The Repeal of Net Neutrality Is Official

Re:The Repeal of Net Neutrality Is Official by lovich on Monday June 11, 2018 @10:07AM (#17284291)

We had the exact same arguments when rail lines were built out. The rail line operators could suddenly decide who won and who lost in _every other_ industry that required shipping goods, because they were changing prices based on their other businesses. This is bad for consumers and bad for competition.

Now ISPs are effectively digital rail lines and with the repeal of net neutrality they can decide who wins and loses in every other industry that requires the internet. The exact same arguments apply, and the fact that the ISPs are already in the content market in many places and have been caught throttling competitors, shows that they are ready to abuse this position immediately

Edit:added emphasis to first paragraph

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Re:The Repeal of Net Neutrality Is Official by djsumdog on Monday June 11, 2018 @12:31PM (#17285740)

I really agree with this analogy. We are in such a weird state in America because we think Capitalism is some kind of natural state where everyone plays fair, when the reality is, the State has always had to regulate competition to make sure it's actually competitive.

The US broke up AT&T, American Standard Oil, US Steel and several others:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_United_States_antit...

Galloway has a great talk about why we should break up big tech, because that's how capitalism is suppose to work.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6NyFRIgulPo

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Re:The Repeal of Net Neutrality Is Official by lovich on Monday June 11, 2018 @12:43PM (#17285909)

I don't think we disagree? The railroads were forcibly regulated by the government so that they no longer had that power. The government is back stepping on that view when it comes to Net Neutrality.

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Re:The Repeal of Net Neutrality Is Official by hexane360 on Monday June 11, 2018 @02:42PM (#17287124)

"I really agree with this analogy."

I agree that you two don't disagree.

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Re:The Repeal of Net Neutrality Is Official by lovich on Monday June 11, 2018 @03:20PM (#17287580)

No idea how that happened, could swear it said disagree at first

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Re:The Repeal of Net Neutrality Is Official by Florin_Andrei on Monday June 11, 2018 @07:01PM (#17289369)

TLDR: The attractor for the "free market" as a dynamical system is a few supergiants lording it over the vast multitudes. A steady stream of corrections is needed to make sure the system doesn't end up in that particular ditch.

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Re:The Repeal of Net Neutrality Is Official by lovich on Monday June 11, 2018 @11:16AM (#17284946)

Are there bot rings on hackernews? I've gotten over 40+ upvotes but no comments. I've seen the behavior on Reddit, but never on hackernews in the few years I've been here

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Re:The Repeal of Net Neutrality Is Official by e_proxus on Monday June 11, 2018 @12:49PM (#17285991)

I don't often upvote, but I've many times thought the same. What you you wrote is spot on, therefore I gave you my upvote.

Regarding the matter, I think it's a fair comparison. Sure, there's some virtuality to data traffic as opposed to physical shipping for example, but there's always a physical dimension there as well. Free markets and competition never fully works where there's limited resources (in this case, the space and availability of network infrastructure). In addition, physical infrastructure can be blocked by competitors in many different ways, hindering new players trying to compete.

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Re:The Repeal of Net Neutrality Is Official by roflc0ptic on Monday June 11, 2018 @11:29AM (#17285086)

Bot rings aside, this is a topic many of us have deep feelings about. Your comment provides a historical example of something we feel in our bones. I don’t know the history so have nothing to add, but I support pointing out the extant absurdity of Comcast getting to fix a market, so I upvote.

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Re:The Repeal of Net Neutrality Is Official by mikestew on Monday June 11, 2018 @12:17PM (#17285565)

It happens once in a while. I think my post about participating in the 2013 Boston Marathon garnered over 100 points and only one or two comments. I have other examples. Sometimes a post can be very informative and worthy of a quick click of the mouse, without requiring further comment.

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Re:The Repeal of Net Neutrality Is Official by swasheck on Monday June 11, 2018 @12:26PM (#17285676)

I upvoted you but have nothing salient to add to the conversation above what you've articulated.

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Re:The Repeal of Net Neutrality Is Official by frickinLasers on Monday June 11, 2018 @05:13PM (#17288646)

It was a fantastic parallel I hadn't considered before, so I upvoted.

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