WASHINGTON – Protecting the Internet against content discrimination by broadband carriers is crucial to protecting First Amendment rights in the age of modern technology, the American Civil Liberties Union said today in a new report on network neutrality. In the report, "Net Neutrality 101," the ACLU urged the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to create strong policies that prevent Internet gatekeepers from exploiting their role for private gain. The report characterizes the need for "net neutrality" as a leading free speech issue of our time.
"In this day and age, the Internet is the main way Americans exercise their free speech rights, and until now, network neutrality principles have always been respected," said Laura W. Murphy, Director of the ACLU Washington Legislative Office. "Unfortunately, recent developments have opened the way for giant telecoms to begin tinkering with the open structure of the Internet, threatening its role as a forum for free speech. The FCC must take action to preserve the Internet as a free and open forum for all."
Also, there was just some announcement that Hulu is going to make some kind of premium service free on the PS3. Streaming content apps like that and Netflix are the disruptive technology, and the cable ISPs are going to do what they can to keep that from happening.
So yeah, throttling starts happening really visibly pretty soon, I bet.
I just heard that Netflix stat yesterday and I admit it's pretty alarming.
I also just learned (oddly enough) about the National Broadband Plan. I admit I haven't read through it though so I don't know whether NN is addressed.
I'm not really surprised at the bandwidth. It makes sense that streaming video would account for a lot of usage during peak viewing hours.
What I'm confused about is that they say that's only 1.8% of subscribers, particularly when the Netflix earnings report they cite says:
Quote:
Percentage of subscribers who watched instantly more than 15 minutes of a TV episode or movie in the third quarter of 2010 was 66 percent compared to 41 percent for the same period of 2009 and 61 percent for the second quarter of 2010. In Q4 a majority of Netflix subscribers will watch more content streamed from Netflix than delivered on DVD. With that transition in the business from mostly DVD to mostly
streaming, this will be the last quarter the company will report this metric.
So I'm guessing that number isn't as alarming as it might seem at first glance. It's not that under 2% of subscribers ever use it, so when adoption increases, the bandwidth requirements will be all crazy. It's probably just that that's how many are using it at any given time.
It's still going to give cable internet providers a reason to start throttling providers like Netflix, though.
Every single candidate that pledged support for net neutrality got defeated in their election/re-election bids on November 2. It looks increasingly likely that Congress may attempt to ram through a bill designed to give the American government power to block sites it doesn't like. Anyone even remotely concerned with governments' abuse of power should be opposed to this, since it effectively gives the government carte blanche to violate the first amendment. Click here to find out what you can do to stop it if you're an American. If you're not you can probably still donate money to the campaign to oppose this bullshit.
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Cēterum cēnseō factiōnem Rēpūblicānam dēlendam esse īgnī ferrōque.
“All for ourselves, and nothing for other people, seems, in every age of the world, to have been the vile maxim of the masters of mankind.” -Adam Smith
It looks like Genachowski has the votes to pass that new net neutrality reg, the one Franken says bounces back and forth between useless and a major step in the wrong direction. Tomorrow the chairman will say:
Quote:
I reject both extremes in favor of a strong and sensible framework – one that protects Internet freedom and openness and promotes robust innovation and investment.
Which in administrative agency lingo usually translates to
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"We can have democracy in this country, or we can have great wealth concentrated in the hands of a few, but we can't have both." ~ Louis D. Brandeis
"Psychos do not explode when sunlight hits them, I don't give a fuck how crazy they are." ~ S. Gecko
GOODMAN: I can’t help but think back three years ago—two-and-a-half years ago. It was the first—the night before the opening night of the Democratic convention in Denver. One of the first parties held was thrown by AT&T. Us—the reporters could not get in. Delegates were streaming in. And they were holding it for the Democrats, because they had turned around, particularly Senator Obama at the time, who said he would never grant retroactive immunity to the telecoms, but then turned around—they granted retroactive immunity for spying on the American people, and this big party was held. And I remember on Democracy Now! at the time holding up the DNC bag that all the delegates were getting, and there was the logo emblazoned on it that said "AT&T" on that bag.
Quote:
AMY GOODMAN: Craig Aaron, I want to thank you very much for being with us, managing director of the media reform group Free Press, and end with a quote of Senator Al Franken, who said, "Mobile networks like AT&T and Verizon Wireless would be able to shut off your access to content or applications for any reason. For instance, Verizon could prevent you from accessing Google Maps on your phone, forcing you to use [their] own mapping program, Verizon Navigator, even if it costs money to use and isn’t nearly as good."
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Cēterum cēnseō factiōnem Rēpūblicānam dēlendam esse īgnī ferrōque.
“All for ourselves, and nothing for other people, seems, in every age of the world, to have been the vile maxim of the masters of mankind.” -Adam Smith
Admittedly this article is pretty damn sensationalist but it's still an unremittingly shitty proposal.
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Cēterum cēnseō factiōnem Rēpūblicānam dēlendam esse īgnī ferrōque.
“All for ourselves, and nothing for other people, seems, in every age of the world, to have been the vile maxim of the masters of mankind.” -Adam Smith
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Cēterum cēnseō factiōnem Rēpūblicānam dēlendam esse īgnī ferrōque.
“All for ourselves, and nothing for other people, seems, in every age of the world, to have been the vile maxim of the masters of mankind.” -Adam Smith
Interesting that the big internet providers didn't have a problem with the FCC rules. It begs the question; who are the Republicans sucking up to?
Don't cha know there are socialist liberal treehugging voters all over the interwebs telling each other that the republicans suck. Buy the internets and squeeze them out. Also moar advertising.
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Cēterum cēnseō factiōnem Rēpūblicānam dēlendam esse īgnī ferrōque.
“All for ourselves, and nothing for other people, seems, in every age of the world, to have been the vile maxim of the masters of mankind.” -Adam Smith
In reading the comments on that post, I saw a mention of a man who's been indicted on child pornography charges for editing a sexually explicit song into footage of him singing in front of children. Just editing. Not even actually singing the song in front of the children (which would still be insane).
Seriously, who's being protected here? The children at the school? They never heard the song. It seems the only people who are being 'protected' are the embarrassed school officials, who are pursuing child pornography charges to assuage their sense of pique.
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Cēterum cēnseō factiōnem Rēpūblicānam dēlendam esse īgnī ferrōque.
“All for ourselves, and nothing for other people, seems, in every age of the world, to have been the vile maxim of the masters of mankind.” -Adam Smith