Posted on 01/14/2014 11:12:55 PM PST by KTM rider
Thanks for watching that YouTube video! That will be 50 cents, please.
Sound unrealistic? It's actually a distinct possibility, after a Federal appeals court on Tuesday struck down an FCC ruling meant to prevent an Internet service provider -- the company you pay for online access -- from prioritizing some website traffic over others.
And because that rule was wiped off the books, those ISPs are suddenly able to do just that. With service providers suddenly able to charge based on the type of content you watch or the sites you visit, it's easy to imagine a system like that of today's cable television market. Want HBO? It's an extra $5. Want our streaming video package, with YouTube, Hulu, TV.com, and more? That's $5 too.
Don't pay and you can't watch. Period.
The so called “net neutrality” rule, put in place by the FCC in 2010, was intended to ensure equal access to all types of content. Regulators and politicians feared a tiered access to premium content or that ISPs might unfairly fast-track access to their own content over competitors.
'Without these rules, consumers are at the mercy of their providers ... and business arrangements that could severely limit access to certain content.'
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
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- Why are most self-proclaimed “experts” always radical leftwing college professors, “Progressives”, politicians with stealthy slimy financial interests and insider agendas (the average of someone in Congress is over 1.2M dollars - $1,200,000,000 - in Congress they often came to Congress often making only $19,000 a year yet spending countless millions to get elected), dingbat Socialist Elitists, &/or unaccountable scamming scummy criminals….
- Government seeks to constantly expand and control - 8000 new rules or regulations or Executive Orders costs American taxpayers huge ever-growing amounts of money through taxes, fees, and hidden grabathons - currently new rules and regulation with cost Americans 120 BILLION smackeroos a year.
- Whatta deal Lucille!
“You can get with other members of your community and solicit other providers to come to your community to provide competition.”
Yea, all five of us. We’re lucky to get what we have. Soon
the tards will be paying the providers to limit access to
their competitors site. And it will domino after that. Sorta
like caller ID block unlock block.
Look for a lot of hacking to take place.
Unsure just how it works, but Roku has many free specialty channels that could only appeal to very small demographics. They send out a newsletter every month with all the new channels available. Some are pay, some are PPV and many are free.
‘Total hot air out of that “article”. Youtube gets a heck of a living from advertisers and doesn’t need to charge for viewing any videos. Net neutrality is all about giving the FCC more power.’
You’re confused about the issue.
This ruling means Time Warner (my ISP) could completely block YouTube. After all, Time Warner sells video content services, why would they want me to have YouTube access? Same goes double for Netflix.
The main reason I’m for Net Neutrality is that what we pay per month covers ALL of Time Warner’s costs for traffic, plus profit. YouTube and Netflix pay handsomely for their network bandwidth. There’s no justification for a further shakedown by the ISPs.
All that said, I sure hope there’s a LOT more competitive landscape for ISPs in the not distant future. I’d sure love gigabit fiber!
And you think the FCC having more control will be the solution to this (thus far imaginary) problem?
There’s a reason that communists want net neutrality, you know. This is a worldwide thing.
“I really don’t see this happening as long as there is competition in the market place.”
The problem is that in wide swaths of the country there is NO competition. In many places there is only a single provider, and in many other places there are essentially none. In the best of cases there are only two anyway, and so if both decide on the exact same policies, then what? For all practical purposes, ISP access is nearly a monopoly and at best simply a duopoly.
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