Now I'm Pissed.

[GuidoHunter]

Re: Now I'm Pissed.

It offends me, too, to think that the government is entertaining the idea of stepping in where it doesn't belong.

Also, all this discussion and attention is the best thing that could happen. If everyone knows about it and pays attention to it, then the ISP's can't sneakily charge extra. With all their customers watching them like hawks, the first move on their part will cause everyone to drop their service.

Either that, or everyone will be completely content with paying for slow internet or basic internet. Neither of these outcomes is illegal or even bad.

BTW: segue.

--Guido

http://andy.mikee385.com

[Tibs]

Re: Now I'm Pissed.

Oh great... this means another wave of Americans moving to Canada...

Wait... This only affects America?

[GuidoHunter]

Re: Now I'm Pissed.

Well, we are talking about American law here. I can only assume that other countries can do what they want with regard to regulating their proper ISPs.

And so far, nothing's changed. American ISPs can still charge what they want for the services they give.

--Guido

http://andy.mikee385.com

[Grandiagod]

Re: Now I'm Pissed.

I am pretty sure I started a save the internets thread about this a month ago.

[GuidoHunter]

Re: Now I'm Pissed.

That was before the vote, though, so it died.

--Guido

http://andy.mikee385.com

[talisman]

Re: Now I'm Pissed.

meh, just makes sense to guarantee net neutrality really. Wouldn't be that hard at all... not like it would require active regulation or anything. Just the opportunity for legal recourse through the judicial system if your site is being held up or if you're being charged too much or whatever.

The "It's not broke so we don't need to fix it" attitude is simplistic and foolish. This issue is sort of like a volcano that's been dormant for a long time... sure it might not erupt, but then again the chance exists that it might. And if it does, will there be anything in place to help the affected people? Not if it's ignored. Potential problems are easier to fix than problems that have already occurred... so why can't we just write net neutrality into law?

[GuidoHunter]

Re: Now I'm Pissed.

Because it stomps all over businesses' rights and economic freedom and further involves the government in the economy, which is only very rarely a good idea.

If this volcano does erupt, we the consumers can do things about it that don't involve legislation, so there's no reason to ask big brother to protect us when we can fight our own fights.

Like I've said before, the ISPs can only screw us if we let them. If we're uncomfortable with, but still tolerant of, a little fingerbanging, there's no problem. If we're okay with our cornholes getting goatse'd, there's no problem there, either. If we're not okay with it, we'll start cutting appendages off.

The government doesn't exist to make sure we're living a comfortable life, and this bill is trying to change that. Every piece of legislation that does this makes us more and more dependent on the government to satisfy our every whim.

--Guido

http://andy.mikee385.com

[talisman]

Re: Now I'm Pissed.

uh what could consumers do? Without legal recourse I don't see what kind of power we have over ISPs.

businesses' rights < individual rights, in my opinion. and I think the internet should be treated as an individual's right to freedom of expression.

[GuidoHunter]

Re: Now I'm Pissed.

Change/cancel service. That's where the "they can't take money we don't give them" comes in.

You know, that economic system we're in... Yeah, that thing.

--Guido

http://andy.mikee385.com

[talisman]

Re: Now I'm Pissed.

Oh come on. It's hardly that simple.

It's not like ISPs are operating even close to a free market. If there's only one ISP in your area that offers high speed, what do you do when they decide to limit access to sites they find morally wrong but you want to visit? What if you life out in Nowheresville, North Dakota and the only ISP there won't let you visit I-Tunes music store because they've signed a deal with the local Media Center coming to town? Are you just SOL? And what about collusion between ISPs?

Unless there's an ample number of noncolluding ISPs all providing equal services to all people (and all the consumers are rational consumers), there's no way to guarantee that people have a recourse to an ISP that is limiting their access to certain websites. There's no way you can rely on market forces themselves to keep the internet unmanipulated. And it's so easy to fix... just write this into law and let the judicial system take care of the rest.

[sertman]

Re: Now I'm Pissed.

Wait, so google is against it?

Wasn't there a TV ad saying that Google was for it? WTF

[TheRaiRaiEatsBalloons]

Re: Now I'm Pissed.

Google is for net neutrality.

Net neutrality is against the bills threatening the internet.

[iggymatrixcounter]

Re: Now I'm Pissed.

Meh, even if something like this happened, no doubt it would make a lot of people mad. However there would be AT LEAST one ISP that would say, "Hey the job market for not limiting any sites would be huge and we would get so many people to switch to our service over all the rest."

Greed usually takes care of dumb things like that sometimes lol.

[Shopowner200]

Re: Now I'm Pissed.

If this "Net Neutrality" is passed, that would really blow. I reccomend watching The Flashbulb on Net Neutrality on you tube, it gives examples of why it would suck really bad.

[talisman]

Re: Now I'm Pissed.

no net neutrality is good. ughhhhhh.

Anyway, is all of this moot? I thought the house already rejected it pretty solidly.