Wednesday, April 14, 2010
Tuesday, April 13, 2010
Saturday, April 10, 2010
Net Neutrality under attack again
If you enjoy wandering freely around the Internet and enjoy that over %60 of the content on the internet is non commercial and available to you, then you should be in favour of Net Neutrality.
Earlier this year it was determined that the FCC could regulate the service providers such as Comcast in the same way the phone industry is regulated. These regulations keep the internet the same as it is now, free, open and unrestricted.
Comcast began filtering their customers internet and selectively blocking content. Comcast was in complete denial of doing this but after an extensive investigation they were caught red handed and were forced to stop.
What Comcast and other internet service providers are after is being able to control where you go on the internet. For example, they could start blocking internet phone providers such as Skye or Vonage because they want you to use their phone service instead. The more threatening example is they could decide what political or religious sites to block based on their own agenda. Imagine if they had a vested interest in one political candidate or bill they wanted to pass, they could simply filter out any web site that had an opposing view.
The next step Comcast took was to go after the FCC.
"A federal court threw the future of Internet regulations into doubt Tuesday with a far-reaching decision that went against the Federal Communications Commission and could even hamper the government's plans to expand broadband access in the United States.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia ruled that the FCC lacks authority to require broadband providers to give equal treatment to all Internet traffic flowing over their networks. That was a big victory for Comcast Corp., the nation's largest cable company, which had challenged the FCC's authority to impose such "network neutrality" obligations on broadband providers"
(From MSNBC)
The Internet is a wonderful place where ideas and information flow freely and has brought forth new business models that were not even conceived of less than ten years ago. It has allowed us more direct access to information than ever before and I am on the side of keeping it that way.
Earlier this year it was determined that the FCC could regulate the service providers such as Comcast in the same way the phone industry is regulated. These regulations keep the internet the same as it is now, free, open and unrestricted.
Comcast began filtering their customers internet and selectively blocking content. Comcast was in complete denial of doing this but after an extensive investigation they were caught red handed and were forced to stop.
What Comcast and other internet service providers are after is being able to control where you go on the internet. For example, they could start blocking internet phone providers such as Skye or Vonage because they want you to use their phone service instead. The more threatening example is they could decide what political or religious sites to block based on their own agenda. Imagine if they had a vested interest in one political candidate or bill they wanted to pass, they could simply filter out any web site that had an opposing view.
The next step Comcast took was to go after the FCC.
"A federal court threw the future of Internet regulations into doubt Tuesday with a far-reaching decision that went against the Federal Communications Commission and could even hamper the government's plans to expand broadband access in the United States.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia ruled that the FCC lacks authority to require broadband providers to give equal treatment to all Internet traffic flowing over their networks. That was a big victory for Comcast Corp., the nation's largest cable company, which had challenged the FCC's authority to impose such "network neutrality" obligations on broadband providers"
(From MSNBC)
The Internet is a wonderful place where ideas and information flow freely and has brought forth new business models that were not even conceived of less than ten years ago. It has allowed us more direct access to information than ever before and I am on the side of keeping it that way.
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