FCC Turns Around On Net Neutrality With "Faster Lane" Rules - Update

[Amir Kondori]

I just love how this played out. Of course mister industry stepped in, pretended he cared about net neutrality and was going to make sure it was upheld, somehow, someway, although he never gave any details as to how.
Now of course he has shown that he is going to do the exact opposite. Allowing pay for play is exactly the opposite of net neutrality. It is what telecom and big cable have wanted this whole time. It has been proven they were degrading Netflix performance, their biggest competitor for video services, and once these pay to play rules get enshrined they will be the in the position to pick and choose which services will have any ability to compete in the open market.
Screw these assholes. These people are scum sucking thieves and should be jailed, it really disgusts me. The only hope we Americans have at this point is Congress and we all know the telecoms throw way too much money around on both sides of the isle for that to happen, especially now that the Supreme Court has eliminated campaign contribution limits.
Our country is fucked and we need some major change. I hope we get it.

 

[Michael Legault]

The FCC will in fact soon propose new rules drafted by Wheeler that will allow internet providers to offer a "faster lane" to companies willing to pay for it, according to sources briefed on the proposals, and to negotiate the terms of those deals individually. Those costs would presumably then be passed on to consumers, either as increased prices for content subscriptions or as added costs at the internet provider level for access to optional, specialized service tiers - an extra $5 or $10 per month for Netflix access, for instance.

So the theory is that the ISP corporations will design, create and install a super-fast service for those companies willing to pay extra to have their content stream quicker, which will presumably run seamlessly on top of the current infastructure already present across the country?

Bollocks.

That is Utter Bollocks with a capital UB, and I'm sure Tom Wheeler knows that this will not happen.

If there's one thing we know about these types of private corporations, it's that they would rather see their industry stagnate and rot than pro-actively upgrade their services out of their own profit margins.

What will happen is that regular data will be artificially capped to a speed below the actual capacity of the lines, and you will have to pay to unlock full access to the already in place infastructure of the internet. It will cost the ISP nothing because they will refuse to spend anything on their lines, they will just cap internet speeds at the business end of the line instead of the user end.

This happens already, I pay for 10mb DL, have I ever actually seen it move that fast? It tends to hover around 4-6. I can't wait to move to Halifax, they have unlimited fibre for about 35 bucks a month because the big companies don't own the lines there and have to rent from the companies that do and by some miracle they aren't price gouging dickheads. We'll see how long it lasts...

 

[Ed130 The Vanguard]

It looks like 'America, land of the free' will soon join 'Fox News, Fair & Balanced' as slogans that need to be taken away due to severe inaccuracies.

 

[Nowhere Man]

Goddamit. I'm just about ready to move to another country at this point.

 

[Agayek]

Our country is fucked and we need some major change. I hope we get it.

Sadly, that's not going to happen. Not soon anyway. I mean, I'd love it if someone stuck a thermonuclear bomb in the Speaker of the House's podium and replaced DC with the Capital Wasteland, but that's never gonna happen.

That said, the US is steadily going down the shitter and it's becoming increasingly obvious to the average citizen just how little influence they actually have in the government. I give it 30-50 years, assuming no one with half a shred of decency gets to a position to affect things, before there's a violent revolt, or at the very least a concerted and organized effort that ends with a shooting rampage during a session of Congress.

 

[Adam Jensen_v1legacy]

This is more outrageous than you think. Th 1996 Telecommunications Act was supposed to make sure that the money from the tax cuts and deregulation of telephone and internet providers is used to improve their infrastructure. That's what was promised. If that actually happened the entire US would have fast and cheap optical connection by now. But what happened instead was very evil. The telecommunication companies used the extra profits they had from the tax cuts and subsidies to buy out smaller companies. So now the US only has like 4 major telecommunication companies. And they keep buying each other and they keep buying your politicians. And instead of enforcing the 1996 Telecommunication Act for once, the FCC just let them destroy the internet.

If it goes through, then it's only a matter of times until most countries hop on the bandwagon... Yay...

