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President Obama Wants To Reclassify The Internet, Turning It Into A Utility
Business Insider ^ | 11/10/2014 | LISA EADICICCO

Posted on 11/10/2014 8:13:29 AM PST by SeekAndFind

President Barack Obama wants to reclassify the internet as a utility, he said in a new statement released by the White House on Monday. This would allow the Federal Communications Committee to enforce heavier restrictions on it and protect net neutrality.

"The time has come for the FCC to recognize that broadband service is of the same importance and must carry the same obligations as so many of the other vital services do," Obama said in his statement.

Obama is officially supporting net neutrality, writing that internet service providers should not be allowed to control, or "pick winners and losers" in the online marketplace.

Obama's statement comes after the FCC said back in April that it was working on a new set of rules that would allow internet service providers to treat web traffic differently, potentially prioritizing large companies. Basically, the new rules would allow big companies to pay extra to receive faster internet connections than the rest of us.

Instead of treating all users equally, ISPs would be required only to offer subscribers a "baseline" level of service. Larger companies would be able to pay more to get faster service.

(Excerpt) Read more at businessinsider.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Culture/Society; Government; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: internet; internetutility; utility
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To: SeekAndFind

good grief! get this lunatic out of office before he destroys everything!


21 posted on 11/10/2014 8:27:07 AM PST by TexasFreeper2009 (Obama lied .. the economy died.)
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To: SeekAndFind

If the phone is a utility, then so is the Internet.


22 posted on 11/10/2014 8:29:05 AM PST by CivilWarBrewing
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To: SeekAndFind
Mr I have a phone and a pen!!!!!! Watch the continued destruction of not only our economy during the next two years, but then entire nation.

Obama is determined to not only hear but to represent the 2/3 of Americans that did NOT vote last Tuesday.
23 posted on 11/10/2014 8:30:10 AM PST by Cheerio (Barry Hussein Soetoro-0bama=The Complete Destruction of American Capitalism)
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To: yefragetuwrabrumuy

No matter what she is wearing or how much she smiles, Michelle just always looks like a very hateful and spiteful person. Which she is. She can’t hide it with designer duds or a Halloween costume.


24 posted on 11/10/2014 8:32:16 AM PST by uncitizen
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To: SeekAndFind
Here's the bottom line. Utilities can be regulated. More power for the central government!

Of course, this should not be a concern for the average American. Because if you like your Internet, you can keep your Internet. Period.

25 posted on 11/10/2014 8:37:36 AM PST by Leaning Right (Why am I holding this lantern? I am looking for the next Reagan.)
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To: Uncle Miltie
Control. It is all about ....

MONEY.

26 posted on 11/10/2014 8:39:33 AM PST by UCANSEE2 (Lost my tagline on Flight MH370. Sorry for the inconvenience.)
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To: SeekAndFind

Is there anything this guy isn’t going to touch and distort before we can give him the boot?


27 posted on 11/10/2014 8:51:48 AM PST by VTenigma (The Democratic party is the party of the mathematically challenged)
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To: CivilWarBrewing
If the phone is a utility, then so is the Internet.

You are on dialup?

28 posted on 11/10/2014 8:55:31 AM PST by palmer (Minnesota Is Monitoring 48 for Ebola, Already 12 Go Missing)
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To: stanne

You are on the money.

You get hit with the second of 2 of the largest political massacres in a 100 years (eveyone seems to have forgotten about 2010) and NET NEUTRALITY is the first thing you start talking about? :)

Of course, most of the young people support “net neutrality” without realizing that the “net neutrality” they are thinking of is polar opposite to the “net neutrality” that the Democrats are discussing...

Ted Cruz tied the Dem’s net neutrality efforts to ObamaCare which is good because the Dems have proven that they are not technologically knowledged - they couldn’t even build a website - and they want to control the entire net?? LOL


29 posted on 11/10/2014 8:56:49 AM PST by Noamie
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Separating the internet from the 1st amendment is like separating the mouth from words that come out of it. Dissecting into components to achieve control over those components not mentioned in the Constitution or laws is going to ensure a trip to the USSC.


