The Horrific Murder of Net Neutrality

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Jasper
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The Horrific Murder of Net Neutrality

#1 Post by Jasper » Fri Jan 17, 2014 9:16 am

I guess nobody else has brought up this truly terrible turn of events. It's horrifying shit being perpetrated upon U.S. citizens, and it will absolutely impact us, and may have implications for other countries.
Why You Should Be Freaking Out About The End Of Net Neutrality

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Net neutrality is dead.

At least that's the verdict of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, which today struck down a Federal Communications Commission (FCC) order from 2010 that forced Internet service providers (ISPs) like Verizon, AT&T, Comcast and Time Warner Cable to abide by the principles of network neutrality. These principles broadly stipulate that ISP network management must be transparent, and that ISPs can't engage in practices that block, stifle or discriminate against (lawful) websites or traffic types on the Internet.

That's the bare bones story, wrapped in ugly acronyms (FCC, ISP, etc.). But why should you care that network neutrality ("net neutrality") may be gone for good?

1. No more net neutrality means ISPs can now discriminate against content they dislike.

Everyone gets their Internet from an Internet service provider -- an ISP like AT&T, Verizon, Comcast or Time Warner Cable. Under net neutrality rules, these ISPs have to treat all content you access over the Internet "roughly the same way" -- they can't speed up traffic from websites they like or delay competitor's traffic.

Now, with net neutrality gone, ISPs can discriminate, favoring their business partners while delaying or blocking websites they don't like. Think your cable CEO hates free online porn? Now you'll know for sure!

2. No more net neutrality means ISPs can now force websites to PAY for faster content delivery.

You know how some sites you go to just load slower than others? Usually, that's just because the slower site is image heavy, poorly coded, or dealing with intense server load. But with net neutrality gone, ISPs can now start charging hefty fees to websites that want quick content delivery -- shifting the long load times to poorer sites that can't pay up.

Prefer indie retailers to Amazon.com? You may be in for a frustrating future.

3. Destroying net neutrality is bad for small businesses.

Put together items one and two and it becomes clear -- negating net neutrality is bad for small businesses. If ISPs force website owners pay for faster load times, tiny retailers and personal websites will be the ones to suffer from slower content delivery.

Alternately -- or additionally -- ISPs will have no reason not to favor partner sites: Time Warner Cable, for instance, might favor the website of CNN (owned by the Time Warner Corporation) over the websites of competing cable news networks MSNBC and Fox News. Still, it's the indies again that will lose out here. While Time Warner Cable might favor CNN and Comcast MSNBC, independent news networks almost certainly won't get special treatment from any ISPs. Expand this out to music sites, web publishing, etc., and you begin to see the problem.

In extreme cases, ISPs may hinder or block content that isn't produced by partners -- much like AT&T did when it owned the telephone networks back in the day.

4. Without net neutrality, entire types of online traffic (like Netflix) may be in jeopardy.

Netflix watchers and BitTorrent users might want to beware -- soon your beloved services may not work like they used to. Now that net neutrality's down for the count, ISPs can discriminate against entire types of traffic: For instance, an ISP could slow or block all peer-to-peer file sharing, or all online video streaming.

Think it sounds unbelievably stupid for an ISP to stifle a certain traffic types indiscriminately? Comcast has seen reason to stifle both streaming video and peer-to-peer in the past.

From an ISP's perspective, discriminating against some traffic types makes business sense: Many ISPs are also cable television providers, which means the "cord-cutting" enabled by peer-to-peer and streaming online video isn't good for their bottom line.

5. Without net neutrality, your ISPs can make even more money without actually improving the Internet.

Right now, America's broadband is slow. It's slow because ISPs can already make gobs of money by charging the rich a ton for high-quality Internet while leaving the rest of America with subpar (or no) service.

Now, with net neutrality gone, ISPs will be able to make even more money off their existing customer base. They won't need to improve service or bring broadband to rural areas because they'll be able to keep growing (financially, at least) by charging content providers more for faster delivery and charging customers more for faster access. In all likelihood, Tuesday's ruling means the problems with America's Internet will be magnified.


http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/01/1 ... ostpopular

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Jasper
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Re: The Horrific Murder of Net Neutrality

#2 Post by Jasper » Mon Jan 20, 2014 1:57 pm

Government regulators who killed net neutrality became top cable industry lobbyists
http://bgr.com/2014/01/15/net-neutralit ... lobbyists/

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The LA Times points out something worth repeating: net neutrality was really killed back in 2002, when the FCC Chairman Michael Powell reclassified cable modem services as “information services” rather than “telecommunications services.” This effectively moved Internet service providers beyond FCC regulation and led to Tuesday’s controversial decision. It created a time bomb that was bound to explode sooner or later. And now it has. Net neutrality is dead and soon ISPs will start deciding what services they will allow to run fast and what they opt to slow down — and how much sites might have to pay to move from the latter category to the former.

And Michael Powell? He is now the President and CEO of NCTA, the top cable industry lobbying organization. The man who handed the cable industry a gift worth potentially tens of billions of dollars as a regulator pivoted into a lucrative industry gig.

Isn’t that cute?

