SAd day for Net Neutrality

[Guest Glass Plate]

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/07/technology/07net.html?hp

 

WASHINGTON — A federal appeals court ruled on Tuesday that regulators had limited power over Web traffic under current law. The decision will allow Internet service companies to block or slow specific sites and charge video sites like YouTube to deliver their content faster to users.

The court decision was a setback to efforts by the Federal Communications Commission to require companies to give Web users equal access to all content, even if some of that content is clogging the network.

 

The court ruling, which came after Comcast asserted that it had the right to slow its cable customers’ access to a file-sharing service called BitTorrent, could prompt efforts in Congress to change the law in order to give the F.C.C. explicit authority to regulate Internet service.

 

That could prove difficult politically, however, since some conservative Republicans philosophically oppose giving the agency more power, on the grounds that Internet providers should be able to decide what services they offer and at what price.

 

More broadly, the ruling by the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit could raise obstacles to the Obama administration’s effort to increase Americans’ access to high-speed Internet networks.

 

For example, the national broadband plan released by the administration last month proposed to shift billions of dollars in money from a fund to provide phone service in rural areas to one that helps pay for Internet access in those areas. Legal observers said the court decision suggested that the F.C.C. did not have the authority to make that switch.

 

The F.C.C. will now have to reconsider its strategy for mandating “net neutrality,” the principle that all Internet content should be treated equally by network providers. One option would be to reclassify broadband service as a sort of basic utility subject to strict regulation, like telephone service. Telephone companies and broadband providers have already indicated that they would vigorously oppose such a move.

 

The appeals court’s 3-0 decision, which was written by one of the court’s more liberal members, Judge David S. Tatel, focused on the narrow issue of whether the F.C.C. had authority to regulate Comcast’s network management practices.

 

But it was a clear victory for those who favor limiting the F.C.C.’s regulation of the Internet, said Phil Kerpen, a vice president at Americans for Prosperity, a group that advocates limited government. “The F.C.C. has no legal basis for imposing its dystopian regulatory vision under the net neutrality banner,” he said.

 

As a practical matter, the court ruling will not have any immediate impact on Internet users, since Comcast and other large Internet providers are not currently restricting specific types of Web content and have no plans to do so.

 

Comcast, the nation’s largest cable provider, had a muted reaction to its victory. The company said it was gratified by the court’s decision but added that it had changed the management policies that led it to restrict access to BitTorrent, a service used to exchange a range of large data files, from pirated movies to complex software programs.

 

“Comcast remains committed to the F.C.C.’s existing open Internet principles, and we will continue to work constructively with this F.C.C. as it determines how best to increase broadband adoption and preserve an open and vibrant Internet,” Comcast said in a statement.

 

The company is currently seeking federal approval for its proposed acquisition of a majority stake in NBC Universal, the parent of the NBC broadcast network and a cadre of popular cable channels. Some members of Congress and consumer groups have opposed the merger, saying that it would enable Comcast to favor its own cable channels and discriminate against those owned by competitors — something the company has said it does not intend to do.

 

After the ruling on Tuesday, consumer advocates voiced similar concerns about Comcast’s potential power over the Internet, saying that the company could, for example, give priority to transmission of video services of NBC channels and restrict those owned by a competitor like CBS.

 

“Internet users now have no cop on the beat,” said Ben Scott, policy director for Free Press, a nonprofit organization that supported the F.C.C. in the case.

 

Julius Genachowski, the chairman of the F.C.C., had said previously that if the agency lost the Comcast case, he would seek to find other legal authority to implement consumer protections over Internet service. In a statement, the F.C.C. said it remained “firmly committed to promoting an open Internet.”

 

While the court decision invalidated its current approach to that goal, the agency said, “the court in no way disagreed with the importance of providing a free and open Internet, nor did it close the door to other methods for achieving this important end.”

 

 

 

:wtf:

[Guest Glass Plate]

aren't you in aus, what. but yes.

[bubbhasdance]

That's the thing--Bit Torrent is such a useful technology and application. The problem is that it's used %99.995 of the time for porn, Hollywood shite, and music. Let Comcast do as it will; there are plenty of other providers. AT&T, while being cockholes with cellular, have been brilliant with DSL service, technical support, and general awesomeness.

 

pretty much

 

watch people leave Comcast and see how long they keep this up

[awepittance]

where i live the AT&T plan is a lot worse than the comcast one, you have to buy a a DSL router from them, you do not rent it like a comcast subscription. So not only do you have to go through the trouble of bypassing this piece of shit router you were forced to buy, the speeds are not nearly as fast as Comcast for a similar price range.

[goffer]

I'm with cox and they are awesome... soon to be getting a 50Mb connection :)

[eugene]

as long as internet keeps becoming faster and cheaper those rulings don't matter much, provided people will start having 50+mb connection you can do share files thru skype for all they care.

[kaen]

nothing new, my isp over here before i changed started to cap people using certain p2p stuff, they also slowed you right the fuck down at peak times.

[Guest]

don't we live in a free capitalist market thingie?

 

there will be profitable, pirate-friendly providers no question. What xxx said.

[mcbpete]

That's the thing--The internet is such a useful technology and application. The problem is that it's used %99.995 of the time for porn, Hollywood shite, and music.

Yeah my ISP has been 'capping' me with p2p stuff for about 4 years. It really hasn't affected me at all...

[Boxing Day]

The Internet is the next frontier for TPTB. Why conquer space when you can launch an attack via virus ??

 

Also, phling's avatar is creepiest thing i have ever seen.

 

[patternoverlap]

don't we live in a free capitalist market thingie?