Not in the EU. They saw it coming and stopped it in its tracks before the idea could even hatch.

 

[Callate]

God. Fucking. Dammit.

This is so not okay. Where's the consumer protection? Where's the public interest? Where's the "Oh, I guess we should probably do something to make sure the greatest communication medium the world has ever seen isn't completely throttled by the financial interests of carriers with near-monopolies in most markets?"

Where's you doing your job, FCC? You do remember what that middle "C" stands for, don't you? Or did you slip it for something else while we weren't looking?

Is it too late to call our representatives? Is it too late to fire up the engines that halted SOPA? Because this... This really sucks.

 

[Trunkage]

America: Where freedom isn't free.

I really hate how far my nation as fallen.

We USED to be great.
We USED to be the moral standard.
We USED to be free.

There was this movement called American Exceptionalism at the start of the 21st century. Pretty much it was how America was better than anyone else. With inventors like Tesla and Edison (if you could call him that) and industrialists like Ford and JP Morgan it was hard to dissuade this thought. Most of it was lies, sweat shops were rampant, immigrants were forced to live in tent cities in places like Central Park and some people were paid in stores credit, not money, so they could save or buy houses. Typically magnates bought whole towns or made their own. The gap between rich and poor pay shortened after WW2 but has been gradually lengthening. It has got particularly bad when the gfc happened as most of the people who were affected were the middle class (just like the great depression). Another example is WW2 where the Americans continued their 'its not going to affect us' mentality, until it did. They would never have won either sections of the war without the Russians defeating the Japanese handily (before war was even declared) or soaking up many of the forces from Germany etc, or if Australia or England didn't hold on, or if the communists didn't hold on for as long as they did in Spain. There were many important moment in that war, so claiming the victory as being completed by yourself is the ultimate example of the lie that was American Exceptionalism

 

[themilo504]

I live in the Netherlands and we had net neutrality laws even before it became a eu law, even so this does worry me since whatever happens in America has a huge impact on the rest of the world.

I?m guessing the law will probably pass, I just hope that one internet provider doesn?t start screwing their customers and as a result gets all of the money.

 

[Nowhere Man]

I'm just shaking with rage right now. Why isn't there anyone out there to speak in the interest of the common people? Why must the .01% have utter control over everything? It's the internet for fucks sake! It was created and funded by OUR tax dollars and they want to take that away from us now too! Probably the greatest and most important invention of the 20th century and those greedy, slime ridden, good for nothing, sack of putrid shit wastes of oxygen think we don't deserve to have that either unless were paying through our teeth for it and in the middle of the worst economic climates to top it all off. Can't they look past their ungodly tall stacks of money for once just to see how important it is to have an open internet for the fucking advancement of society!?

I just looove the way Corporations get away now with being called "persons" while avoiding at all costs now to call us customers instead referring to us as the dehumanizing term- "consumers". "Consumers".. you can just imagine hearing the sneering, arrogant way these maggots say that word as they look down their noses at us. To them all we do is consume, while it's they who are the true filth eating away at every facet of our lives, waiting for the chance to charge us for the air we breathe if science ever makes that possible.

In related news a recent Princeton University study concluded that America is no longer a Democracy but instead an Oligarchy.

http://www.savetheinternet.com/what-can-i-do

 

[cerebus23]

Should have been shaking at rage with behgahzi people only died there for the president and secretary of state to just not do their jobs period.

Or shaking at rage when the white house made the nsa spy on everyone, lie about then admit it but its for your own good and proceeed to push forward bs measures that will do little to curb it. Let me add that most of this spying was done with obamas pen and exeucitve orders, he does not need congres to take action congress never passed a law requesting nsa spying or authorized it.

Should have been skaking when the irs politiclly motivated went after conservative groups, the main person at the center claims the 5th but broke no laws, and new emails show a ton of chatter between white house officials and the person involved trying to cover up the story.

But hike your internet prices and half of you are ready to goto war, well welcome to the party, lest something got you off your collect5ive asses finally.

