

  123. what the "legit" programs/websites that use... by Pax681 · · Score: 1

    the bit torrent protocol to update/steam/distribute? what about the licenses that bittorrent inc have sold to the music and movie scene for their distribution....... there are plenty of "legit" uses for bittorrent and they get blocked too?

  124. Comcast isn't going to block Bittorrent by revprez · · Score: 1

    It's a pain in the ass and there's no percentage in it for them to do so. The real fight is with customerless peers dumping content downstream and Comcast not seeing a dime for their trouble.

    1. Re: Comcast isn't going to block Bittorrent by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Idiot.

  125. Re: GOP - Grand Ole Party NO MORE! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Yeah, remember when Trump lost his?

  126. Re: Appcast should block LUDDITE software! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    And which provider is an alternative?

  127. Re:Good by mark-t · · Score: 1

    If you were to download a movie you had no intention of purchasing, you've deprived the copyright owner of absolutely nothing

    Little is not the same as nothing. Copyright is supposed to entail exclusive control over who can make copies, and by making an unauthorized copy, you are usurping some of that control (by definition, because "exclusive" means that nobody else is doing it), and literally depriving the copyright holder of whatever proportional measure of control that your singular unauthorized copy represents.

  128. Re:Good by mark-t · · Score: 1

    I believe I explained above how copyright infringement is theft... the fact that there happens to be a more specific name for what we call copyright infringement is no different than the fact that shoplifting is also a form of theft. The only real difference is that in the case of copyright infringement, it may be less obvious to people what is actually being stolen.

  129. Re: Good by omnichad · · Score: 1

    We're talking about exceptions granted by the government. Corporate policies still can't legally violate the law.

  130. Awesome... slow downloads for all Americans! by wardrich86 · · Score: 1

    I wonder if Linux, and companies using Bit Torrent legally could sue the FCC for damages if they were to try this bullshit. Furthermore, why don't they also block HTTP/HTTPS since most trackers are running websites? Just totally nuke the internet altogether - it's clearly all bad news!

  131. Meanwhile in Europe... by volodymyrbiryuk · · Score: 1

    people just lay back and enjoy the spectacle. I bet the majority of 'tech savvy' /. users who voted for the orange boi didn't see that one coming. So much for draining the swamp and promoting freedom.

    --
    sudo rm -r -f --no-preserve-root /
  132. What Main Difference? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Is there only one amendment in your constitution?

    Case law has clearly demonstrated that telephone and Internet communications are covered under Freedom of Speech, Freedom of Assembly, and Freedom from unreasonable search and seizure.

  133. Re:Good by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Until they start charging you insane rates to put your content out there. then what good is a copyright if you cant even distribute things legally to make money off of it. Responses like yours are short sighted and incredibly stupid, of course your on his side because you see the immediate benifit to you but you fail to see the future unintended consequences. By deregulating the internet, the ISP's can double dip by not only charging the consumers but charging the producers as well. That means that in order to distribute your copyrighted works you will need to pay the gatekeeper (ISP's) and hope that someone out there has enough left over cash to pay you after they have already paid the gatekeepers. On top of that The price of everything will end up going up because everyone will need to pay the gatekeepers. So while this deregulation may help you in the short term, in the long term it may mean that your copyrighted works make you no money and you need to go work a min wage job to put food on the table.

    What people with your train of thought dont realize is that deregulation is about a consolidation of wealth and power into the hands of the ISP's and the more power that we give them, the more power they will take. Information is the new currency and the powerful understand that, which is why they are constantly merging and acquiring companies.

  134. Re:It would be okay if competition actually existe by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Absolutely no reason to artificially manufacture competing entities which will "let" you use the physical wires running to your house. Those are public infrastructure and should be managed as such.

    Alternatively, I suggest you provide me with several competing governments to choose from and I'll pledge allegiance to the one which treats me best (that day).

  135. Re: Appcast should block LUDDITE software! by Bartles · · Score: 1

    Like they did for the 25 years before the net neutrality decree?

  136. Re: That's the FCC's argument. (Verge is full of s by Bartles · · Score: 1

    When did Congress has the net neutrality act?

  137. Re: That's the FCC's argument. (Verge is full of by Bartles · · Score: 1

    Pass the net neutrality act, even.

  138. Military Response by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I hear people all the time talk about a military response on any communications company that advocates any type of censorship.

