Yes, it has a happy, fluffy, friendly name. That hides a dark under belly of government control, and in fact a dark under belly that
makes the 'net noticeably worse:
For example, one of the more common "net neutrality abuses" that people mention is AT&T's blocking of FaceTime. I've debunked this elsewhere on this blog, but the summary is this: there was no network blocking involved (not a "net neutrality" issue), and the FCC analyzed it and decided it was in the best interests of the consumer. It's disingenuous to claim it's an evil that justifies FCC actions when the FCC itself declared it not evil and took no action. It's disingenuous to cite the "net neutrality" principle that all network traffic must be treated when, in fact, the network did treat all the traffic equally.
Another frequently cited abuse is Comcast's throttling of BitTorrent.Comcast did this because Netflix users were complaining. Like all streaming video, Netflix backs off to slower speed (and poorer quality) when it experiences congestion. BitTorrent, uniquely among applications, never backs off. As most applications become slower and slower, BitTorrent just speeds up, consuming all available bandwidth. This is especially problematic when there's limited upload bandwidth available. Thus, Comcast throttled BitTorrent during prime time TV viewing hours when the network was already overloaded by Netflix and other streams. BitTorrent users wouldn't mind this throttling, because it often took days to download a big file anyway.
If it's a good idea, you shouldn't need to lie to everyone to get it passed. Now if they'd only get rid of the "USA PATRIOT" act ...
So you don't feel that conservative websites will be affected by this change?
ReplyDeleteI do ask this seriously. Thank you.
it isn't that it is dead that is the problem. The way it was killed is. A decision by the FCC can be reversed by the next regime or over written by Congress. Congress is now likely to write a law that does more harm to both sides and force everyone to pay more for less. Had the FCC written recommendations for a new law with reasoning backed by verifiable facts, then killing net neutrality could be a permanent benefit.
ReplyDeleteMr Pai has shown he is a bureaucrat not a leader. The US needs leaders, we have far to many bureaucrats.