 

[Trunkage]

Won't someone think about the poor corporations? Capitalism rocks and people shitting on it need to stop holding tight to their small paychecks and start giving more to corporations.

Yes, I am kidding. The truth is that I am hating capitalism more all the time.

what you are talking about isn't actually Capitalism.

Capitalism is supposed to make "the middle" rich...that "the rich" get slightly richer in the process is merely the carrot that makes them invest capital...or in other words "place a bet"...

look...just trust me on this: it makes much more sense if you think of it all as a bookies but with "the people who actually get their hands dirty" as "the house"...

Adam Smith wasn't rich...he was of the mercantile (ie "middle") classes back in the days when there was just slightly more of them than were needed to service the needs and whims of the rich.

Capitalism is a vast institutionalised (via banks/stock markets and other such institutions) con trick to spread their money (and resultant political power) around and put most of it at any given time collectively in the hands of the middle classes as the rich pursue profit via investing capital in business ventures...and it worked spectacularly well...until about 1976 when a couple idiots came up with "shareholder value capitalism" and supposedly making the rich richer became the most important thing ("shareholder value capitalism" is not and has never been "the law" btw and if you think it is...grats...now you know what its like to be brainwashed by propaganda and find out i guess).

they're also supposed to lose money (which still ends up in the hands of "the middle" aka "the house") if they fail btw...

ie simplistically if you start a business venture, pay people and suppliers etc for while but it goes nowhere and folds the people and suppliers etc have still been paid and what was previously your money is "out there" even though you made none.

you might care to note than when the rich place a really bad bet nowadays it comes out your pocket not theirs via being added to government debt rather than letting the company involved fail and the replacement/refinement process take place in the market (which is the "survival of the fittest" bit people often talk about but put in the wrong place)...

i dunno what name someone might give this system but "Capitalism" IT IS NOT.

and if you think "US sub prime mortgage debt" is the last really bad bet rich people will make...*shudder*

Saying that is all well and good, but most people thought the USSR was a communist state. It was totally fascist using communist ideology to scam the low classes. The end game of communism is to get rid the government as it would no longer be necessary. Stalin perverted that to his own ends

(yes I do know that Marx suggested a short fascist intern government to transition to communism. Didn't work out well)

 

[cerebus23]

And the real kicker is communist russia was built by the USA and US companies. Ford built a ton of the plants over there at the time, Standard oil and others propped up and the comminist uprising and banked the communists.

Same deal for nazi germany almost the exact same companies involved build up a boogy man set it loose on the world and play puppet show for the drooling masses, the military industrial complexes take it all the way to the bank on your sons and daughters lives.

International bankers and money men playing gods with the world and we all dance. united nations, EU, new world orders, all the plan to globlize the world.

 

[Rozalia1]

Pretty cool if this goes through as I'm all for the domination of corporations in such circumstances. If the people don't resist obvious attacks, if they simply accept the state crafted by corporations, if they continue to worship at the alter of conservationism in all its stripes while all evidence points to that being root of the evil that harms them...than those people deserve to be screwed out of everything by the "elites" they allow to control things.

Perhaps when the middle class is kicked into the gutter they'll learn to empathise with those below them.

 

[Bailos]

America: Where freedom isn't free.

I really hate how far my nation as fallen.

We USED to be great.
We USED to be the moral standard.
We USED to be free.

Then the white man came, amirite?

OT: I guess it's time to develop some kind of pirated internet, huh? Because honestly, I can't see myself shelling out extra money for Netflix and YouTube options. A kind of silver lining is the lack of a functional internet will open my schedule to tons more gaming.

 

[SecondPrize]

You pay your ISP for a plan based on speeds. If they intentionally throttle certain sites to a speed lower than what you're paying them for, then you get together for a class-action suit.

 

[Nowhere Man]

Should have been shaking at rage with behgahzi people only died there for the president and secretary of state to just not do their jobs period.

Or shaking at rage when the white house made the nsa spy on everyone, lie about then admit it but its for your own good and proceeed to push forward bs measures that will do little to curb it. Let me add that most of this spying was done with obamas pen and exeucitve orders, he does not need congres to take action congress never passed a law requesting nsa spying or authorized it.