    I don't recommend censoring any type of traffic, and examining any type of traffic could be spying and a violation of the CFAA

  139. Re:I hope some nut shoots this guy by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    i hope you get cancer and die

  140. Re: Appcast should block LUDDITE software! by jedidiah · · Score: 1

    > get government to remove restrictions on local cable monopolies. once again government is in the way.

    With the need to run your own wires, how is that going to work exactly? This isn't a "government" problem. This is a scarcity of real estate problem. Waving an anarchist magic wand isn't doing to do anything.

    --
    A Pirate and a Puritan look the same on a balance sheet.
  141. Re: Appcast should block LUDDITE software! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    They know they have a monopoly. That is, until Elon's satellite constellation is started/completed. Then there will be a mass exodus from Comcast, until they change their business practices.

  142. Re: Appcast should block LUDDITE software! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Government is required to allow multiple vendors access to the utility polls. Without intervention, the poll owners will only allow a single vendor access, forming a monopoly by exclusion. Capitalism will not fix this. The infrastructure is not a level playing field.

  143. Piracy, childporn and terrorism are solved. by k2r · · Score: 1

    Soon customers in the US will only be able to connect to a preselected list of servers for Facebook etc.
    But you will be able to buy access to additional IPs per MByte Traffic.

    Oh, IPv6 rollout is solved, too, you will not need it.

  144. Re: GOP - Grand Ole Party NO MORE! by CohibaVancouver · · Score: 3, Informative

    INNOCENT UNTIL PROVEN GUILTY.

    The thing is, you have to accept that in some cases you are never going to have definitive "proof." There is not going to be HD video surfacing with surround-sound audio of Moore taking the clothes off a 14-year-old girl.

    What you have is the weight of evidence and you have to make your evaluation on that.

    At least five unrelated women have accused Moore - Women who have never met each other, all tell almost identical stories.

    In the case of Corfman, her mother and her friends back up the story. Corfman is a Republican who voted for Trump. Court records show Moore and Corfman were at the courthouse that day. People who worked with Moore at the DA's office say it was common knowledge that Moore dated teenage girls. One girl has a high school yearbook that Moore signed.

    On and on.

    That is a lot of weight of evidence against Moore saying "it didn't happen."

    Similar story with Trump - Unrelated women telling similar stories. And what further harms Trump is he lies constantly, so any credibility in his saying "It didn't happen!" is lost.

    In the end it comes down to a simple question (with a difficult answer): Who do you believe?

  145. Adios, internet socialism by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Now that the front regulations are being tossed in the trash:

    https://fee.org/articles/goodbye-net-neutrality-hello-competition/

  146. It actually happened by raymorris · · Score: 1

    > Nobody in their right minds would accept a free wired internet service that provides access to only one website.

    Actually people DO accept free stuff. Millions of people even PAID for services that provided only limited web sites, not the internet in general. Half the people on Slashdot bought these services. (The other half apparently think the internet started a year and half ago, when the net neutrality rules went into effect.) These services had names like AOL, Prodigy, and CompuServe. Services that provide full, open access won in the marketplace because they are better, and people paying for service choose the open internet. People who don't buy internet service did in fact sign up for the free educational connection.

    > (The net neutrality laws do not apply to wireless ISPs).
    > this argument is so purely theoretical that it is moot.

    I'm sorry but you're missing a lot of information. The government did in fact shut the service down. It's not theoretical, it happened about a year ago. It was a wireless service.

    > By contrast, the things these rules were intended to prevent are not theoretical, and caused actual harm.

    Certainly people supporting new rules had good intentions. Unfortunately good intentions are of little practical value. Damage done with good intentions is still damage done. Based on what I see these supporters saying this week, all over the media, what they seek to prevent is "your ISP is going to start charging you extra for Tumblr". THAT, my friend, is theoretical, not real. Shutting down the free wireless service that provided access to Wikipedia and other educational content is what actually happened. That's what's real.

    1. Re:It actually happened by Highdude702 · · Score: 1

      Well put, I see the same stuff you do with all these advocates of NN, they have no idea what its actually for. The only thing they can bring up is boogey man scenarios. NN Was never good for the internet. Only for content providers that want profit but no expense.

  147. Re: Appcast should block LUDDITE software! by Hognoxious · · Score: 1

    Government is required to allow multiple vendors access to the utility polls.

