FCC Votes in Favor of Net Neutrality Rules, Classifies Broadband Service as a Utility

[macduke]

I'm a conservative-leaning moderate who thinks most politicians in general are terrible (especially Obama, but have no love either for republicans like Mr. Corporate-Money-Pants Romney), but I'm definitely on board with net-neutrality regulations. The only problem I potentially foresee is over-regulation over the coming decades—but considering where we were headed with fast and slow lanes, online content discrimination, etc—I'm glad they made the call. Just because democrats like Obama wanted this doesn't automatically make it not a good idea. I wish these guys would think critically for just a minute. Both sides have good ideas from time to time! Usually bad ideas but a few good ones.

 

[samiwas]

Seriously I live in a major city. #23 in the country so not that major.

We have Comcast Cable
We have CenturyLink (formerly Qwest) DSL and Fiber
We also have DirecTV broadband via Satellite

The Fiber is ridiculously fast.

I live in the 11th largest metro area in the country, and I live in town.

I have two options: Comcast Cable or AT&T DSL.

DirecTV broadband via Satellite is hardly an option. First of all, their normal internet bundles are through others, usually DSL. Their actual satellite options have data caps so low it would be nearly unusable as a serious connection for anyone other than grandma checking email.

Newsflash, Barack Obama is the worst President in U.S. history, has singlehandedly done more damage than good, and the country may take anywhere from 10-25 years to recover from his 8 years of corruption, if it can at all. At a point in history when so many things in this world are at crucial turning points, we have possibly gone into the dark ages of American Communism.

Bwaaahahaha. Sure thing, dude. If you think Obama is communist or socialist or anything even close, then you literally have no idea what those terms mean. OR, you are so far bat-right-crazy that someone helping an old lady put groceries in her car is seen as the death of American independence.

Do a deep study of the man and find out who he really is before you make comments like that.

Errr, you first, bud.

I believe you are referring to the scary expansion of water regulatory control by the EPA, another example of big government trampling rights.

Yeeeaaahhh...you're going to need to go into a little more detail here.

 

[ttss6]

I love how no one would say they know better than an engineer on how to build a superstructure or a neurosurgeon on how to do their job, but for politicians they can apparently never do anything right

 

[pdaholic]

I live in the 11th largest metro area in the country, and I live in town.

I have two options: Comcast Cable or AT&T DSL.

DirecTV broadband via Satellite is hardly an option. First of all, their normal internet bundles are through others, usually DSL. Their actual satellite options have data caps so low it would be nearly unusable as a serious connection for anyone other than grandma checking email.

I live in the heart of Silicon Valley, and those are my only two options as well! Not to mention the fact that they are incredibly expensive and intermittently unreliable. Comcast would just stop working for a few hours at least once every week or two, and ATT DSL (which I have now) occasionally slows to a snail's pace.

 

[mudslag]

Except that they haven't done that. The industry has followed a voluntary code that has worked for 20 years. There are better ways of dealing with potential abuses than trying to apply a century-old law written to regulate railroads to a relatively new technology. The concern is that, like the railroads, a regulated Internet will stagnate.

In what regard are you saying they haven't done that? Cause ISPs have inked deals for "better" service to companies like Netflix. The next logical step would be to tier out "better" services to the customers. The idea that ISPs will police themselves is a joke.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/artic...rees-to-pay-verizon-for-faster-network-access

 

[sodapop1]

I'm a conservative-leaning moderate who thinks most politicians in general are terrible (especially Obama, but have no love either for republicans like Mr. Corporate-Money-Pants Romney), but I'm definitely on board with net-neutrality regulations. The only problem I potentially foresee is over-regulation over the coming decades—but considering where we were headed with fast and slow lanes, online content discrimination, etc—I'm glad they made the call. Just because democrats like Obama wanted this doesn't automatically make it not a good idea. I wish these guys would think critically for just a minute. Both sides have good ideas from time to time! Usually bad ideas but a few good ones.

Perhaps if Obama had come out against Net Neutrality then all of the Obama haters would be in support of it.

 

[guerro]

If some folks read more and talked less....they might come to a more clear understanding of how far down the rabbit hole this country has gone.

"The Marxist's love of democratic institutions was a stratagem only, a pious fraud for the deception of the masses.
Within a socialist community there is no room for freedom. There can be no freedom of the press where the government owns every printing office.
There can be no free choice of profession or trade where the government is the only employer and assigns everyone the task he must fulfill.
There can be no freedom to settle where one chooses when the government has the power to fix one’s place of work.
There can be no real freedom of scientific research where the government owns all the libraries, archives, and laboratories and has the right to send anyone to a place where he cannot continue his investigations.
There can be no freedom in art and literature where the government determines who shall create them. There can be neither freedom of conscience nor of speech where the government has the power to remove any opponent to a climate which is detrimental to his health, or to assign him duties which surpass his strength and ruin him both physically and intellectually.”
Ludwig von Mises

 

[nikicampos]

Really??? 3-to-2

That's the most disconcerting thing about this.

 

[Arran]

Perhaps if Obama had come out against Net Neutrality then all of the Obama haters would be in support of it.

That would work!

 

[Renzatic]

I don't know what communism is, but this is communism! I mean look at how much my knee is jerking!

 

[Peace]

Seriously I live in a major city. #23 in the country so not that major.

We have Comcast Cable
We have CenturyLink (formerly Qwest) DSL and Fiber
We also have DirecTV broadband via Satellite

The Fiber is ridiculously fast.

I have the exact same thing under the street next to my house. Centurylink owns it but doesn't use it because of the previous rules.

Now they can.

