Obama endorsed an effort to reclassify the Internet as a public utility to give regulators more authority to enforce 'net neutrality,' which bars ISPs from opening up 'fast lanes' for services that pay fees for better access.
In a statement, Obama said he wants the independent Federal Communications Commission to 'implement the strongest possible rules to protect net neutrality.'
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WHAT IS NET NEUTRALITY?
Under the plans for priority usage, Netflix and other video providers would pay extra to use fast lanes to get the maximum amount of bandwith to its customers, and maintain and improve streaming quality and reliability.
This is being heavily criticised by net neutrality campaigners.
At the heart of net neutrality is an open internet in which all data being sent from websites to customers is treated the same, regardless of size or destination.
All this traffic is given the same priority along the same lanes and no site is given preferential treatment.
Although it seems like a fair model, in which sites that use the most bandwith pay the most money, campaigners claim it will drastically impact on industry competition.
For example, Netflix has the money to pay for better service, using the fast lanes, while smaller companies don't.
This means smaller companies may have the same range of content, but because they can't stream at the same quality, they are effectively priced out of the market.
To address these claims, the new rules include a 'competition test'.
ISPs would need to decide if a website meets the critieria to be given priority access and that this bar must be set high enough to protect competition.
12 comments:
Barry speaks for his bosses who want to control all information. They are lying to the American People, and therefore must lie more to protect themselves.
Entire Congresses of the US should be posthumously tried for treason against the US Constitution.
The internet must be controlled by the government or else there will be a revolution sooner or later. That is a fact about truth. Once people learn the truth they immediately attempt to chuck off their owners.
The government needs to regulate, control, or legally be responsible somehow someway so it can be in control of it.
They already have their noses way too far inside the tent.
Time to smack that nose hard and keep the internet the mix of private enterprises that it is/ was.
If they want to control an internet, they can create their own inside their own midst!
Leave ours alone.
Voting up or down on this proposal hands legal control of the internet to the government. This bill needs to not exist.
Okay, let me make this really simple for everybody.
If Obama is for it, you should be against it.
OKAY?
What does Al Gore have to say about this? It is his internet, you know.
Apparently Barry doesn't understand the whole copyright/patent thing. His attitude is "YOU DIDN'T BUILD IT!".
The mentally challenged occupant of the first house is scatterbrained. Can't even finish screwing one thing up before he starts screwing up something else. Truly the sign of mental issues!
Less government.
Joe probably understands net neutrality more than most on here. What do you think about it?
Do the folks here even understand what net neutrality is?
Let me break it down for you. Without net neutrality, your internet service provider can throttle your access speeds, and charge content providers to deliver content.
Lets make it easy. Lets say Comcast makes a "local news page" for Salisbury news. Now, we ALL love coming to Joes web site. Comcast would then see Joes web site as a problem, and could then throttle the speed for it, making it difficult to navigate, AND charge this web site a cost prohibitive price to stay online... thus squashing the competition.
This is effectively rigging the game. They don't want to compete for traffic against better content, nor do they want the end user to decide. This is simply a profit grab at the cost of the end users experience.
Say what you want about Obama, but if the only way to ensure net neutrality is to rally behind him on this issue, then I'm not stupid enough to cut off my nose to spite my face. I'm gonna support this initiative.
Just shut the internet down completely and be done with it.Buy newspapers and write letters.Young people can hardly write legibly any more because they type only.If anyone perished without the internet we're better off without them anyway.Let the NSA send runners out to find out what we're up to.
@10:18AM
Finally a great explanation of what Net Neutrality really means. At this point, Obama could vote against puppy hunting and people would be voting for it just to disagree with him. I disagree with a lot of his policies but I think it's smart to at least understand something before having an opinion of it.
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