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FCC Explains How Net Neutrality Will Be Protected Without Net Neutrality Rules (arstechnica.com)
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: The Federal Communications Commission is still on track to eliminate net neutrality rules this Thursday, but the commission said today that it has a new plan to protect consumers after the repeal. The FCC and Federal Trade Commission released a draft memorandum of understanding (MOU) describing how the agencies will work together to make sure ISPs keep their net neutrality promises. After the repeal, there won't be any rules preventing ISPs from blocking or throttling Internet traffic. ISPs will also be allowed to charge websites and online services for faster and more reliable network access. In short, ISPs will be free to do whatever they want -- unless they make specific promises to avoid engaging in specific types of anti-competitive or anti-consumer behavior. When companies make promises and break them, the FTC can punish them for deceiving consumers. That's what FCC Chairman Ajit Pai and Acting FTC Chair Maureen Ohlhausen are counting on. "Instead of saddling the Internet with heavy-handed regulations, we will work together to take targeted action against bad actors," Pai said in a joint announcement with the FTC today.
Ignorance is Strength
"We'll protect consumers! We'll stop Nestle if they put poison in their bottled water. But there's no need for heavy handed regulation; we'll only do it if they say their bottled water doesn't have poison in it."
-- sigs cause cancer.
Yes, you are missing something...
A briefcase full of cash.
General Relativity: Space-time tells matter where to go; Matter tells space-time what shape to be.
Ah, right. The feds will hold the ISPs to their word. Then the invisible hand of the market will take care of everything.
It's like these assholes think the free market fairy can just wave her little magic wand and make anything work.
Except they don't think that. They know you have only 1-2 choices for ISP, and if both suddenly decide to provide shittier service, you're fucked. They even know that you know that. They're just testing to see if this makes it in above the pain threshold of the American voter, because everything that you can suffer, you will be made to suffer.
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The companies that give us access to the internet were being regulated....its completely different.....Regulating the internet is telling companies what services are and are not allowed on the internet (think China or Iran).....Regulating companies about how they are allowed to behave when giving people access to the internet prevents abuse of the people that use the internet.
You are one dumb fuck.
This is what they've been saying from the beginning. The correct summary is "you have no protection."
All they're saying is that when your ISP decides to screw you, all they have to do is tell you they're doing it and they're home free.
That solves nothing at all. It might be useful if you had the ability to use a different ISP with better policies -- but the odds are overwhelming that you don't.
because corporations have never reneged on promises made to the government and/or consumers
because verizon, comcast, et al have never made promises, then slowly backpedaled when the time came to pay up
because none of these telecoms have ever put out feelers to see what they can get away with in regards to violating NN
because without competition and / or regulators corporations have every incentive to forgo revenue because of ethics, morals, or the public good
because these people have not bought and sold the FCC
because corporations would never act in a manner that 'kicks the ladder out' from underneath competition.
you can trust them, promise.
"We reserve the right to change the terms of service at any time, without notice."
And they will never, ever, ever break that rule.
Maybe you live in a country where there is actually a competition between ISPs going on. For many US people, there is no competitor to switch to. The joke is that the country that prides itself to be the pinnacle of the capitalist economy has more ISP monopolies than even China.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
I'm not sure why you resent the people that have put forth years and years of effort
Because they received subsidies and exclusive use of public right-of-ways, and now they are trying to abuse their monopoly positions.
Try putting in your own connection to the internet and then come back and complain
I don't have a legal right-of-way to do that. The market can't fix the problem when there is no market.
Net Neutrality should not be necessary. It is needed because the government screwed up, and sold/leased/gave-away the right-of-ways to a single vendor in most areas. What they should have done is either build, or required the first vendor to build, a publicly owned conduit, such as a 12" PVC pipe, that any bonded company could later use to pull cable or fiber. This would have cost little extra, since the cost of the pipe is low compared to the cost of the trenching. But it would have drastically lowered the barriers to entry, and allow real competition. I would also make upgrades much easier.
FedEx, UPS, and the Postal Service don't each require their own set of roads. We should not expect every ISP to dig their own trenches.
are rarely comparable to the infraction.
* * * :|
For your crimes of deceiving customers and making a profit of $1.21 Billion dollars, we hereby fine you for $10 Million dollars and your promise to never do it again. You must, of course, pinky swear it and agree to undergo sensitivity training
* * *
Until he shows me otherwise, I have zero faith in the new head of the FCC. We can certainly hope it plays out like the Tom Wheeler era but, as we all know, lightning rarely strikes the same place twice.
So wrong because you are making arguments based on what is technologically possible today and some propaganda by the major companies but that is not how this situation came to be.
They have been playing dirty for decades to eliminate the competition. We can't just press reset and make everything the way it should have been but we can start making good decisions one at a time until it is.
These companies have been blatantly lying to the public, exposed multiple times, but it seems many people are not aware of it.