 

[CFreymarc]

I wouldn't be surprised if Verizon and Comcast try to sue this ruling into oblivion.

FDR tried to regulate the newspapers in a similar manner during his New Deal era claiming that newspapers delivered to homes and sold on the the streets was as much as a utility as the water or power utilities. He even tried to regulate the grade of newsprint paper that could be used by the printing presses.

The big newspapers sued and won at SCOTUS on First Amendment grounds stating that they distribute information and thus the cannot be regulated like a utility.

The same will happen here. The Internet is effectively the replacement for the newspapers. As the Clinton Era regulations were shot down but SCOTUS a generation ago, so will this go down.

Question is which gets nullified first? ACA or this?

 

[Renzatic]

The same will happen here. The Internet is effectively the replacement for the newspapers. As the Clinton Era regulations were shot down but SCOTUS a generation ago, so will this go down.

I read some stuff about this, and it's kinda scary what Obama is doing. Is it true that the government can now regulate what is said on the internet?

 

[mudslag]

I don't know what communism is, but this is communism! I mean look at how much my knee is jerking!

Jerking knees actually means you caught the communism. There's very little that can be done for you at this point

 

[Happybunny]

This Net Neutrality will just lead to Internet Death Panels.

 

[CFreymarc]

I read some stuff about this, and it's kinda scary what Obama is doing. Is it true that the government can now regulate what is said on the internet?

IMO, we will see the whole political spectrum with the exception of the neo-facists go after this one hard. IMO, it is not going to pass First Amendment muster.

 

[kage207]

If only I lived in some utopian dreamworld and believed that. This ruling is bad for the consumer. As are so many 'regulations'. Do some homework and find out the reality of it.

Do you understand how the Internet works?

 

[zin]

Maybe you can explain how I am able to stream movies via iTunes to myself while sailing in the middle of the pacific ocean? Are there little scuba divers following my boat carraying a cable?

You are being intentionally obtuse to prove your point.

You keep writing words but I really don't understand what point you are trying to make. If you're streaming iTunes in the middle of the ocean then perhaps you're connected via satellite? I really do not understand why you wrote that.

What is hard to understand what I wrote? How is explaining the situation being obtuse?

 

[kage207]

I read some stuff about this, and it's kinda scary what Obama is doing. Is it true that the government can now regulate what is said on the internet?

Nope.

 

[swordfish5736]

I read some stuff about this, and it's kinda scary what Obama is doing. Is it true that the government can now regulate what is said on the internet?

Can you show us where it says that on the fact sheet?

http://transition.fcc.gov/Daily_Releases/Daily_Business/2015/db0204/DOC-331869A1.pdf

The Internet is the most powerful and pervasive platform on the planet. It is simply too important to be left without rules and without a referee on the field. Think about it. The Internet has replaced the functions of the telephone and the post office. The Internet has redefined commerce, and as the outpouring from four million Americans has demonstrated, the Internet is the ultimate vehicle for free expression. The Internet is simply too important to allow broadband providers to be the ones making the rules.

This proposal has been described by one opponent as "a secret plan to regulate the Internet." Nonsense. This is no more a plan to regulate the Internet than the First Amendment is a plan to regulate free speech. They both stand for the same concepts: openness, expression, and an absence of gate keepers telling people what they can do, where they can go, and what they can think.

Do you know who this quote comes from?

 

[Renzatic]

Nope.

Are you sure? I mean everyone keeps saying about how commie this is.

This sounds like something that's potentially even more damaging to our freedoms than those multiethnic emoji. And we all know how bad those are.

 

[sbailey4]

I have already done my research and I maintain that you just don't know what you're talking about.

Barack Obama is absolutely no where near being a communist. Not a socialist. Obama is a full on capitalist. He is right-wing. He isn't even anywhere near the centre.

Wow, i mean really wow. You are partially correct, he is certainly no where near the center THATS for sure. But you are delusional if you say he is right wing. I mean HE even prides himself as a lefty. Not sure you can get any more left wing than him. I believe you need to do further research or find new sources. Just sayin.

 

[Renzatic]

Wow, i mean really wow. You are partially correct, he is certainly no where near the center THATS for sure. But you are delusional if you say he is right wing. I mean HE even prides himself as a lefty. Not sure you can get any more left wing than him. I believe you need to do further research or find new sources. Just sayin.

To get all serious for a second, it depends on what aspects of government and society you're looking at. Socially, he's left leaning. As far as fiscal, economic, and foreign affairs are concerned, he's right leaning.

 

[Codyak]

Wow, i mean really wow. You are partially correct, he is certainly no where near the center THATS for sure. But you are delusional if you say he is right wing. I mean HE even prides himself as a lefty. Not sure you can get any more left wing than him. I believe you need to do further research or find new sources. Just sayin.

Judging by that person's spelling, they're likely comparing it to the European political spectrum, not just US.

 

[bradl]

Seriously I live in a major city. #23 in the country so not that major.

We have Comcast Cable
We have CenturyLink (formerly Qwest) DSL and Fiber
We also have DirecTV broadband via Satellite

The Fiber is ridiculously fast.

Can anyone else provision fiber over the same lines laid out by the PHONE company in your town?

Prior to today's ruling, that answer would have been no. With today's ruling, anyone else who wants to provide fiber to the curb can use those same lines, as they are now classified as a utility.

That alone ENSURES competition, not hinders it. So instead of having a monopoly over what is provisioned in your city, which said provider can take their time and charge up the wazoo for the service, they now will have competition, causing them to either adapt and innovate, or get out.

Win for the customer.

So, please explain how this is a negative for the consumer.

BL.