re: Sky Screamers Rejoice! Senate votes to repeal the repeal of Net Neutrality

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Are you seriously denying that the federal government doesn't have price controls for agricultural commodities via subsidies and quotas? T

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Just because you decided to shift from saying we regulate grocery STORE prices to saying we regulate commodities doesn't mean no one noticed you switched.

In easily under 30 years, this whole debate is going to look as dumb as when govt thought it needed to regulate Blockbuster video in the mid 2000s.

The tech is going to totally overwhelm the argument as long as we don't stick our own feet up our arse and frick it up.

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I'd argue thats the cable TV model. Where you have to pay for shite you dont want.

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Yes. But whavter you pay for comes across the cable box and TV at the same quality.

Your cable comaony doesn't get to decide arbitrarily without your input that NBC is broadcast at full 4K HD and FOX is broadcast like scrambled porn.

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Once again, the same companies that own the ISP's, the competing services to the ISP's, the cable television transmission, the broadcast television stations, the cable tv stations, the radio stations, the newspapers, the search engines, the record studios, the movie studios, etc are once again THE SAME PARENT COMPANIES!!!

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Whooooooosh!!! totally missed it. By your "logic"... free speech hasn't existed since Gutenberg invented the printing press.

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How do you not get this?

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I do get it.

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It's like arguing that bicycles compete with cars, if the only sellers of bicycles were Ford, Chrystler, and GM.

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Still applies. Why does Ford make more than one model of car?

Even better example... why does GM have Cadillac and Chevrolet?

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Are you seriously denying that the federal government doesn't have price controls for agricultural commodities via subsidies and quotas? That's a fact, like f*&%king gravity.

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*yawn* That's not at the retail level... nor does that an argument of merit.

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*yawn* That's not at the retail level... nor does that an argument of merit.

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Yeah. He tried to save a dumb argument by changing arguments and hoping you wouldn't notice.

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Yeah. He tried to save a dumb argument by changing arguments and hoping you wouldn't notice.

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dats just good ole lawyerin!

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The best I got was some idiotic response about "free and open exchange of ideas" which has nothing to do with the question.

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But that is what that protects. Here's how different speeds is pitched. "Hey kids, don't you want to make sure your shows are streamed at the fastest speeds imaginable? Get Fastlane internet from Comcast!" However, Comcast is at war with Netflix, so Comcast only gives the fastlane to customers streaming video from cable tv stations by customers who also own time warner cable. If there is a fast lane, there is necessarily a slow lane. Thus, they simply throttle Netflix's speeds to the point that streaming content from Netflix is functionally impossible. Now, if you live in an area where you only have access to Comcast (like 1/4 of the country), you don't have Netflix as a competing product, unless Netflix decides to pay exhorbitant extra costs, of course.

Now, that is the most tame example because that is what has already happened which necessitated government-enforced NN in the first place.

Let's take this a step farther. Comcast reaches a deal with Ebay, Amazon and Wal-Mart to only allow their sites to load on their service and throttling all other e-commerce sites. That means that all other retailers are now forced to sell their goods on one of those 3 platforms or else they won't be able to reach any of those customers. Comcast then reaches a deal with the big 4 media companies (ABC/Disney, Fox, CBS, Viacom, they already own NBC/Universal) where they will carry their content, but throttle all other content. Suddenly, their customers no longer get local websites not affiliated with those media giants. Those little blogs won't load anymore. If you don't get your news and entertainment from the big 4, too bad. That content doesn't load on their sites, and you have no choice but to move if you want to get it.

Now, since there's only 6 regional monopolies, they all simply strike similar deals with the largest content providers, social media sites, and e-commerce sites at the expense of all others. That means that on the internet, that competition essentially no longer exists. The control of the flow of information and commerce on the internet has thus been completely centralized until innovation can create an entirely parallel system free from that control.

We've already seen the danger of these kinds of algorithms in the last election cycle when Google was using their algorithms to suppress search results that would show Hillary Clinton in a negative light. We've already seen Facebook adjust their algorithms to massively reduce the reach and interaction of groups which the ownership of facebook is opposed to. We've seen Twitter shadow-banning conservative viewpoints and doctoring their "trending topics" to push a given agenda.

Now, imagine that power in the hands of the ISP's themselves. Rather than the consumer having the option of simply choosing another search engine or creating a competing social media service, now, the only option to avoid the censorship and competition-destroying power of these algorithms is to create an entirely separate competing internet.

I think it would be faster to simply keep the ISP's from doing this so we don't have to go re-invent the wheel to avoid their anti-competition inclinations for censorship when given the opportunity to do so.

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now, the only option to avoid the censorship and competition-destroying power of these algorithms is to create an entirely separate competing internet.

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ummm, the internet isnt just what you see on your browser.

fail. fail really really hard.

source: someone who uses the internet for what it was originally designed for, institutional transfer of scientific data.