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To: ChurtleDawg; meyer
I am concerned that the major ISPs (without some sort of network neutrality framework) would be able to pick and choose winners or losers. The analogy that I saw was like if the telecom companies were like roads, but were able to decide what color cars could drive on what roads. (Like if blue sedans were not allowed on I-95 but grey pickup trucks were allowed a special lane to get places faster.)

I used to believe that and was for net neutrality
I have changed because now I see the net neutrality battle as being between Comcast/ISPS and NetFlix/Amazon/others who want to stream massive files thus hogging bandwidth and being in competition with Comcast/ISPs that also are content providers

72 posted on 12/22/2010 4:10:50 PM PST by dennisw (- - - -He who does not economize will have to agonize - - - - - Confucius)
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To: dennisw
I have changed because now I see the net neutrality battle as being between Comcast/ISPS and NetFlix/Amazon/others who want to stream massive files thus hogging bandwidth and being in competition with Comcast/ISPs that also are content providers.

I also see that, and it looks familiar. Having been in the electric utility business for the last 30 years, I can see the similarities between this and what they called "deregulation" of the electric industry. Tens of thousands of pages of rules and regulations (and at least one major blackout) later, it should be obvious that THAT genie should never have left the bottle.

I see this FCC move as more than "net neutrality" - it's a foot in the door of enforcing some future "fairness doctrine" where the government gets to select what information can be available and what information is to be shunned. They'd love to shut down Rush, Beck, and Fox news but they know that people won't settle for that. So, instead, they'll wittle away at the internet sites that they don't approve of, one at a time. Today, maybe FreeRepublic. Tomorrow, Drudge or Daily Caller or Heritage.

The internet wasn't broken - they've invented a crisis for which they had a pre-determined "cure" and that cure is more central government oversight. Orwell was right.

73 posted on 12/22/2010 4:29:55 PM PST by meyer (Obama - the Schwartz is with him.)
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To: dennisw
I wonder if, by Comcast giving their own websites preference, they would create a massive monopoly not only only being a service provider, but also on their own subscription services. this could create a situation where you can only get these services from Comcast.

I kind of think that if Comcast is going to offer Netflix like services, they should have the same playing field for that section of their business, ie on the strength of their services alone. By being a cable company first, they could run these other services out of business if they can make them prohibitively expensive. The other part of their business, being a cable and broadband provider, should stand on it's own and have to compete on fair terms with other broadband providers.

that isn't just bad for netflix et al, but it would end up being detrimental to all of us.

76 posted on 12/23/2010 5:36:11 AM PST by ChurtleDawg (voting only encourages them)
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