Justice Dept. against ‘Net neutrality’

[DaJe]

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20625194:


WASHINGTON - The Justice Department on Thursday said Internet service providers should be allowed to charge a fee for priority Web traffic.

The agency told the Federal Communications Commission, which is reviewing high-speed Internet practices, that it is opposed to "Net neutrality," the principle that all Internet sites should be equally accessible to any Web user.

Several phone and cable companies, such as AT&T Inc., Verizon Communications Inc. and Comcast Corp., have previously said they want the option to charge some users more money for loading certain content or Web sites faster than others.


The Justice Department said imposing a Net neutrality regulation could hamper development of the Internet and prevent service providers from upgrading or expanding their networks. It could also shift the "entire burden of implementing costly network expansions and improvements onto consumers," the agency said in its filing.

Such a result could diminish or delay network expansion and improvement, it added.

The agency said providing different levels of service is common, efficient and could satisfy consumers. As an example, it cited that the U.S. Postal Service charges customers different guarantees and speeds for package delivery, ranging from bulk mail to overnight delivery.

"Whether or not the same type of differentiated products and services will develop on the Internet should be determined by market forces, not regulatory intervention," the agency said in its filing.

The agency's stance comes more than two months after Federal Trade Commission Chairwoman Deborah Platt Majoras cautioned policy makers to enact Net neutrality regulation.

Such a regulation could prevent rather than promote Internet investment and innovation and have "significant negative effects for the economy and consumers," the Justice Department said in the filing.

[Omega]

They should do this, BUT!

Only on free networks. Like hotspots in big cities or whatever. That way it promotes growth for certain websites or ISP's (such as, hey, you're on our free network, you've got to pay us X amount of dollars if you use Y amount of bandwidth or access Z website), however keep it off of home networks (I'll be damned if I'm going to pay MORE so I can view some websites on a connection I already pay for).

[Quakken]

Not "Doesn't load at all" but "sites with less money load slower than sites with big cash to pay off providers."

If this goes through, I am going to kill.

Damn you comcast! Damn you to HELL!

[xRyokenx]

This is why bigass corporations shouldn't run the country, it doesn't work and the "common folk" get the **** end of the stick in the end. I guess my dyslexia making "Washington" look like "Warning" was kind of accurate. They do that and I'm leaving the country so I can get better internet service, ugh.

[Ironcat]

They do that and I'm leaving the country so I can get better internet service, ugh
Uh-huh.. sure you are...
Just like Alec Baldwin, Eddie Veddar, and Robert Altman were all gonna leave the country if Bush was elected.

[DaJe]

I say New England secedes from the U.S. to form a new country.

[xRyokenx]

Uh-huh.. sure you are...
Just like Alec Baldwin, Eddie Veddar, and Robert Altman were all gonna leave the country if Bush was elected.

Still, this country's idiocies are getting kind of annoying. I dunno, I'm just going through a crazy time in my life and don't need anyone to help it along, lol.

...and I agree with DaJe, I'll move back up there if that happens. NH ftfw! (I was born there)

[Dilphat]

I hope it doesn't go to that. That would really suck, oh wells i'll move to south korea!

[xRyokenx]

My dad said that they were going to do this from the start but someone (successfully) pointed out that it would effectively destroy the internet right from the start, and if they do this, the whole internet (in this country at least) will collapse and be pretty much in ruins. This crap won't work, and I hope to high heaven that they don't, I like the internet, it gives me something to do with my free time and helps me communicate with people where I usually wouldn't.

But yeah... Canada looks good right now, lol, like my neighbor says...

[calumc]

Lets all move to Sweeden!!
Hot women + 100/100 lines + some very nice laws!
What more could you want?

[xRyokenx]

Lets all move to Sweeden!!
Hot women + 100/100 lines + some very nice laws!
What more could you want?

I'll bring the beer! ...which means a side trip to Germany! 8):up:

[calumc]

I'll bring the beer! ...which means a side trip to Germany! 8):up:
Forget about the beer, everyone stop at my house first for a few slugs of poitin!!! (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poitin)
BTW ive just read that wiki and its mostly wrong. Its still completely illegal here and is made from spuds and not barley. But it is somewhere around the 90% mark!

[xRyokenx]

Forget about the beer, everyone stop at my house first for a few slugs of poitin!!! (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poitin)
BTW ive just read that wiki and its mostly wrong. Its still completely illegal here and is made from spuds and not barley. But it is somewhere around the 90% mark!