And James M. Massey, the Executive Vice President of NCTA? He used to be the Senior Democratic Counsel on Communications and Media Issues for the Committee chaired by U.S. Sen. Daniel K. Inouye (D-HI) and Telecommunications Counsel for former U. S. Sen. Ernest F. Hollings (D-SC).

And K. Dane Snowden, the Chief of Staff of NCTA? He used to be Chief of the FCC’s Consumer & Governmental Affairs Bureau (CGB) from 2001 – 2005. You know — during the very period when net neutrality was effectively gutted by FCC’s leadership. According to the NCTA website, Snowden used to be “responsible for development and execution of the vision, strategic direction, telecommunications policy, and management of the Bureau’s activities and 300 employees.”

The key psychological insight here is that the NCTA is openly bragging about how it has captured this country’s top regulators. There is no shame in their game. These guys luxuriate in their dark power with the brazen glee of Mordor on Potomac.

And so it goes, as Kurt Vonnegut used to say. The very men holding the most powerful government regulatory positions when net neutrality was fatally wounded in the United States landed high-paying jobs funded by the cable industry.

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Re: The Horrific Murder of Net Neutrality

#3 Post by clickie » Mon Jan 20, 2014 2:00 pm

Whats going on with this Jasper, is it still going to happen? net neutrality ?

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Re: The Horrific Murder of Net Neutrality

#4 Post by Jasper » Mon Jan 20, 2014 2:09 pm

clickie wrote:Whats going on with this Jasper, is it still going to happen? net neutrality ?
What we had was net neutrality. That was a good thing. What we have now is no net neutrality. That's a bad thing. It has already happened. There was no reason for this ruling to be made. It happened because of money and corruption.

Nothing has been implemented yet. Time will tell what sort of shit isp's will cook up. I imagine they'll slowly roll out changes so as to avoid backlash. Keep the sleeping public unaware and ignorant. Lull us into complacency.

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Re: The Horrific Murder of Net Neutrality

#5 Post by clickie » Mon Jan 20, 2014 2:20 pm

ok so net neutrality is what we need to keep striving for.

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Re: The Horrific Murder of Net Neutrality

#6 Post by Jasper » Mon Jan 20, 2014 2:50 pm

Neutrality means we all basically get access to the same stuff on the internet, and various things are not more expensive, or blocked, or given bandwidth precedence.

This doesn't even come close to addressing all of the potential problems, but here's an example of how it might be to pay for different internet packages:

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http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/01/1 ... 11477.html
This graphic was created by Reddit user quink, who wanted to illustrate what happens if net neutrality disappears. Originally created when Comcast tried to appeal the FCC's right to enforce net neutrality in 2009, the graphic is experiencing a renaissance in relevance after the ruling this week.

Though the FCC could try to rewrite its rule or appeal the decision, in the meantime ISPs like Comcast, Verizon, AT&T and Time Warner Cable are free to make deals with companies promising quicker content delivery in exchange for payment -- essentially creating Internet "fast lanes" for wealthy companies and making their websites easier to access than those of nonprofits, activist groups and smaller competitors.

Quink's graphic shows web-based service offerings (offered by the fictional TELCO ADSL) that look suspiciously like cable bundles. Very, very basic Internet is offered for a "starter" price of $29.95, while popular sites are bundled together and offered as optional add-ons for $5 to $10. As costs add up, people in quink's world are left with tough choices -- choosing, for instance, between access to online marketplaces and access to the news.

As for smaller sites? In quink's hypothetical world without net neutrality, they're out of luck. Any sites outside the bundles might count towards a data cap, while sites in the bundles wouldn't, or small sites might just load really, really slowly.

Presumably, websites that want to be included in "bundles" would have to pay providers like TELCO for the privilege. It may sound crazy, but it's the future envisioned by experts (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/01/1 ... ref=topbar) who talk about what the end of net neutrality might mean for small businesses.

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Re: The Horrific Murder of Net Neutrality

#7 Post by clickie » Mon Jan 20, 2014 3:10 pm

I'ill encourage everyone to start spreading the word, but what can we do to slow it down?

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Re: The Horrific Murder of Net Neutrality

#8 Post by Jasper » Mon Jan 20, 2014 3:39 pm

Well, I think the best thing is probably to call/write/fax/email senators and congressmen and politely inform them that neutrality is an important issue to you, your family, your friends, neighbors and co-workers. After all, the only thing more important to them than corporate money is not getting reelected. If you don't get reelected, ALL of the dirty money stops.

It's on my agenda to gather information for doing this stuff in a tidy manner, and when I do I'll post it. For instance, I know there's a site where you can just write a little message in a box and press send and it will be faxed, free, to the parties in question.

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Re: The Horrific Murder of Net Neutrality

#9 Post by clickie » Mon Jan 20, 2014 3:49 pm

Great advice. :rockon:

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Re: The Horrific Murder of Net Neutrality

#10 Post by guysmiley » Mon Jan 20, 2014 11:25 pm

Shit sucks. I hate politicians. :flip:

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Re: The Horrific Murder of Net Neutrality

#11 Post by JOEinPHX » Tue Jan 21, 2014 12:58 pm

There is nothing we can do.