    72% of people agree with this policy, 15% disagree, and 21% can't count.

    --
    Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
  148. Re:Good by Dread_ed · · Score: 1

    So rape is now vagina theft?

    --
    When the only tool you have is a claw hammer every problem starts to look like the back of someone's skull.
  149. Media Mattiers doesn't believe in holidays. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    All the paid posters and mods are out in full force this weekend. Wow, just wow.

  150. Re: GOP - Grand Ole Party NO MORE! by Green+Mountain+Bot · · Score: 1

    Never mind that the Governor of Minnesota is a Democrat, and would appoint a Democrat to fill his seat. There's no need for the supposedly leftist media to protect a leftist when his replacement would certainly be a leftist.

    The GOP, Fix news, and Roy Moore, on the other hand ...

  151. Idiot fck boy by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Wait until you can't sell your copyrighted work through anyone except for a major ISP. They'll drop in a last mile cache for their services and anyone who wants to pay meaning serving their content up will cost them almost nothing. Meanwhile they'll charge you and regular legal content providers a fee, or they'll give you like a gig of "other" downloads and start throttling you after that.

    Once netflix, amazon, google, akamai and all the rest of the content providers cost twice as much as services owned by the cable companies, they'll get shut down. Your cable companies will further integrate their video content offerings with their service/set top boxes and at that point they'll be able to start jacking the price up and injecting more and more ads.

    I currently pay full legal price for all my content but if net neutrality fails I will never pay for anything again even if I have to download a nonstop 128kb trickle from a seedbox tunneled through DNS or facebook the comments section. If I can tunnel at 128kbps it's a whole season of content every single day. Do you know how easy it is to squeeze 128kbps out of legitimate traffic even on a 3rd world facebook only data plan. Or even ip over DNS on a cell phone that's not even activated? Two old cell phones and a linksys router for pirating and the cheapest internet my ISP will sell me for everything else. That's 4000 episodes of television a year. I'll get torrents from an RSS feed to a shit-teir VPS/seedbox and then DNS-over-IP to a few disconnected obamaphones.

    Good luck fucko. I can't wait until you get a pittance for your content after the man takes his cut and I'm paying less than I do now. I can't wait to show everyone else how to do it too. Maybe I'll even offer it as a service just because of you.

  152. Re:Good by mark-t · · Score: 1

    Apples and oranges. I do not mean to make light of the seriousness of the crime of rape for a second here, but the clear difference with your analogy is that a woman that is raped typically still has just as much of her vagina after the crime as they did before it, whereas what is being taken from the copyright holder in the case of copyright infringement is something that they both a) definitely had before the infringement, and b) definitely have less of afterwards. That said, rape probably still could be thought of as theft of certain things, depending on the person. A theft of dignity, a theft of choice on who to have sex with, a theft of virginity perhaps, possibly a theft of purity from STD's... there are probably dozens more.

    Again, it's not my intent to make light of rape here, nor to be insensitive to anyone who may have experienced or who may personally know someone who has. I only intended to refute the above remark, and illustrate how the vagina is not actually stolen (where one simply defines theft as any unauthorized taking of something from someone) in the case of rape.

  153. Horrible news for linux distros by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Legal BitTorrent distribution saves distros' resources and is typically quicker than direct downloads.

  154. Re:Good - Ummmm No! by atrimtab · · Score: 1

    So when a thief steals an Amazon package from your doorstep. Tears open the package a block away and then finds nothing that can be resold or used by themselves but take it anyway. That's not stealing in your definition?

    Nope. Sorry. Better you stick with the "copying is not theft" argument.

    Stealing based on the personal value of the theft between owner and thief is still stealing. And the previous property owner is the loser.

    Public Service Message: It's the Holiday's!!!! DO NOT have packages delivered to your home. Even if you are there most delivery people will NOT ring the doorbell, so if you live in area with some population density you can kiss those packages goodbye!

    Amazon seems to want only deliver to their Lockers now. So their delivery people do not ring doorbells.

    --
    Facebook is billions of individual "Skinner Boxes." And if you use it you are the pigeon!
  155. Re: GOP - Grand Ole Party NO MORE! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Pedophiles are not interested in teenagers. They are only after pre-pubescent children.

