Battle for Net Neutrality

Companies like Comcast are gonna have us pay fees or else websites will be blocked by our ISP's. There's only a few days left. There are sites everywhere asking you to writes letters to Congress and the FCC to save the internet. Here's one. Please. Save the internet.

EDIT:This topic will possibly be locked due to it possibly involving politics.

we had a thread regarding this topic recently so no I don't think this one is going to get locked.

Please send an email to your congressman. I wrote a message to my congressman and it took about a month but the senators and representative finally responded to me

What websites would even be affected by this? Because if the most popular sites like YouTube started requiring fees then all hell is going to break loose.

The Sonic Retro forums gave me a pop up about this, and imgur. If it happens to YouTube, it's safe to say that, at the least, there will be death threats to Ajit Pai.

At the most,

**MOCKUP DON'T TAKE THIS SERIOUSLY**

BOMBS FOUND AT FCC!

AJIT PAI HOSPITALIZED!

Sorry.

Years ago there were talks about powers pushing for internet to become more like payment tv where you pay for different packages like sport, news, or whatever.

I shot it down at the time but now - who knows what the future will bring.

I am curious how this will effect internet customers outside the us - anybody knows?

Doom Wiki has had the interstitial popup all day today. It appears once per viewer (per web browser obviously, since it's cookie based).

Battles will be waged by not even leaving the house? I bet Comcast leaves the house when it goes to Congress.

I once called a Congressman a few times to thank him for an unrelated matter. After 3 - 5 calls per day for a full week. I just gave up. They don't want your spam. Get the news involved so they casually see it or go up to them. I say this as the stepson of a politician with quite a few politicians / mayors in the family.

Just now, geo said:

Battles will be waged by not even leaving the house? I bet Comcast leaves the house when it goes to Congress.

Remember when SOPA and PIPA became law? Oh right they didn't, because of a massive protest that proved they were politically untenable.

Just now, Quasar said:

Remember when SOPA and PIPA became law? Oh right they didn't, because of a massive protest that proved they were politically untenable.

What about that whole "we can sell your information to 3rd parties without asking?"

Part of the current regime's "burn it all to the ground" strategy. Which, frankly, I must say I won't be the least bit surprised if Pai pushes on with this anyways. He's nothing more than an industry plant/shill specifically put into office to accomplish this stuff for his benefactors.

The future will tell if they are playing the long con.

Good thing I am not a US citizen, at least I don't have to put up with this bullshit yet.

Why can't people start protesting for things that actually matter?

Net Neutrality is fundamentally important. I think most can agree that there should be a free and open internet without censorship and tiered service.

However, there's a debate about this. I've been seeing people argue that the current controversy is about government consolidation and unnecessary Obama era regulations. I'm not sure what to believe at this point.

9 hours ago, geo said:

Battles will be waged by not even leaving the house?

Yeah, I always find these internet statements a bit laughable. Especially when they put up a scary message for like a day and that's it. What the hell is one day? Imagine a one day hunger strike at the prison lol. If you want to impress me, close Wikipedia for like a month.

There already was a battle for Net Neutrality in November 8th, 2016. We lost it. 

39 minutes ago, Memfis said:

Yeah, I always find these internet statements a bit laughable. Especially when they put up a scary message for like a day and that's it. What the hell is one day? Imagine a one day hunger strike at the prison lol. If you want to impress me, close Wikipedia for like a month.

I have done 1 day hunger strikes maybe 6 times in my life. They're far easier than you'd imagine because they're a single day. After about 12 hours you stop being hungry. Although I know other people who have to fast for a day due to their religion they tell me the hunger never ends in that single day.

Close Wikipedia for a month? You don't want people running scared to Wikia. Think of how many browsers the ads would murder.

5 hours ago, DooM_RO said:

Good thing I am not a US citizen, at least I don't have to put up with this bullshit yet.

 

Why can't people start protesting for things that actually matter?

