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FCC approves net neutrality rules
POLITICO.com ^ | 21 December 2010 | Kim Hart & Tony Romm

Posted on 12/21/2010 10:43:13 AM PST by DBeers

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To: Theo
"I admittedly don’t know what “net neutrality” is ..."

Then you better start paying closer attention here...It is whatever they say it is, once they pass this law.

41 posted on 12/21/2010 11:17:23 AM PST by Mr. K ('Profiling' you is worse than grabbing your balls)
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To: what's up

actually, it means that the cable companies can’t pick and choose what web sites to favor. they have to keep the web largely as it is now, rather than letting Comcast control content.


42 posted on 12/21/2010 11:18:39 AM PST by ChurtleDawg (voting only encourages them)
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To: VideoDoctor

It all boils down to who gets to decide, the government or the private sector. Go back and read some history of early radio and the attempts by the Marxists to control it.

Had it been left up to them, we would today be listening to nothing but NPR.


43 posted on 12/21/2010 11:20:36 AM PST by abb ("What ISN'T in the news is often more important than what IS." Ed Biersmith, 1942 -)
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To: Lazamataz

Like they give two shits what the Constitution says. We murder millions of infants every year, give gays the green light in the military, cp is rampant, and we have an usurper in the WH. I think we have bigger priorities.


44 posted on 12/21/2010 11:20:49 AM PST by Soothesayer9
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To: VideoDoctor

thank you. people don’t seem to understand the FCC is the good guy in this one. It is Comcast who is making this nessecary.


45 posted on 12/21/2010 11:22:11 AM PST by ChurtleDawg (voting only encourages them)
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To: DBeers

If you were a Vonage and a FIOS customer, would you want Verizon blocking your VoIP traffic because you weren’t using Verizon’s VoIP? If you were a Comcast and Netflix customer, would you want Comcast blocking or restricting your access to Netflix because Comcast thinks they should control your Internet service and that you should be going to them for streaming movies? That’s where we were heading and a lot of people can’t change providers. Comcast knows many people can’t move. Why do you think Comcast has gotten away with such crappy service without worrying about losing customers? Internet providers are providing other services than just network access and they don’t want you going to their competitors. Do you want to be able to access more than just Cox’s services if your only access to the Internet is via Cox? This is a preemptive move. I’m not sure the FCC should have the authority to do this but it’s something that needs to be done.


46 posted on 12/21/2010 11:23:02 AM PST by mikey_hates_everything
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To: VideoDoctor
Thanks for the insight.

As a satellite broadband user I'm a little sensitive to what is available and at what cost.

There are folks here who immediately jump up and down just because this administration or one of its entities acts on an issue.

I have a five year old granddaughter who acts exactly like that (replacing, of course, the government with mommy).

47 posted on 12/21/2010 11:23:28 AM PST by sonofagun (Some think my cynicism grows with age. I like to think of it as wisdom!)
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To: ChurtleDawg

Comcast is simply an excuse
for the feds to step in and determine who gets to see/publish what on the internet.


48 posted on 12/21/2010 11:26:22 AM PST by MrB (The difference between a (de)humanist and a Satanist is that the latter knows who he's working for.)
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To: DBeers

The Constitution tells me that I do not have to abide this illegal ruling. It is illegal and the federal government has overstepped its bounds. Odumbo is striving to say that the people he has appointed to non elected offices have greater authority than the courts There is a sysytem of checks and balances Legislative Executive and the Court. I will no0taccept the lso called it has nothing do with it is claims It is a control issue.


49 posted on 12/21/2010 11:27:37 AM PST by hondact200 (Candor dat viribos alas (sincerity gives wings to strength) and Nil desperandum (never despair))
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To: ChurtleDawg
net neutrality is more like what we have now than the alternative, which would allow cable/ISP companies to control access to websites. If they didn’t like certain websites, or if certain websites didn’t pay extra money, they could block them or slow the feed to a trickle.

You are missing the point
The fight over net neutrality means a fight between NetFlix and Comcast (in essence)

NetFlix want to turn into a cable TV provider of sorts. Starting with streaming movies but soon it will stream TV episodes and more

Comcast already does exactly this by making movies and various TV channels available and then even video on demand. Net neutrality means Comcast cannot charge NetFlix (who will then charge you) for all that streaming of content (which is very high bandwidth) into your house that Comcast is already willing to provide. This means people have an incentive to just get Comcast internet and not Comcast TV too

Net neutrality means Comcast has to host a parasite (and competitor) within its operation that has never paid for laying cables, for infrastructure or for service technicians who visit you when your internet goes out. Comcast wants to be able to at least charge this parasite who will then have to jack up your prices making them less competitive.

Net neutrality means people have an incentive to get rid of Comcast altogether and get internet via AT&T (we have Comcast and ATT here) and have zero cable TV. But then selectively stream in movies and CNBC (in the future) via NetFlix or a NetFlix competitor such as Amazon

Comcast could care less about low bandwidth sites like Free Republic or Politico. What they care about is high bandwidth rivals such as NetFlix and others who will stream content into your house.