  156. Re: Appcast should block LUDDITE software! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Thanks, yes I meant "poles". I posted quickly when my wife needed me. Now, do you have anything that's actually interesting to contribute?

  157. Re: GOP - Grand Ole Party NO MORE! by Brockmire · · Score: 1

    Fuck face, you need to be prosecuted before you can be found guilty. You don't know shit. You are one dumb motherfucker. Do not breed.

  158. Re:Good - Ummmm No! by mark-t · · Score: 1

    So when a thief steals an Amazon package from your doorstep. Tears open the package a block away and then finds nothing that can be resold or used by themselves but take it anyway. That's not stealing in your definition?

    How did you arrive at that conclusion from what I said?

    Asssuming that theft means, simply, the unauthorized taking of something from someone, copyright infringement most definitely qualifies, because something is quite truly taken away by copyright infringement.

    The fact that copyright infringers might not care about the perceived value of what they are taking away, or might even disagree with the notion that it was ever something that the copyright holder ever had is irrelevant.

    Amazon seems to want only deliver to their Lockers now. So their delivery people do not ring doorbells.

    Well, that's one way of dodging the fact that people aren't necessarily home at the time of the delivery.

    When they used to use expedited post, it was no problem. If you weren't home, it would be waiting for you at the post office the next day, which in my experience was usually only a couple of blocks away, and not remotely out of the way when I am going home.

    The nearest Amazon locker to my place is about 2 miles, and is nowhere near on my way to or from any place that I routinely go. (grumble, grumble, grumble)

  159. Re: Good by Brockmire · · Score: 1

    Your parents failed you if you didn't learn stealing as simply, "taking something that doesn't belong to you without their permission".

  160. Re: Appcast should block LUDDITE software! by Hognoxious · · Score: 0

    I posted quickly when my wife needed me.

    What, again? I gave her it twice already.

    --
    Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
  161. You EAT YOUR WORDS vs. me Brockmire by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    You had to EAT YOUR WORDS vs. me Brockmire (Quagmire , lol - your name is mud) https://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=10557875&cid=54347839/ & no I never said what you now say I did - learn to read, moron.

    APK

    P.S.=> Of course, you're DOUBTLESS just PROJECTING your own "StRaNgE" activities for all to see no doubt, lol... apk

  162. The voice of experience by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    A few (several?) years back, I downloaded a bunch of Linux distros via BitTorrent. To my surprise, the downloads took around 24 hours each to complete. Not long afterwards, I read that my ISP, Comcast, had been injecting fake hangups into BitTorrent transmissions. When the story broke, Comcast backpedaled, my next round of distro downloads took more like 15 minutes each, and the push for explicit rules mandating net neutrality took off in earnest. Those who cannot remember the past may be condemned to repeat it, but those who cannot remember what happened a few short years ago are just plain stupid.

  163. pr0n Free Speech neutrality - or not? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    higher rate for the same amount of bandwidth used versus a pornhub user.

    On the other hand, 3MB is TWO SECONDS of video on pornhub. Providing access to watch pornhub costs the provider thousands of times as much as providing access to Wikipedia. If the government says "you may not provide free access to Wikipedia unless you also provide free access to pornhub", the practical effect is that they just made it illegal to provide low-income people with free access to Wikipedia.

    I think I see the track you are taking here. The answer is that allowing ISPs to be in the position of deciding *which* Free Speech (be it wikipedia or pr0n) their customers are allowed to see removes the concept of Free Speech from the equation for that ISP. Which to my original point about that being part of FCC's jurisdictional mandate, means that the FCC would no longer be the legally appropriate entity to regulate such a non-Free-Speech internet access service provider.

    (note- comment originally submitted but blocked by AC 10 comment limit approx 16 hours ago (long before current micro$oft darknet wikipedia headline, and now pornhub)

    1. Re:pr0n Free Speech neutrality - or not? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      and the cut and paste fail at the beginning for the historacil record-

      I think it's more than an argument- A fact of the CC license? The issue is that the company (*or individual*) that chooses to do so, should not have to pay a higher rate for the same amount of bandwidth used versus a pornhub user.

      And to throw in a comment on the pornhub one- the summary sounds like it should be rewritten as 'that silly thing with the click to say your 18 issue is being looked at again this year by some people'

  164. Re:Good by Uberbah · · Score: 1

    I believe I explained above how copyright infringement is theft.