Your priorities are all screwed up, man. This matters intensely regardless of whether you're American or not. It might be the only thing that matters.

14 hours ago, DooM_RO said:

Good thing I am not a US citizen, at least I don't have to put up with this bullshit yet.

 

Why can't people start protesting for things that actually matter?

I'm Canadian, and I care quite a bit about what's happening with this. Not only is this sickeningly immoral, dishonest and greedy, it's also a major hindrance for any small businesses looking to gain traction online. If you care about the internet then you need to realise how important it is for all data to be treated equally. 

I'm really tired of this same song and dance every 5 years or so. Remember SOPA way back in 2011? Or when it happened again 2014 like NiTROACTiVE said in the other thread? What a fucked up world we live in. These companies are constantly taking things from us, but apparently it's never enough.

Just an example of just how big this whole battle is:
I actually saw the online protesting in the local news yesterday, and yet I didn't even see so much as a mention on the protests regarding SOPA back in 2011.

What's even scarier is that on the FCC's official site, there's a comments section where you can voice your concerns, but you can't even do that there. Namely, there seems to be some sort of astroturfing there, in which that bots seem to be forcing people to say that they're against net neutrality with an automated message. People have gone on recording saying that they have never done such a thing. In other words, people's concerns are literally drowned out in favor of corporate mandate.

Unfortunately, we live in the possible darkest timeline, where the evil, greedy, and morally bankrupt have free reign over the nation, and the voices speaking out against them are either met with deaf ears or silenced altogether.

We live in the possible darkest timeline? I can think of far worse things than having to pay extra for Internet that your service provider deems we should pay extra for.

Can't Netflix and or Youtube throw money at this problem like apparently Comcast and other ISPs have?

Why does Congress feel its a good idea for ISPs to have the right to charge people more or bottleneck for viewing select websites? Don't they know people don't want to spend money?

Better yet, doesn't a big ISP realize that when it starts charging extra people will just go to another ISP?

I had a recent battle with Comcast. My 2 year locked in deal keeps costing more and more money and each month I need to call them where they claim it was an accident and they give me a credit for the difference. I told them I'm free to leave they're in breach of contract. Then the representative said its not a contract... its a service agreement.

Well by that logic, a service agreement won't hold up in court even if you sign it like a contract. Everyone is free to leave without being charged $10 a month for early termination. He then said he'd get his manager, please hold. 5 minutes later I was hung up on and I never called back. Nor was I ever billed more than my agreed upon 2 year locked in price guarantee.

3 hours ago, geo said:

Better yet, doesn't a big ISP realize that when it starts charging extra people will just go to another ISP?

Internet service providers such as Comcast, Time Warner and AT&T have regional monopolies throughout the United States. They treat their customers like crap because they have no other internet service providers to choose from.

35 minutes ago, Ajora said:

Comcast, Time Warner

You mean Spectrum?

"It's a new day!" (for monopolies, anyhow)

Expect more of these in the future lol

One part of me hopes they would regulate and cut down internet just to bring out people outside. Leave like some really essential stuff on there and cut down social media. Besides, if they start charging everyone can drop internet for a week or so and soon those guys would start sweating like mad like "how tf is our output so low where did our customers go?", unless they force some heretical shit that they are chosen by God and therefore you have to pay them money without even using their services. And if they wont leave you alone, you bomb their fucking houses and ask "fuck you say?".

Either way, I cannot say I care about the internet. It might be bad for business, but what kind of business? What stuff is so essential to people that online service is the only way to reach them? The bakery down the road doesn't even know about internet yet people still have to buy bread. Same with factories and other industrial stuff. Like, how did they work before the internet? Did they just sit there with all the machines, waited for the internet to be invented, and haven't done anything about it? I guess not. Plus all that information blocking might be good. I had seen way too many peers succumbing to fear-mongering and ultimately depression because of shit they had been fed with. What is worse, they choose to follow that shit on their own. Like I had said numerous times before, it is useless to mope over something you cannot reach instead of working on what you can. So when you write articles about stuff running out, facing imminent doom, all that shit, what would you expect of your readers? To start automatically dispensing secret oil reserves or something? Fuck memes as well, for saying "its okay too suck", yet shush and shoot down whoever feels good.