 

lol

[oscillik]

i had to go on Virgin Media's most expensive internet connection just to get away from their "traffic management" policies.

[Hoodie]

don't we live in a free capitalist market thingie?

 

there will be profitable, pirate-friendly providers no question. What xxx said.

 

 

yeah, but monopolies like comcast fuck the free market thingie up because other providers can't stay in business.

[Guest]

ach, the ISP situation surely can't be that grim in the US?

 

in the end when Google has eaten enough souls they'll provide you all with free internet and turn you into an army of zombies.

[Guest theSun]

i look forward to our new googlords

[Guest we_kill_soapscum]

someone suggested that other companies who don't cap you will come out.

 

yes, but if someone lives in nyc where time warner has an unbelievable strangle hold on the internet, they will routinely find that they can only get ONE type of service at their crib, and nothing else. im sure this is true other places too.

 

plus as i understand it a lot of the expensive part is the actual system itself, laying down the hard wires and maintaining all that stuff. i worry smaller companies simply won't have the resources to build and fix as these big companies get fatter and fatter

[Guest JW Modestburns]

Comcast is fucking horrible.

 

My first experience with Comcast started about 6 or 7 years ago. They pulled a billing scam where they offered me internet service for around $50,(may have been slightly more or less), a month. About 6 months later I get a notice saying that they had made a error in charging my account. See, instead of charging me $50 a month... they really meant to charge me $70 a month and were going to retroactively charge me for my previously "underpaid" bills. I was like Fuck that shit, I was told $50 and have been paying that for 6 months. They said that was some old offer that assumed that you had also ordered cable TV. I replied with "so what you dirty cock gobbling cunts... You offered me this price and we agreed, you can't retroactively charge me just because one of your people may have fucked up". I spent at least 3 hours arguing with their billing department, and in the end they never budged. I had no other broadband ISPs available to me, so I eventually caved. It was total bullshit. I moved 6 months later and vowed never pay comcast another penny.

 

Fast forward 4 years, I moved into a new place that seemed absolutely perfect for my needs with one exception, their were only 2 internet options. Verizon DSL or Comcast. I suffered with DSL for several months but my service was exceptionally slow and at peak times it was unusable. Eventually, the DSL stopped working all together and Verizon blamed the old phone lines in the house. Since I rented, I had no other choice but to call fucking Comcast again. They gave me a quote over the phone for $120 for basic cable and internet. My initial service bill actually ended up being about $140 a month, my final bill a year later was $224. Since that's a 60% increase, I decided to cancel the service. So...I returned my equipment and canceled my service, which should have been the end of it. But being Comcast, they fucked up again and forgot to actually cancel my service. Then they tried to charge me for an additional 2 and a half months. Then they decided to start harassing me over their fuck-up. When I explained the situation, the klingon on the other side of the phone suspected that I was not telling the truth. I told them to check when they received the equipment. Eventually they agreed that they had screwed up and that I had returned the equipment when I said, but I would still need to pay their imagined balance of $500 to avoid penalties, and that I would receive a refund in the mail for any improper additional charges in a month or two... WTF???

 

 

Seriously, their customer service makes my experiences at the DMV seem pleasant.

 

Fuck Comcast.

[sneaksta303]

wow a post that isn't some gay one liner about side burns.

[Guest JW Modestburns]

wow a post that isn't some gay one liner about side burns.

 

A wise man once said, "Haters gonna hate"

[awepittance]

i too have horror stories of comcast , but the sad thing is if you don't use comcast you have to settle for a slower form of DSL for an equivelent price. You theoretically can get DSL here with the same speeds as comcast, it would just be twice as much $ per month.

 

quick horror story

 

moved into a new house that didn't not have a cable connection already activated, there were cable jacks in every room when the guy who 'flipped' the house finished it but the previous owner never had working cable in the house so the lines weren't 'live'. Ok fair enough so i call comcast and tell them i needed a cable hookup in my house. I miraculously aligned an appointment for my actual move in date, when the comcast employee came it was raining outside and he basically admitted to me that he didn't want to have to work in the rain, i felt kind of bad for the guy but was also very frustrated and told them to please call himself and make a followup appointment for me. He did and when the time came no one ever showed up, so when i called comcast they said there was no appointment on record. Strike 2, so i make an appointment. 2 weeks later when they finally come out the guy, after about an hour of fucking around on his Iphone tells me that they need a ladder truck to go up to the telephone poll and bring down the cable line to my house. He doesn't have one and cant get one out today, so i tell him fine. I call and ask them specifically for a comcast employee with a ladder truck to come out. They agree to send one. When the time comes the employee who comes out also does not have a ladder truck and tells me the same exact thing as the previous guy. I had a mini freakout at this point and told the guy how fucking frustrating this situation was. I called comcast and vented on the phone to the highest person i could find, they apologized profusely and sent a ladder truck out the next day. The guy hooked up the cable no problem on the 4th attempt. The problem was he didn't have the other things in my work order on his schedule, such as hooking up a cable modem and putting another line into the bedroom. I was so fucking done with comcast at this point that i've ended up since then doing these things myself by picking up the equipment from their offices.

[sneaksta303]

wow a post that isn't some gay one liner about side burns.

 

A wise man once said, "Haters gonna hate"

 

yeah but the fact joyrex has said it makes it a worthless point.

 

Seriously though fuck comcast, and your story is one of 20 personal anecdotes I've heard of people getting fucked around. It's a shame. I have AT&T atm and i don't have any complaints. Anyone have Charter?

[GORDO]

i bet google will step in and offer neutral access wherever they try to pull this.