How much would you be willing to pay to use SW?

@iQuit It is over. It just reverts back to the way it was before obama messed with it. It was fine then, it will be fine now.

@TheProphet It was fine mostly due to technical reasons. In the 90's creating a non-neutral internet wasn't even feasible. Technology that enabled that sort of stuff appeared in mid 00s - and of course ISPs started using it. In the period between proliferation of deep packet inspection technology, and net neutrality legislation, we saw a number of questionable situations arise, including aggressive throttling of various protocols, various instances of preferential treatment, apparent shakedowns, etc.

Calls for net neutrality didn't just appear out of thin air. Nobody would have bothered with the hassle if everything was fine.

As for Obama - that was mostly just timing. FCC under Bush was actually pretty aggressive in trying to curb various abuses by ISPs. For example, in '04, it fined an ISP for restricting access to Vonage - you can see that this sort of behavior started more or less immediately. But in '10, the FCC lost a case against Comcast, and the limits of its authority in these matters was established. It was time to either draft new regulations or capitulate.

Btw, Net Neutrality is a fancy term for classifying ISPs as [i]telecommunications[/i] companies. So really, it's just calling a spade a spade.

I'd like it if we could count on market forces to make all of this work well - but the way this industry works in America more or less precludes it from happening. It's inherently non-competitive, largely due to geography and history. Our major ISPs have massive advantages because they're also public utilities with regional monopolies. And we need this to stay that way because they have to maintain mind-bogglingly vast amounts of physical infrastructure. But in light of this, additional consumer protections are a good idea.

@QuixoticSoul real net neutrality shouldn't stop at the isp why not include google Facebook Twitter which was exempt

@Goralski Honestly, I'm not really sure what you mean by that exactly. Would you mind clarifying? What are you envisioning here?

@QuixoticSoul the censoring of content

@Goralski There is a fundamental difference between carriers and content providers, these issues aren't really related. Net Neutrality is more about preserving network access than dealing with content or preventing censorship (though, tangentially, it does prevent certain types of censorship).

Using a TV example - telling a cable utility that they have to offer services to everyone, including leasing channels to Playboy is one thing. Requiring every tv channel to show titties at primetime is something rather different.

@QuixoticSoul under net neutrality an isp couldn't even provided free streaming of Netflix with no minute usage to the customer ...now that's Fucked up

@Goralski Perhaps. It also means that Netflix has less of an advantage over its smaller brethren and boosts competition in the streaming space. And it cannot be shaken down by ISPs with artificial throttling, like both ATT and Verizon did before net neutrality went into effect.

Netflix itself is not exactly happy with this turn of events, btw.

[quote]We’re disappointed in the decision to gut #NetNeutrality protections that ushered in an unprecedented era of innovation, creativity & civic engagement. This is the beginning of a longer legal battle. Netflix stands w/ innovators, large & small, to oppose this misguided FCC order.[/quote]

@Goralski Also, turns out the practice of "zero-rating" was not actually banned - though FCC reserved the right to examine each case and determine if it was anti-competitive.

@QuixoticSoul one thing for certain is evertime the government gets involved it all gets Fucked up. ...if it wasn't broke don't fix it

@Goralski Things get fucked up without the government too, and history has no shortage of examples. It's always a delicate balance, and there are lots of circumstances where laissez faire just ends up fucking you in the ass and leaves everyone worse off.