The Case Against the FCC's Net Neutrality Plan

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The author of this guest editorial at C|Net says he has read the FCC’s net neutrality plan (185 numbered paragraphs, 310 footnotes and 3 appendices) and he has come to the conclusion that there's nothing to see here, folks.:eek:

The basic thrust of the proposed rules, as nearly everyone knows by now, is to keep broadband Internet access providers from managing last-mile network traffic in ways that discriminate, pro or con, based on content, applications, or devices. Access providers would be banned from restricting or throttling services that the provider doesn't like, for example, perhaps because they compete with more expensive alternatives the provider or one of its business partner offers. The proposed rules would apply to all broadband access, including wireless.
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The FCC might not be the right body to do it, and it might have unexpected consequences.

However, if net neutrality isn't enforced and its allowed to be chopped up commercially the internet as we know it will die. The people in congress do not care what the majority of Americans want, that is for sure. Honestly, I've met very few INFORMED people say they are FOR not having net neutrality unless they had some vested interest it rather than the greater good.
 
The problem is these guidelines proposed are still too general and include too many exception cases. That seriously calls into question how enforceable they really are, if at all.
 
+1 for net Neutrality imo, Comcast fucks me in the ass cause i live in a shitty neighborhood and like to torrent demos
 
I wonder how much it cost the ISPs to get an "editorial" I bet its much cheaper than the pharma / health companies pay for a "study" or politicians pay for a "poll"
 
How is Comcast screwing with you on torrents?

I thought they were not allowed to block this?

And besides, Torrents are for the new kids on the block. Ask any old timer.

Not only can what you download be tracked, but the time / date and ip address, all of that can be collected, stored and even used against you at a later date. In fact there are several companies setup collecting this data with the hopes of selling it now or in the future.

And some advice, build your defense now, make sure you leave your wireless network open, just keep an eye on who gets on it and just block them as you see people. Eventually you will block all the usual suspects. At the same time, make sure to use your ISP's help desk and complain to them that people are getting on your wireless network. This does two important things, documents that you had an open wireless network, that someone else could have downloaded offending material via your IP address. And 2nd, this is an excellent defense if you are ever pulled into court over your torrent usage. If there is any doubt or possibility someone else could have done what you are accused of doing, then there it would be hard to find you guilty.

In the UK, it's now or soon will be illegal for you to maintain an open wireless network due to this very reason. You are fined if you are discovered to have an open network. It's a matter of time before that comes to the US. In fact, some states already may have this law on the books. I am unsure.

If you have an extra $15 dollars a month, I would suggest Astraweb Usenet service. It's Internets last great frontier. It's 1000000% more reliable than torrents and 1000000% safer on top of, 1000000% faster.

10 to 20 connections, year + retention, and incredible speed, all my downloads are as fast as my pipes limit. 20mbit connection, so all my downloads are 2.2 MEG a second.

The biggest feature with usenet is SSL. Only two people know what you are downloading, yourself and GOD as the connection from your computer to the companies usenet servers are encrypted.
 
SixFootDuo said:
And besides, Torrents are for the new kids on the block. Ask any old timer.

Not only can what you download be tracked, but the time / date and ip address, all of that can be collected, stored and even used against you at a later date. In fact there are several companies setup collecting this data with the hopes of selling it now or in the future.
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yea. i only use torrents to complete my retro gaming collection. sega saturn, dreamcast, neogeo cd etc. though these games are still under copyright, they are out of production and noone will really care. but for example, there was a torrent for all star trek series except the original one. 200gb download. hell yea, i'd have loved to download it but you bet your ass there's at least 10 lawyers collecting ip addresses and sue you for a couple millions. after all it's several complete series and they assume you upload it back to a couple thousand people (see the d&d player's handbook, the fine assumed more than 3k downloaders). do the math. no, thanks. i'm back to usenet and direct downloads.

SixFootDuo said:
[...]Only two people know what you are downloading, yourself and GOD [...]
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which of the hundreds of GODs do you mean?
 
If you support net neutrality and live in Arizona make sure you give Senator John McCain a call. McCain just introduced a bill that would prohibit the FCC from exercising any control over ISPs. This means if comcast (for example) decides to limit bandwith for a competitors application (say Earthlink) or some other app they dont like (torrents), the FCC does not have the right to intervene to stop the ISP from doing this.
 
SixFootDuo said:
If there is any doubt or possibility someone else could have done what you are accused of doing, then there it would be hard to find you guilty.
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You're confusing criminal law with civil law. In civil law you do not get "innocent until proven guilty beyond reasonable doubt". It becomes "guilty until you've spent so much money you can't prove your innocence".
 
mmarsh said:
If you support net neutrality and live in Arizona make sure you give Senator John McCain a call. McCain just introduced a bill that would prohibit the FCC from exercising any control over ISPs.
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You don't have to live in Arizona to give him a piece of your mind.
 
I'd love to find a copy of Terminator: Future Shock. Anyone got a copy? :D
 
net neutrality is a giant scam. it's pegged pitting us "lowly" internet users against mega corporations...but many of these corporations support it! it's a scam designed to give the government the power to regulate the Internet, another breach into the free market. Are all ISPs perfect? of course not...but adding government into the mix is the absolute worst possible plan.

the FCC is already the most annoying, anti-capitalist entity in the Federal government.
 
rcf1987 said:
saw this today

http://www.dump.com/2009/10/30/a-ne...at-might-happen-if-net-neutrality-disappears/
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ROFL i saw this yesterday. what a complete joke.

Do you honestly think that if Comcast implemented a tiered structure that Verizon wouldnt immidiately advertise NOT using it and having thousands of new customers within hours?

OR

people that don't need to use the internet much now have the ability to buy a watered down base packet to save money or upgrade speeds for the basic internet sites.


plus, it's not like proxies don't exist...


the free market allows for these tiered systems. if people like them, they will be successful. if not, they will fail, the company will lose money, and lose respect/reputation.
 
defuseme2k said:
The FCC might not be the right body to do it, and it might have unexpected consequences.

However, if net neutrality isn't enforced and its allowed to be chopped up commercially the internet as we know it will die. The people in congress do not care what the majority of Americans want, that is for sure. Honestly, I've met very few INFORMED people say they are FOR not having net neutrality unless they had some vested interest it rather than the greater good.
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I disagree. Any provider that chops up the 'net or reduces its functionality will risk loosing customer base and die of natural causes. Might take a couple of months but it will happen.

I also do not agree with any pay service being forced into neutrality. Neutrality comes because of customer demand.
 
rcf1987 said:
saw this today

http://www.dump.com/2009/10/30/a-ne...at-might-happen-if-net-neutrality-disappears/
Click to expand...

What a joke. Cable companies have tiers for two reasons. The government forces a basic tier so people who have bad OTA reception have a cheap option. Then cable companies need to pay for most channels they rebroadcast. They have to decide what people will pay for and how much they will pay to get it. This force them to split it up into programming tiers.

Now do you think Amazon, Google, Yahoo, Pandora, etc would start charging ISP's to carry their packets to you?
 
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