    But they're not. Not even remotely close. Just think about it for two seconds: if I steal your car that you have put up for sale, what have you lost: your car. You can no longer sell it. But what if I make a perfect copy of your car and start driving it - from thousands of miles away. You haven't lost anything that wasn't already in your possession.

    Which is not to say that copyright infringement - a time limited right to exclusive duplication of works - isn't a violation of the law. It's saying it's not theft, never has been, and never will be. You don't go around insisting that arson is theft because it "deprives" someone of a possession, do you?

  165. FOSS routers doing QoS under user control by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Basically an automated punishment system for people using "too much," driving them to turn off their bittorrents or other high-bandwidth applications at least during the times they want to be using their own connection

    In other words, use an FOSS router doing QoS that is under the user's control? Check out the operating system called Linux. I'm sure FreeBSD can work as well on a general purpose computer. If you want something simpler, OpenWRT is a popular distro that can run on many inexpensive router boxes.

    1. Re:FOSS routers doing QoS under user control by Altrag · · Score: 1

      Sure. If you want to limit the bandwidth yourself, I'm sure your ISP will happily save themselves the effort.

      I used the word "punishment" for a reason. It would not be done to improve the quality of service on their end. And yes there would always be a sweet spot to get the maximum transfer rate for the minimum amount of punishment.. but the vast majority of people are not going to be setting up their own FreeBSD boxes never mind setting up useful QoS rules and really never mind being able to figure out where the sweet spot is -- especially if the ISP is regularly tweaking their system and thus moving the sweet spot.

  166. Does free speech cover sending someone a pamphlet? by raymorris · · Score: 1

    > Providing services is not speech. If it were, prostitution would be legal

    That's an interesting topic. So in your opinion mailing out a pamphlet critical of President Trump isn't covered by free speech? Or is it covered if you send the pamphlet by mail, but not covered if you send it over the air, wirelessly? Or maybe it's free speech *only* if you're criticizing Trump, not if you're sending educational writing such as Wikipedia?

    I can't imagine any way to say sending educational text such as Wikipedia to people who ask for it isn't free speech, without saying free speech is completely meaningless.

  167. Re:Good by Aighearach · · Score: 1

    Thankfully, I haven't done that since 1999.

  168. Re:Good by mark-t · · Score: 1

    Copyright infringement actually takes away a measure of the exclusivity of control that a copyright holder is supposed to have and amounts to some unauthorized share of that control going to the infringer. Whether the infinger has an sense of gain in this regard is irrelevant With arson, the arsonist doesn't gain what they deprive a homeowner of when they burn the place down.

  169. Re: GOP - Grand Ole Party NO MORE! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    The media has a well-known leftist bias.

    The liberal media that ignored a Clinton speech to show a full half-hour of empty Trump podium? The liberal media breathlessly interviewing Trump voters, whose opinions were glorious revelations, when no such quest was undertaken to spread the ideas of Obama voters?

  170. Re: Appcast should block LUDDITE software! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Nothing to contribute I see. Thought so. Time to turn in your 6-digit UID.

  171. business-class VPN users vs highway speeders by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Packets are unlike guns in that while people who carry guns legitimately usually don't have to carry their guns across Comcast property in order to get to work on time, people who telecommute and live in Comcast territory do have to carry their packets across Comcast property in order to get to work on time.

    Is there a difference between the ones that pay more for 'business class' service? One word friend- 'tethering'. Net Neutrality has always been at best a lovely illusion. A culture where >50% of highway drivers are violating speed limit laws and <1% face repercussions for their 'unlawfulness'. That is the situation here. The cops are too overworked and understaffed to want to deal with issues that aren't literally bleeding, and rightfully so. At this point, you just sit back and either accept the pervasive lawlessness and disrespect for authority it breeds, or you rewrite the laws so the average person is no longer breaking the law.

  172. does free speech cover the service of a 'blog? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Providing services is not speech

    Auto-repair services- sure, you've got a point. Providing a 'blog on the internet with your periodic thoughts and references to the news and other media? Uh, yeah.

  173. Re: GOP - Grand Ole Party NO MORE! by DNS-and-BIND · · Score: 1

    How many of these sex scandals have been reported in your news? If you haven't heard of them, you're probably watching fake news. http://www.dailywire.com/news/...