Wow so many words for shit I didn't even pick sides for.

I think in the grand scheme of things, not much we say or do on here will make a major impact. We can definitely put our mark on things and make it clear that we dont agree with it but it require a unified voice. the sad fact is, the majority of people just aren't that interested in doing anything about this. And i'll be honest, Doomworld isn't one of the places where you'll find a huge amount of support, mainly because there just isn't as many people here. Now, if you were to go to the steam forums you might get much more support, since there are gamers from all backgrounds there, that will be affected by this in some way or another.

But, ultimately, we've been living in a world that is less and less  friendly to the word 'neutrality' every day. Everyones taking a side, you cant just remain neutral anymore. You give these companies the right to do this, they're going to use it, and weaponize it. Its not a neutral world anymore, and its not a neutral net when its a place people can say whatever they want without fear of the consequences. Life is about responsibility, accepting it and dealing with the consequences that follow. If a person is using a site to avoid that responsibility, it then becomes the responsibility of the larger companies that have the power to do something about it.

I don't agree with net neutrality, but the fact is we've brought this on ourselves.

1 hour ago, Ajora said:

 

Internet service providers such as Comcast, Time Warner and AT&T have regional monopolies throughout the United States. They treat their customers like crap because they have no other internet service providers to choose from.

Doesn't the US break up monopolies unless its a government controlled monopoly? I have plenty of Internet service providers to chose from here in Chicago or did you mean "the big guys have a monopoly and there are no more little ISPs."

11 minutes ago, Phade102 said:

the sad fact is, the majority of people just aren't that interested in doing anything about this.

My problem is, I can't find a good, "unbiased" source to explain what net-neutrality is and isn't. I've heard lots of outcry against it, but I can't figure out what the "real issue" is... I get the idea that there is no trade-off, and that this is just a bad thing all around; I have a really hard time believing that -- everything in life is a trade-off.

I am totally against government regulation of the internet, and I am totally for people paying for services they use and not paying for services they don't use. Not sure which side of the fence that plants me on, but there's my manifesto.

EDIT: maybe the outcry is against ending it? I can't remember...

18 minutes ago, 42PercentHealth said:

 

My problem is, I can't find a good, "unbiased" source to explain what net-neutrality is and isn't.

 

That's because there is none. Much of what's going on here looks like a lot of idological fearmongering and for the most part it sounds quite far-fetched. It also seems to miss the real danger if the ISPs are allowed to restrict access to selected websites.

22 minutes ago, 42PercentHealth said:

I am totally against government regulation of the internet, and I am totally for people paying for services they use and not paying for services they don't use. Not sure which side of the fence that plants me on, but there's my manifesto.

Here's the problem: You pay for the service to get access to the internet. And you never know which sites you may need so some 'restricted' access is going to bite you in the ass sooner or later. That's inevitable - and that also means that this kind of selectiveness will never happen - because that's the kind of shit an ISP may not survive. That shitstorm would be fatal.

The far bigger danger is that ISPs may selectively filter information you can access without you ever noticing. And that's definitely not beyond the way American businesses operate, especially when it comes to political alignment.

The problem is not the government regulating the internet but the government forcing ISPs not to meddle with what you can access.

3 hours ago, geo said:

Doesn't the US break up monopolies unless its a government controlled monopoly? I have plenty of Internet service providers to chose from here in Chicago or did you mean "the big guys have a monopoly and there are no more little ISPs."

This might answer your questions. 

https://www.quora.com/Why-are-American-ISPs-cable-companies-allowed-regional-monopolies