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Johnny Mac Posted:

Well ****.

I’m bumuming this is going to head on over to the Supreme Court, but with how corporations now have the rights of people, I’m not so sure that the FCC will win.

I feel like retracting this, or at least minimizing the damage is going to take exponentially more effort. The internet is big business. And the big players have a lot of power here unfortunately.

no need to worry, the reason this’ll never happen is the same reason they don’t ban smoking: too much business, too much public outroar

grinsen Posted:

I am confused because you sound like someone who supports net neutrality, but this hope of yours seems to completely contradict that stance. You seem to be describing a situation in which customers of a certain ISP (let’s say Comcast for argument’s sake) exercise their rights as consumers to choose a competing company for service. That’s pure capitalism, the definition of a free market economy, and the antithesis of a governmental authority determining what services a corporation can offer its customers. Log in to see images!

It’s not that I’m against net neutrality, I’m just disgusted by the idea that the FCC has the authority to regulate bandwidth of any sort. They don’t. Congress does because it is able to regulate commerce, electronic or otherwise. Congress can impose whatever regulations they see fit upon Comcast or any other ISP; the electorate put them in power to make those decisions. The FCC is just a bureaucracy, outside of the sphere of public influence, and they don’t shouldn’t have the authority to make these decisions.

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Current situation: They keep doing ****, a little at a time, and get away with it because there’s no big thing to point out. They take one tentative step at a time, boil the frog one degree at a time.

What I want to see, is a situation where more people are angry with them to the point where it becomes an issue. Whether that anger manifests by their choice of another ISP, or through their representation into legislation.

Excessive government regulation isn’t a good thing, but when a lot of people are facing a monopoly situation (only having one ISP available), putting limits on how that monopoly can exploit its position of power is exactly what government regulation is designed for. Protect the people from abusive business practices by wielding a little collective power.

The FCC vs Congress… **** man, I’m British, I don’t know or care exactly how your government works, I’m talking in terms of principle. Because the rest of the world, all too often, ends up copying what gets done in the States.

Good thing I realized Comcast was a piece of **** years ago and stayed away from it.

This really is pretty scary, though.

I already tapped myself out raging elsewhere on this, and I don’t really want to reiterate or copy-paste, but I will say I don’t give a flying **** if this is somehow a victory for capitalism and free enterprise in anyone’s eyes (usually I’d all be for that type of thing). I mean it honestly is a victory for capitalism, it really is, but one that only benefits old men in suits who shake hands and sit around a big table jerking each other off and fingering each others bumes and face ****ing each other until they vomit great times on their penny loafers. For everyone else all this amounts to is more ads, slower internet and restricted content. I will kindly take my internet over some bull**** misapplied principles thank you very much.

RIP

Also, I just wrote like a 10 page paper on net neutrality and this kinda drives a stake in its heart.

Best get editing.

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