You can complain to your congressman or senators all you want, but those fuckers were bought and paid for long ago.

I imagine Washington works like this:

Congressman: Good Morning. Any mail?
Secretary: Yes, there are 100,000 emails and letters from people who want you to vote today for option "A", which benefits all of humanity
Congressman: Anything else?
Secretary: Yes. There is also a $100,000 check from a corporation who wants you to vote today for option "B", which benefits that corporation's business interests
Congressman: Clearly the corporation has done their research. Option "B" it is.

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Re: The Horrific Murder of Net Neutrality

#12 Post by kv » Tue Jan 21, 2014 1:08 pm

yep fucking cope

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Re: The Horrific Murder of Net Neutrality

#13 Post by Jasper » Tue Jan 21, 2014 1:39 pm

Six7Six7 wrote:There is nothing we can do.
You can make it clear that next time you'll elect different people, which can scare the current ones from doing things that piss off too much of the electorate. People contacting them is their barometer for knowing when the risk of being voted out of office outweighs their collection of industry money.
kv wrote:yep fucking cope
You may as well apply your attitude to every political effort ever.

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Re: The Horrific Murder of Net Neutrality

#14 Post by kv » Tue Jan 21, 2014 4:08 pm

agreed lol

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Re: The Horrific Murder of Net Neutrality

#15 Post by chaos » Tue Jan 21, 2014 5:30 pm

The FCC contributed to this mess by deregulating it back in 2002, and by not classifying internet access as a utility.

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Re: The Horrific Murder of Net Neutrality

#16 Post by creep » Thu Jun 12, 2014 12:47 pm

this is pretty good


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Re: The Horrific Murder of Net Neutrality

#17 Post by CaseyContrarian » Thu Jun 12, 2014 4:32 pm

I work on this issue every day, and have since 2007. In fact, the reason I haven't been here as much is because shit's blowing up again.

Some history of the music community push to preserve net neutrality:

https://futureofmusic.org/issues/campaigns/rock-net

Happy to answer any questions you have about process and how to get involved. Right now, the FCC needs to be told that it's effing up. Any one of you can easily do that here:

http://apps.fcc.gov/ecfs/upload/display ... 35?z=m3uae

Tell them that you want reclassification, because anything less than that is gonna create a tiered internet where the biggest companies get the fast lane and all the rest of us content producers, entrepreneurs and innovators get a dirt road. Do you use Twitter? Bandcamp? YouTube? Soundcloud? Well, tomorrow's platform won't be able to get off the ground if they have to pay blood money to the ISP to deliver content to users who have already chosen it. We're already paying north of 100 bucks a month for broadband access--the big companies that can afford to pay the toll will just pass the costs along to you, Joe Netflix subscriber.

You should also call your representatives. If things go tits up at the FCC, the legislative clowns will have to sort it out. And they are pretty remedial.

Again, any questions welcome. Thanks so much for bringing it up here!

PS: that John Oliver video is AWESOME. You guys gotta watch it.

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Re: The Horrific Murder of Net Neutrality

#18 Post by chaos » Wed Feb 04, 2015 12:21 pm

http://laughingsquid.com/

FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler Plans to Classify Internet Service Providers as Title II Utilities to Ensure Net Neutrality

by Glen Tickle at 1:43 pm on February 4, 2015

In an op-ed for Wired, Federal Communication Commission (FCC) Chairman Tom Wheeler has announced a plan to reclassify Internet service providers as Title II common carriers under the Telecommunications Act. That move would preserve net neutrality (previously) and prevent companies from limiting customer access to any legal use of the Internet.

After more than a decade of debate and a record-setting proceeding that attracted nearly 4 million public comments, the time to settle the Net Neutrality question has arrived. This week, I will circulate to the members of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) proposed new rules to preserve the internet as an open platform for innovation and free expression.
The Wired piece mentioned above: http://www.wired.com/2015/02/fcc-chairm ... neutrality

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Re: The Horrific Murder of Net Neutrality

#19 Post by Pure Method » Thu Feb 05, 2015 11:43 am

So we want it classified as a utility?

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Re: The Horrific Murder of Net Neutrality

#20 Post by chaos » Thu Feb 05, 2015 2:04 pm

Yes.

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Re: The Horrific Murder of Net Neutrality

#21 Post by Hype » Sat Feb 07, 2015 1:01 pm

Pure Method wrote:So we want it classified as a utility?
Yes. (Cf. Chaos's post.)

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Re: The Horrific Murder of Net Neutrality

#22 Post by creep » Thu Feb 26, 2015 2:40 pm

so the govt actually did the right thing today. :thumb:

i'm surprised.

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Re: The Horrific Murder of Net Neutrality

#23 Post by JOEinPHX » Thu Feb 26, 2015 7:54 pm

We won!

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Re: The Horrific Murder of Net Neutrality

#24 Post by kv » Thu Feb 26, 2015 7:59 pm

shocked..i mean shocked...awesome opossum

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Re: The Horrific Murder of Net Neutrality

#25 Post by intertwoven » Thu Feb 26, 2015 9:19 pm

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