The Internet Splits in Two

[katty]

more:
http://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and-stories/2010-12-21/net-neutrality-ruling-the-fcc-splits-the-internet-in-two/?cid=hp:mainpromo2

Today’s FCC ruling on net neutrality shifts billions in profits and boils down to one fact: There will soon be a fast Internet for the rich and a slow Internet for the poor.

The Federal Communications Commission approved a set of net neutrality rules today, and nobody is happy. While liberals claim the FCC has caved to pressure from carriers, right-wingers are calling the new rules a government takeover of the Internet. In their tea-addled brains, the new rules represent yet another example of creeping socialism taking over every aspect of our lives. FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski is "Julius Seizure." Cue the black helicopters.

[xchrom]

1. Recommend

[felix_numinous]

2. Sneaky bastards know by calling this 'net neutrality',

there will be a delay before many people know what just happened.

[Uncle Joe]

21. I agree, this is more like net segregation.

I imagine they're thinking "divide and conquer."

[Pholus]

3. Oh well, hopefully we come together and create ad-hoc networks. They'll be made illegal of course.

Mustn't interfere with profits after all.

[freshwest]

11. But it won't be the WORLD WIDE web, though...

[Pholus]

12. True at first. But if our tubes don't work it'll be up to us to find a way to make our own.

That'd be a hobby I could get into...

[Recursion]

17. You're going to lay down cable all over the world?

Best of luck.

[Pholus]

18. Ummmm, no. With the "all at once" attitude, no community efforts would ever get done.

Hey, these rules may be no big deal. I figure that indys can work around the system, even with traffic throttling.

But maybe not. In that case, it'll be up to us to build an alternative. Might be kind of fun. It'll start small too -- how could it do otherwise? A neighborhood ad-hoc wireless network. Then it can grow a bit, linking neighborhoods. By then, perhaps there is a way to get between cities. Anyway, you start and make a good effort and other people come in and contribute and big things can happen. Linux wouldn't ever have worked if it had been Linus Torvalds designing everything from scratch himself. It takes a community and it would take the commercial networks becoming unusable which hopefully they're too smart to do.

Sounds like it wouldn't be your cup of tea though. :)

Edit: Who needs to run worldwide cable anyway? At least for now the rest of the world is still sane. We just have to link in somewhere.

[postulater]

4. Many people still have slow internet

just because there is no cable in their area.

My mother is still on dial-up at 28k.

Takes forever to watch a YouTube video. She misses out on a lot.

[Dokkie]

5. thats sad

but i dont think theres anything in this bill that will require the internet companies to lay fiber optic lines in her area.

[right2bfree]

7. I have a cheap DSL plan that is still 10or 20 X faster then dial-up....

...you get used to it after you were on dial up for years.

[emsimon33]

6. The Internet is the super highway of the 21st century economy

This decision just relegates the U.S. to the trash heap of history and once again confirms that Obama is one of them and despises the American public.

[right2bfree]

8. Sure seems that way. How disappointing this last two years have been. nt

[Moostache]

9. I disagree in some regards...

The internet is a fantastic tool, but let's face it, America's economic woes are NOT solely or even mainly because of internet access or speeds right now. We have deep structural imbalances and issues in the economy - largely because we have no manufacturing base any longer and the resultant dependence on booms and bubbles (since about 1994 - 2007). When coupled to our insanely warped tax policy and military misadventures, the internet is a good number of rungs down the ladder of reasons for the demise of the USofA. Barrack Obama is even further down that casual ladder...

[pnorman]

10. Here's the WaPo analysis:

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/posttech/2010/12/fcc_copps_to_vote_in_favor_of.html?hpid=topnews

[Pholus]

13. Wikileaks will be the first site throttled to nonexistence. Then the torrent sites, then....

[Recursion]

15. ISPs can already block sites and protocols they don't want on their network

That's always been true, and always will be true. This has nothing to do with net neutrality, which is about who pays for network usage on the back-end.

[Pholus]

20. Fortunately there are people who can subvert the intent. Unless that gets made illegal.

Maybe that could be the next "compromise" in the name of bipartisanship.

[progressoid]

14. Pfft. So what. The internet is dead anyway.

Prince said so.

[Recursion]

16. I read my first "end of the net is nigh" NNTP post in I think 1989

And the gloom has just kept coming since then.

[Pholus]

19. As a researcher I predicted Internet 2 the exact day AOL came on usenet.

But, then again, gloom and doom usually works pretty well as a first pass model of how we do things these days.