Quote:
Originally Posted by Boon Mee
Net Neutrality is nothing more than plain old censorship - jing jing, man
*sigh* Not it is not, it will go some way to preventing that actually.
The current system allows internet providers to reduce speeds or charge more for different websites in order to ensure access and make more money. For example, Comcast reduced Netflix's speed and then charged Netflix money to ensure that it didn't happen again. Basically, "pay us money and access to your website gets priority. Don't pay and nobody will see your content". It would be like AT&T charging the pizza place extra money on top of their phone bill to ensure that their phone calls didn't "accidentally" get dropped.
Regulating the internet as a utility would make those behaviors illegal and all traffic would have to be treated equally. Providers don't like this because it destroys a huge potential revenue stream. The controversy is that the cable companies have lots of money and lobbyists and the initial proposals by the FCC were entirely pro-cable company and screwed
consumers pretty badly. Like made no attempt to even pretend to protect consumers bad and then the FCC acted all surprised when people threw a fit and the big technology companies waded into the fight on the neutrality side.
Another note that doesn't get mentioned enough: net neutrality is an old idea with a new name. When ISPs started business in the 90s, they had a philosophy that they kept their hands off the traffic. Not only was it a philosophy, but you didn't do it because you didn't want your peers to do the same thing to do.
Then Comcast comes along and is so big it feels it can throw this philosophy away.
So this is a case of "it IS broke and it NEEDS to be fixed," not the "OMG OBUMMER IS REGULATIN' THE INTERWEZ! FEEDOM!" crap that the teaparty has spouted.