30 posted on 11/10/2014 8:57:20 AM PST by USCG SimTech (Honored to serve since '71)
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To: SeekAndFind
  Find something that works and make it not work. Politicians are just amazing.
31 posted on 11/10/2014 8:57:33 AM PST by Maurice Tift (Never wear anything that panics the cat. -- P.J. O'Rourke)
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To: CivilWarBrewing

I don’t have a phone line attached to my router.

It does not seem that the considerations that were made that turned the Telephone into a utility still apply to the internet.


32 posted on 11/10/2014 8:59:52 AM PST by Noamie
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To: Dr. Sivana

There is a finite amount of signal room. It is a scarce commodity. And it doesn’t “belong” to comcast or verizon. It belongs to me. And you.

The original broadcast networks still make a boatload of money by NOT charging people for what belongs to us. They’re allowed to sell ads, not access. Nobody has a problem with the FCC preventing CBS from charging anyone with an antenna for using its signal.

How is oversight of the net companies any different? They DON’T OWN the broadband. They are renters. The people are the landlords.

The price of using what belongs to the people, whether it’s the tunnel under your street or the water pipes leading to your house, or the broadband, is oversight by the owners — the people of the United States.


33 posted on 11/10/2014 9:33:43 AM PST by Blue Ink
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To: USCG SimTech

>> Separating the internet from the 1st amendment is like separating the mouth from words that come out of it.

Incisive. Spectacularly incisive. Well done!


34 posted on 11/10/2014 10:01:32 AM PST by Ray76 (We must destroy the Uniparty or be destroyed by them.)
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To: Blue Ink

They most certainly do own their networks.


35 posted on 11/10/2014 10:02:10 AM PST by Ray76 (We must destroy the Uniparty or be destroyed by them.)
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To: Blue Ink
There is a finite amount of signal room. It is a scarce commodity

Unlike broadcast signals, there are multiple ways to deliver the content making the spectrum much more complex than over the air radio and television. there is NO "the broadband". There are many broadbands. For the record, it IS permissible to scramble an over the air signal for television and charge to descramble, Channel 18 in Hartford did this and Wometco Home Theatre did this for years in NYC. There is plenty of regulation of the Internet signal access at infrastructure level already. It seems that every time someone comes with a new way to se bandwidth, the means to providefor that want matetializes. I do NOT believe that Netflix (1/3 of bandwidth) is a civil right. There is plenty of bandwidth for the essential uses of the Internet. The folks who want to pay more for gaming and streaming video provide the in eti e to build a faster Internet for all of us. The folks who grab their Internet from (for instance) a foreign run satellite really don't owe the government directly for any of it.
36 posted on 11/10/2014 10:06:52 AM PST by Dr. Sivana ("If you're litigating against nuns, you've probably done something wrong."-Ted Cruz)
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To: SeekAndFind
"Obama Wants to Reclassify Control the Internet"
37 posted on 11/10/2014 10:12:13 AM PST by Pajamajan ( Pray for our nation. Thank the Lord for everything you have. Don't wait. Do it today.)
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To: palmer

I’m not implying that, and no.. If the phone is a utility because it’s a means of transferring information, then so is the Internet. However, phone comm. is not run by the government and neither should the Internet.


38 posted on 11/10/2014 10:13:25 AM PST by CivilWarBrewing
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To: SeekAndFind

Ah yes, we have to do this to protect you from a threat that has yet to exist. Reminds me a little of, “If you like your doctor...”


39 posted on 11/10/2014 10:24:44 AM PST by Renkluaf
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To: SeekAndFind
Under Obama the NSA has made other nations fearful of a US dominated internet and they are planning their own backbones and servers. Now throw a little "the US government actively controls it" sauce into the recipe and this sort of balkanization of the internet will rapidly accelerate.

Well, it was fun while it lasted.

40 posted on 11/10/2014 10:58:59 AM PST by pepsi_junkie (Who is John Galt?)
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