    --
    Shutting down free speech with violence isn't fighting fascism. It IS fascism!
  174. Re:Good by Uberbah · · Score: 1

    Copyright infringement actually takes away a measure of the exclusivity of control

    Which is why it's called copyright infringement. Because you are infringing on someone else's time-limited right to the the sole source of authorized copies of a work.

    Another easy test of this: go to any person or media company who's ever claimed to have been the victim of copyright infringement. Then ask them how much they reported to the police or their insurance companies for theft. That number is going to be zero.

    Because copyright infringement is not theft. Never has been, never will be.

  175. No Real Impact On Linux Distros by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Legal BitTorrent distribution saves distros' resources and is typically quicker than direct downloads.

    Don't worry about us. We know how to fork, then tweak some FOSS, put it on a different port, and call it something else like "DistributedFOSSDistributionByteBlaster". DFDBB. BFD. It'll be legal circus for a few more decades. Invest in popcorn.

  176. Re: Appcast should block LUDDITE software! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    If it was a typo it's pretty unlikely you'd make the same error twice. You're just dumb, get over it.

  177. Re:Good by mark-t · · Score: 1

    It's called, as you say, copyright infringement because you infringe on their rights.... but infringing on someone's copyright quite literally involves depriving them of the *exclusivity* that the copyright holder would have otherwise had. Kidnapping is a kind of theft too... Arson is a kind of vandalism... Forgery is a kind of fraud.... just because things happen to have a special name for them doesn't mean they are no longer specialized instances of something else.

    In fact, the *ONLY* reason that practically exists to say that copyright infringement is not theft is so that people who don't care about copyright infringement are able to convince themselves that they don't need to feel guilty, as they would if they had supposedly *truly* stolen something (a variation on the "no true Scotsman" expression).

  178. before "net neutrality" by eric_harris_76 · · Score: 1

    There was a time in the not-too-distant past when the "net neutrality" rule wasn't in effect. So far, nobody has come up with any actual problems from that era that "net neutrality" fixed.

    Some perhaps helpful links. https://plus.google.com/111504... which links to http://thegarrisoncenter.org/a... , and also http://knappster.blogspot.com/...

    Ending "net neutrality" will not be the end of anything good. Dogs and cats will not be living together. There will be no mass hysteria. "Those people" will not suddenly start to want to marry your sister. Witches won't put a curse on you. And so on.

    --
    There's no time like the present. Well, the past used to be.
  179. Lots of different intentions, complicated in pract by raymorris · · Score: 1

    > Well put, I see the same stuff you do .... NN Was never good for the internet. Only for content providers that want profit but no expense.

    Well I didn't say that, and I support the CONCEPT of net neutrality. Modern network optimization is just so technically complex that it's almost impossible to write effective NN laws that don't have a lot of unintended consequences. That said, NETFLIX specifically DID drum up a lot of BS about NN when at the end of the day they simply didn't want to pay their bills like every other web site does.

    I don't put any bad intent on NN advocates generally. It is, however, true that roughly zero certified network admins have supported any of the rules as written, because they accidentally have the side effect of requiring the network to work less effectively for everyone.

  180. Re:Lots of different intentions, complicated in pr by Highdude702 · · Score: 1

    IMO they need to deregulate who can put fiber in the ground or on telephone poles to allow small and municipal ISP's to start and hopefully prosper. I remember in the days of dialup anybody could start a dial in ISP, if we went back to that model then we wouldn't have all the price gouging that we have today. Also with the deregulating of telephone poles, My idea would be they poles and existing wires are state owned(opposite of how I normally feel about the state) and anybody that wanted to pay a monthly fee, with a minimum speed/amount of traffic, to stop every body from just renting space on the lines and causing state massive paperwork.... Also a fee to run your own fiber and have unlimited use for the first say 5 years? and after that it becomes state owned, and you pay the monthly fee as everybody else does. Obviously there would have to be other limits set on stuff, like the number of lines to any given area and wot not. but remove the damn monopoly system we have today. As far as NN goes, it has done nothing to fix anything that is wrong with the internet today as far as I can tell.

  181. Re: GOP - Grand Ole Party NO MORE! by Green+Mountain+Bot · · Score: 1

    Did you mean to respond to someone else? What you posted has nothing to do with the topic in this thread.

    By the way, dailywire is about as good a source of news as the steaming pile my dog left on the lawn this morning.