Well, we want to have fun drinking, not get laid flat out on our asses within five minutes! Sheesh.

[DaJe]

Lets all move to Sweeden!!
Hot women + 100/100 lines + some very nice laws!
What more could you want?

I'm 25% Swedish (and my skin is super-white), I like the cold, there's fast Internet, and I know some people there from online. Let's do it! But I'd miss Massachusetts. But if we secede, we'd have the U.S. invade us. We would need some strong allies before it happens.

[xRyokenx]

I know... damn greedy Americans, lol. I'm kinda greedy in my own way, but I don't have too much, and am definitely not willing to let go of what I have.

I'm part German, like 25-50%... I like it below 80 and below (no humidity)... I dunno.

[Quakken]

I will be on my way to Washington to protest if this gets to congress.

Not washington state, you idiots! (even though the weather there is MUCH nicer than D.C.)

I will not let this get through. And if the senate and house vote yes for such a bill, and george okay's it (we all know he would, probably has friends in telecommunication) we will have to sue the country. Isn't there something that says "the government shouldn't pass laws that make it hard to do good business" somewhere in the constitution?

But it won't pass, or even get to congress. And if it did, the senate and house would vote it down, as we finally elected some intelligent folk who aren't just into big business into our system. It's great we finally have some brains in congress.

[simon275]

Ahh this whole Net neutrality really annoys me.

Here is an example of the internet would be like if we didn't have any form of net neutrality. Imagine you are a small time video provider of helpful video tutorials. You go to your ISP and sign up. They go sure you can have a high bandwidth connection for this much which is ok.

But Imagine that the ISP is also a video provider or they are partnered with a video provider. They could turn around to you and go hey you are already getting a high bandwidth fast connection from us but you now have to pay extra just to make sure your packets get through. It is basically extortion.

While people against net neutrality are like well a tiered internet means you will get faster internet. This is not true only some things will be faster. Also they are like it encourages investement. Sure it does but it means only big comapnies can invest and you can't have startups.

For more on this argument check out

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Network_neutrality

[Quakken]

So far the general consensus from intelligent internet users (not grannies whon only use email or kids who only use myspace) is for net neutrality. Although thinking the matter over a little bit, I think major internet providers should start giving more bandwidth to the big internet pigs.


That way, their subscribers would leave for smaller ISP's like my family's, getting them more money for faster, unbiased connections, taking money out of the huge companies' pockets.


Just my little opinion.

[SgtM]

I will be on my way to Washington to protest if this gets to congress.

ROAD TRIP!! I know of a place to get some damn fine BBQ!

[OvRiDe]

There is way more to Net Neutrality then just loading websites faster. The other portion that seems to get overlooked is the fact they can classify packets. So not only will they look at what each packet is, they can essentially charge different prices for what they are. For instance if its an email packet they can charge you extra for sending email, or they can charge extra for online gaming packets. In my opinion this is the not the worst part of it. A good example would be if you have Cox/Comcast internet. They have their own VoIP phone service now. If you were on their Internet and say you would like to go with Vonage instead. Where as they might not completely block the Vonage packets, they could put such a low packet priority on them that the service wouldn't work. Basically this would make it to where you HAVE to use their service, which will kill any freedom of choice when it comes to such services. Of course if your on DSL from you local phone company the same would apply. They same can bleed over into on demand Video applications such as NetFlicks, or Vongo, etc, etc. These are just a couple of examples.
When it comes to P2P applications.. Fagedaboutit... Just think about what they would do with those. I think we can all agree that while Bittorrent is being used for nefarious reasons, its not inherently evil. Meaning that there are legitimately legal reasons for using it. Well recently some Comcast users experienced a problem with slow torrent speeds and that most were not able to seed. The Register Article (http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/08/22/comcast_throttles_bittorrent_users/). Comcasts excuse was that these households were using more then the average bandwidth. Well excuse me.. UNLIMITED internet access should mean UNLIMITED. If they don't like it, they shouldn't advertise it as such.

Well thats my rant. If we leave it up to the big companies lobbyists we know where we will end up. There is only one way we can effectively fight this. Research the topics, and VOTE!! Talk to people that don't understand what this is about, help them understand, and get them to VOTE. Write letters to your Congressmen. Did I mention VOTE? I know it may sound corny, and alot of folks are out there saying that my 1 vote is just 1 vote. And you are completely correct, you have 1 vote, but it means nothing if you don't use it.
Ok end of rant #2 :)