New United States Congress Bill!!! BE WARNED!!

MOVIEBOT · Lurker Joined: 24 May 2004 Posts: 229 Location: Poland

For You Americans

congress is about to sell out the Internet by letting big phone and cable companies set up toll booths along the information superhighway.

Companies like AT&T, Verizon and Comcast are spending tens of millions in Washington to kill "network neutrality" -- a principle that keeps the Internet open to all.

A bill moving quickly through Congress would let these companies become Internet gatekeepers, deciding which Web sites go fast or slow -- and which won't load at all -- based on who pays them more. The rest of us will be detoured to the "slow lane," clicking furiously and waiting for our favorite sites to download. Even if you have a fast web connection or not!!

Don't let Congress ruin the Internet:

tell congress to save internet neutrality now!!!!!

FBI · Posted: Apr 23, 2006 12:39pm Post subject:

Dude you can't control the internet....

They can try but I don't think they can

katsklaw · Posted: Apr 23, 2006 1:22pm Post subject:

Jason · Posted: Apr 23, 2006 1:28pm Post subject:

I would switch providers rather rapidly if that happened to my connection.

katsklaw · Posted: Apr 23, 2006 1:49pm Post subject:

mjd · none Joined: 31 Mar 2006 Posts: 38

Just my opinion, but I think as long as there is something to sell, someone will sell it. There are lots of people out there these days who will do ANYTHING for a buck. That includes selling dedicated servers that allow IRC related programs.

As far as the other thing goes, the companies will have to think about what's best for their business. I'm sure they'll also consider the substantial amount of customers they'd lose if this were to happen.

ARcanUSNUMquam · none Joined: 25 Mar 2006 Posts: 42

mjd: The thing about your viewpoint is that it doesn't work when something is a neccessity (the Internet), every company that provides access is in cahoots, and the infrastructure setup costs are prohibitively high.

Don't get me wrong, I'm a big fan of free market systems, like the one you are advocating, but sometimes, the free market fails, and this is one of those times.

Every BACKBONE provider out there wants to kill network neutrality (NN). That means there is no choice for the consumers. Since the Internet is a neccessity, the consumers will be forced to go to these people that kill NN, and the backbone providers will have no incentive to keep NN. Nobody can start up their own Internet infrastructure because of two things.

1) It costs hella. Try putting huge fiber lines all accross the world. Pretty damn hard and costly.

2) Consumers on the new infrastructure will still need to deal with the NN schemes of the old infrastructure. As a result, while the stuff in the new infrastrcuture will be fast, the stuff on the old will be slow. What is on the old? Websites that everybody visits like Google, Ebay, Yahoo, Myspace, Wikipedia, and SearchIRC. There is no good reason for the consumers to go to the new infrastructure becuase there is nothing good there.

As a free market die-hard and freedom lover, I'm torn on this issue. I recognize the freedom that companies have when dealing with their own networks. I also see how the free market can't solve this problem to my liking, as it can with many other issues. I see how the Internet will be fundamentally changed if this bill goes through, and as an Internet lover too, it's a hard decision for me.

FBI · Posted: Apr 23, 2006 3:02pm Post subject:

It'll take years for the bills to pass if theres people who were against it...

Thanks to our Bill Of Rights we can sue and delay the bill Razz

Also our president have the power to VETO the bill if hes smart enough Wink

PingBad · Posted: Apr 23, 2006 3:57pm Post subject:

And this is why I'm proud to be a New Zealander (not saying we don't have our own internet connectively problems... TELECON!).
In my opinion, the bill will fail. Consider:

Bill passes
Public outrage
Everyone switches to cheaper, more reliable providers
Big wigs soon become nothing more than writings in a history book
Bill gets revoked from US legislation

The Internet is not some commodity that only America controls, so all they're doing is hurting themselves. The rest of the world will keep surfing merrily away while AT&T, AOL, and the other big'uns duke it out

FBI · Posted: Apr 23, 2006 4:01pm Post subject:

They'll go bankrupt....

Since everyone switches...lol

ab0rted · Lurker Joined: 10 Nov 2005 Posts: 208

switch

Jason · Posted: Apr 24, 2006 4:45pm Post subject:

ARcanUSNUMquam · none Joined: 25 Mar 2006 Posts: 42

Jason · Posted: Apr 24, 2006 9:41pm Post subject:

hehe. This site runs on Fios :)

I hear rumors about us offering 100mbs down, 20mbps up by the end of the year.

we're doing less than 2 mill homes a year, so unless you live in some areas in FL or TX, your chances are kinda slim.

PingBad · Posted: Apr 24, 2006 10:01pm Post subject:

*moves into Jason's pad so he too can enjoy FIOS* (it sounds sexeh, aight?)