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Net Neutrality - thoughts?

Without NN, the major Internet players will decide who gets the speed.

Imagine if UPS, FedEx, and Ryder owned the U.S. highway system and told took the fast lanes and relegated your small business to extremely slow lanes and heavy traffic. I fail to see how this is a good thing.
 
So is Cruz the only Republican to come out against net neutrality?
 
PhDeac said:
So is Cruz the only Republican to come out against net neutrality?
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Might be a good barometer about how much clout he still has. Great opportunity for Rand Paul here to swoop in like some great uniter, but you could throw a rock anywhere on the Mall and find those.
 
Wrangor said:
Very helpful. Makes sense. If I am not mistaken netflix is already limited to 6-8 mb/s. I am always hesitant to have to much govt involvement but it seems to make some sense here. Internet providers have mini monopolies wherever they reside. Good to have some sort of pressure on them to be fair to customers and content providers.
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Take it a step further. Say Comcast decides "screw Netflix, we want everyone to use Comcast Cinema, so we will just outright block Netflix and any other similar services by redirecting to our service instead." With no competition, Comcast can now dictate where you get your content with no repercussions. Then maybe they decide they want their own search engine for ad revenue, so Google is blocked. Want Netflix and Google back? Sure...that'll be an extra $40 a month for premium Internet.

Now realize that Comcast has already attempted to do these things in one form or another, and you get to why NN is so important. The Internet is a level playing field where new services can change the way you do things (the examples are endless). Competition is not good for monopolies. I think it says something that outside of the cable cartels, there are some other very big players who favor net neutrality...Google, Amazon, Microsoft and others.
 
Deadbolt said:
Take it a step further. Say Comcast decides "screw Netflix, we want everyone to use Comcast Cinema, so we will just outright block Netflix and any other similar services by redirecting to our service instead." With no competition, Comcast can now dictate where you get your content with no repercussions. Then maybe they decide they want their own search engine for ad revenue, so Google is blocked. Want Netflix and Google back? Sure...that'll be an extra $40 a month for premium Internet.

Now realize that Comcast has already attempted to do these things in one form or another, and you get to why NN is so important. The Internet is a level playing field where new services can change the way you do things (the examples are endless). Competition is not good for monopolies. I think it says something that outside of the cable cartels, there are some other very big players who favor net neutrality...Google, Amazon, Microsoft and others.
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Yeah this is the real rub. And I don't know what the best "solution" is to ensure this doesn't happen and I think reasonable minds can differ on this point, but I do not really believe that this is an area where it's acceptable to do nothing though and hope for the best because it's become abundantly clear that corporations absolutely cannot be trusted to regulate themselves in any meaningful fashion.
 
Exactly. I agree with 923 that net neutrality isn't the answer by itself, but it's definitely the starting point to prevent the radical changing of the internet marketplace that would take place otherwise.
 
PhDeac said:
Exactly. I agree with 923 that net neutrality isn't the answer by itself, but it's definitely the starting point to prevent the radical changing of the internet marketplace that would take place otherwise.
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Right. I don't think NN supporters believe it is the answer...it's just a starting point. We wouldn't even be having this conversation if these providers hadn't been allowed to monopolize in the first place. The market only works when there is a market, not what we have today.
 
Ted Cruz is very lucky that most sane, intelligent people don't pay attention a fucking thing he says.
 
A previous part of health insurance for poorer people run by the government.

What is Medicaid?
 
PhDeac said:
Look up the origins of the Internet.
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Milhouse said:
this

some people....
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Strickland33 said:
Wait, really?
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Who is arguing that Cruz is right? It was asked where is Cruz making the connection. I stated his connection....with a question mark pretty much showing that it is a questionable connection. Healthcare is also a public/private partnership. In some ways the connection is right (internet and healthcare are similar), Cruz is just reaching the wrong conclusion. Insurance has always been a combined effort between public and private, and in a similar manner the internet is the same way. Cruz concludes that somehow Govt can't be involved, where I would say there is a place for both private and public in both spheres.

Don't be in such a hurry to argue that you don't read the context.
 
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yeah but you were implying that the internet was/is being hijacked by the government when in reality it was the other way around
 
ImTheCaptain said:
yeah but you were implying that the internet was/is being hijacked by the government when in reality it was the other way around
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No I was not. It was asked where Ted Cruz was making the connection. I made an attempt to answer that question. Go back and read my comments on this thread. Does it look like I believe the internet is being 'hijacked'. You are defining my position for me, which is a pretty constant theme on these boards.
 
I think he was saying that Cruz probably thinks it's government intervention in what had predominantly been a private enterprise. Of course it doesn't make sense since the comparison is horrible but I don't think Wrangor was actually taking the position - just guessing what Cruz might say.
 
ImTheCaptain said:
then i don't understand this response:







what were you trying to say?
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Obviously I was trying to say the government was going to take away my internet with a gun. Read the thread. If you still can't figure out where I stand on this issue, then your reading comprehension skills are terrible. On second thought, I will spell it out for you:

Here are some previous posts from me on this topic:

Regarding Net Neutrality:

Wrangor said:
Seems like a no brainer to me.
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Wrangor said:
It seems like a decent concept: essentially to prevent monopolies but what is the actual results of this push by Obama other than more govt oversight (not saying that in a bad way - sometimes more oversight is good. This may be one of those cases).
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Wrangor said:
Makes sense. I am always hesitant to have to much govt involvement but it seems to make some sense here. Internet providers have mini monopolies wherever they reside. Good to have some sort of pressure on them to be fair to customers and content providers.
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I repeat, there is a certain contingent on this board that is so eager to argue with conservatives that they manipulate an argument out of thin air. The question was posed (in regards to Ted Cruz) on what was remotely similar between the internet and healthcare. I answered the question as best as I thought I could given the context.
 
I hope you aren't alluding to me. We've basically agreed on everything here.
 
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