Replies

A. Comcast was caught impeding VoIP traffic from Vonage (and other VoIP providers) to an extent people were dropping Vonage for poor quality, while Comcast Digital Voice traffic was given priority. This was almost 2 years ago.
B. Level 3 was just extorted for extra cash by Comcast, to keep the Netflix streams flowing smoothly.

3. bitch about the FCC regulating is a red herring. The whole point of Net Neutrality is to separate content from delivery. That is, the ROADS (delivery) are open to anyone who pays for access. The toll takers don't get to say "Oh, you want to drive over there? That costs extra." Or, "oh, you want to drive a UPS truck and not a FedEx? That costs extra."

The concept has been around for decades, and is already law -- just poorly enforced. Specifically, it is called being a "common carrier". By being a "common carrier" you are the provider of the road, and NOT liable for what happens on the road. If someone uses the road for a getaway after holding up the bank, the owner of the road isn't charged with a crime.

However, once you are no longer a common carrier, you are responsible for content. That is, if there is child porn flowing thru the web, then the ISP providing the links is RESPONSIBLE. Not the website where it is hosted, not the hosting company, but the ISPs such as Comcast, AT&T and the like who own the bandwidth and the T1 lines, etc.

4. The impetus is *NOT* the big actors pushing the gov't to protect their business models. What a moron! It is EXACTLY THE OPPOSITE. The big companies like Comcast and AT&T are pushing to END net neutrality precisely because they want to stop being simple common carriers, but don't want the liability that goes along with restricting content. They are evolving from plain "dumb pipe" providers to being content providers themselves. They're trying to do both, and there are barriers keeping that separate.

Comcast wants to provide the pipe. The also want to provide the content -- streaming video, etc. AND they want to be able to use their control over the pipe to squeeze out competition for their content. Netflix streaming sucks, but COMCAST streaming is fantastic! Subscribe with us! Etc. Of course, Netflix streaming sucks because Comcast is choking off the bandwidth that YOU ALREADY PAID FOR.

All net neutrality does is ensure that when you pay for bandwidth it is up to YOU, the person who PAID FOR IT, to decide what you want to do with it. You don't have to ask Comcast for extra permission to go somewhere they perceive as competition.

Stop thinking of it from the perspective of the businesses or the ISPs. Stop thinking "big bad government". Start thinking of it from the perspective of YOU, the individual bandwidth user. Do you want Comcast shaking down popular destinations for extra cash? What if Drudge took 20 seconds to load every time you went there? How about Google? But Yahoo loads fast because their check cleared with Comcast. What about YOUR website? What if the ISP decides you aren't "premium" and want you to pay more or it'll be put in the "slow lane"?

Does none of this sound like a Mafia protection racket? That's a nice website. It'd be a shame if anything happened to your load times with the holiday season coming up.

This may help also:

http://tech.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=1909890&cid=34545432