Should have been skaking when the irs politiclly motivated went after conservative groups, the main person at the center claims the 5th but broke no laws, and new emails show a ton of chatter between white house officials and the person involved trying to cover up the story.

But hike your internet prices and half of you are ready to goto war, well welcome to the party, lest something got you off your collect5ive asses finally.

Oh trust me I was and I'm still pissed at each of those points mentioned. This just isn't the place to discuss Benghazi and Hillary's little "what difference at this point does it make?" rant. Or the NSA's overreach or Obama's "I have a phone and a pen and I'm going to use them". Or Congress total ineptness and 8% approval numbers, or the IRS scandal, or Fast and Furious.. or Solyndra... I can go on and on and not just with this administration either.

This is a cumulative case of enough is enough already.

 

[Nowhere Man]

Pretty cool if this goes through as I'm all for the domination of corporations in such circumstances. If the people don't resist obvious attacks, if they simply accept the state crafted by corporations, if they continue to worship at the alter of conservationism in all its stripes while all evidence points to that being root of the evil that harms them...than those people deserve to be screwed out of everything by the "elites" they allow to control things.

Perhaps when the middle class is kicked into the gutter they'll learn to empathise with those below them.

Sometimes I think like that too. Like if people don't care then they deserve what they get. In The U.S. everyone is distracted by bread and circuses. Youtube videos from the likes of Katy Perry and Lady Gaga and whatever other garbage viral flavor of the month ranks in millions of views while videos covering the events in Crimera and Net Neutrality are lucky to get 10,000. People dismiss when you try to inform them of these things and they go right back to watching the Kardashians or Game of Thrones (nothing against GoT just using these as examples). Things are socially engineered this way. Even if you went to a mainstream news website like CNN for instance you will rarely find anything about the whole Net neutrality thing. SOPA barely made a dent in the news but George Zimmerman? the Malaysian airline? Holy crap a month straight in main headlines and counting. Then right below it thumbnails of celebrities before and after weight changes. So I try to give people some slack because it's a conditioning thing. Not to mention many of us are just distracted by work and just trying to get by.

 

[Nowhere Man]

Pretty cool if this goes through as I'm all for the domination of corporations in such circumstances. If the people don't resist obvious attacks, if they simply accept the state crafted by corporations, if they continue to worship at the alter of conservationism in all its stripes while all evidence points to that being root of the evil that harms them...than those people deserve to be screwed out of everything by the "elites" they allow to control things.

Perhaps when the middle class is kicked into the gutter they'll learn to empathise with those below them.

Sometimes I think like that too. Like if people don't care then they deserve what they get. In The U.S. everyone is distracted by bread and circuses. Youtube videos from the likes of Katy Perry and Lady Gaga and whatever other garbage viral flavor of the month ranks in millions of views while videos covering the events in Crimera and Net Neutrality are lucky to get 10,000. People dismiss when you try to inform them of these things and they go right back to watching the Kardashians or Game of Thrones (nothing against GoT just using these as examples). Things are socially engineered this way. Even if you went to a mainstream news website like CNN for instance you will rarely find anything about the whole Net neutrality thing. SOPA barely made a dent in the news but George Zimmerman? the Malaysian airline? Holy crap a month straight in main headlines and counting. Then right below it thumbnails of celebrities before and after weight changes. So I try to give people some slack because it's a conditioning thing. Not to mention many of us are just distracted by work and just trying to get by.

OT: I guess it's time to develop some kind of pirated internet, huh? Because honestly, I can't see myself shelling out extra money for Netflix and YouTube options. A kind of silver lining is the lack of a functional internet will open my schedule to tons more gaming.

A "Darknet" as I have heard it been called before would be nice. The question is what infrastructure would we use for it? Where there's a will there's a way I suppose. But as for gaming..well I wonder if and how this would impact services like Steam and Origin.

 

[Nowhere Man]

Sorry for the double post. I'm a little short on sleep.