Say you only really watch 5 TV stations out of your cable lineup. In the future you may be able to get those five via NetFlix and pay only $15/month instead of paying 65$/month for Comcast cable TV

 

50 posted on 12/21/2010 11:30:22 AM PST by dennisw (- - - -He who does not economize will have to agonize - - - - - Confucius)
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To: mikey_hates_everything
This is a preemptive move. I’m not sure the FCC should have the authority to do this but it’s something that needs to be done.

Either you believe in the free market and the rule of law or you do not. A government agency that arbitrarily 'interprets' at the behest of its boss or at the beset of a mob or special interest group is tyranny and and a system ripe for corruption -NOT the rule of law, NOT American...

51 posted on 12/21/2010 11:31:22 AM PST by DBeers (†)
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To: VideoDoctor
Essentially, this is one of those issues where we have to bite the bullet and accept the fact that private parties can be just as much of a threat to our liberties as the government is.

After all, if Comcast can put you in the slow lane if you don't pay expensive extra fees for your website, they can also put you in the slow lane - or the parking lot - for running a website or hosting websites that are, say, not gay positive, are pro-life, are pro-gun, or anything else that left-wing pressure groups can lean on Comcast to reject as "socially unacceptable."

52 posted on 12/21/2010 11:31:55 AM PST by Titus Quinctius Cincinnatus (is a Jim DeMint Republican. You might say he's a funDeMintalist conservative.)
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To: MrB

A classic case of the camel’s nose getting in the tent.


53 posted on 12/21/2010 11:35:41 AM PST by dfwgator (Welcome to the Gator Nation Will Muschamp)
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To: DBeers
RE: Internet

Gatekeeper control?

Gatekeepers? Bringing warders aboard the Internet to be gatekeepers? NO! No Warder boarding the Internet!

54 posted on 12/21/2010 11:35:48 AM PST by WilliamofCarmichael (If modern America's Man on Horseback is out there, Get on the damn horse already!)
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To: Lazamataz; DBeers

The whole dang ball of wax is a constitutional crisis. They’re trying to make it so all the other boxes don’t work. Or haven’t worked.

If the new Congress loses their spine/guts etc when they get to DC - I can’t imagine the hell that’s going to ensue.


55 posted on 12/21/2010 11:43:55 AM PST by little jeremiah (Courage is not simply one of virtues, but the form of every virtue at the testing point.CSLewis)
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To: Mad Dawgg

I’ve got a lot of young firs on my property, already felled.


56 posted on 12/21/2010 11:45:46 AM PST by little jeremiah (Courage is not simply one of virtues, but the form of every virtue at the testing point.CSLewis)
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To: Theo
How is that a bad thing? I admittedly don’t know what “net neutrality” is ...

It's not. You have net neutrality right, but much of the opposition comes from attacking the fairness doctrine strawman or improperly applying slippery slope. But even as a net neutrality supporter, it would be interesting to see exactly how the FCC claimed this authority. Bureaucratic overreaching is still just as bad even when it is for a good cause.

57 posted on 12/21/2010 11:46:09 AM PST by antiRepublicrat
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To: antiRepublicrat

What you think “Net Neutrality” is and what government thinks “Net Neutrality” is are two completely different things.


58 posted on 12/21/2010 11:50:15 AM PST by dfwgator (Welcome to the Gator Nation Will Muschamp)
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To: CharlesWayneCT
because other users decide that rather than watching Verizon shows, they are going to stream from some web site the same shows, thus overwhelming the network.

There is a market solution that involves retaining net neutrality. It's called charging by usage rather than by bandwidth, or charging extra for usage beyond a set amount. Most people already get charged this way on their wireless data plans. Nothing in net neutrality even addresses this. Instead, ISPs would rather interfere with commerce, hinder competition, and destroy the normal functioning of the Internet.

That's aside from the fact that the only reason it overwhelms the network is because Verizon over-sold its capacity to consumers. They sold X megabits per second to Y consumers at the same time, but they only have the capability to provide X/10 Mbps to those consumers at the same time. Forgive me for not having much sympathy.

How about I open an all-you-can-eat buffet and sell weekly full-access tickets to people. I do this hoping they won't actually come every day for all three meals, but they do. Now I decide I don't want to honor our contract because I'm not making much money, so dishonestly I start refusing service or have almost no food available at times. An honest company would have renegotiated the contract, you can only come once per day unless you pay extra.

59 posted on 12/21/2010 12:05:58 PM PST by antiRepublicrat
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To: hondact200
It is illegal and the federal government has overstepped its bounds.

There's a good case for the FCC having overstepped its bounds, but this is clearly within the bounds of the federal government. The Internet is absolutely interstate commerce. It is also commerce with other nations and with the Indian tribes. It is subject to the commerce clause with original, pre-New Deal intent.

I posted this a little while ago, I'll paraphrase. I pay TWC, headquartered in New York, for Internet access. I click to watch a movie, I invoke a business relationship with Netflix in California to deliver a movie from a server in some state over a nationwide network owned by L3 in Colorado to be delivered to me in my state by a TWC subsidiary. That's not interstate commerce?

60 posted on 12/21/2010 12:16:56 PM PST by antiRepublicrat
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