Re:ComVeriCast: Internet Freedom
by orthecreedence on Thursday January 22, 2015 @02:08PM
(#8931023)
> A good neutrality implementation won't outlaw prioritization
I think to have true net neutrality, the provider needs to make no distinction about the traffic that's going through it. People pay for access to 1s and 0s at a certain bandwidth and that is provided without prioritizing one type of traffic over another (save for upload/download speeds). At least, this is how I hope it works. If you want QoS, you'd do so on your own network with your own router.
> Anti-competetive capitalism certainly also is.
Free market and democracy are two separate issues, although it would be my argument that they are in constant disagreement with each other...at least in the case of American Capitalism. In the US, you have large corporations lobbying for less and less regulation generally at the expense of the citizens (and thus the republic).
When something becomes so pervasive that society as it exists cannot live without it (like the internet), it's my belief that it's in the hands of government to regulate it ferociously so that it's not at the whim of a company which doesn't have your best interests in mind. This is especially true, in the case of internet, in places where only one ISP exists and the usual ridiculous argument of "Just switch providers!" doesn't work. Even if there are two providers, they are generally both terrible anyway.
There comes a point where people in the US need to realize that yes, free market is great, but it doesn't mean that the citizen's best interests (or customer's interests, even) are represented by <insert corporation here> and this is where regulation comes in.
There's a balance. Anti-competitive capitalism can, in moderation, be absolutely great for democracy. The free market is not the ultimate oracle of truth, it is yet another weight on the scale of a free, open, and intelligent society where common good is the ultimate goal.
I think to have true net neutrality, the provider needs to make no distinction about the traffic that's going through it. People pay for access to 1s and 0s at a certain bandwidth and that is provided without prioritizing one type of traffic over another (save for upload/download speeds). At least, this is how I hope it works. If you want QoS, you'd do so on your own network with your own router.
> Anti-competetive capitalism certainly also is.
Free market and democracy are two separate issues, although it would be my argument that they are in constant disagreement with each other...at least in the case of American Capitalism. In the US, you have large corporations lobbying for less and less regulation generally at the expense of the citizens (and thus the republic).
When something becomes so pervasive that society as it exists cannot live without it (like the internet), it's my belief that it's in the hands of government to regulate it ferociously so that it's not at the whim of a company which doesn't have your best interests in mind. This is especially true, in the case of internet, in places where only one ISP exists and the usual ridiculous argument of "Just switch providers!" doesn't work. Even if there are two providers, they are generally both terrible anyway.
There comes a point where people in the US need to realize that yes, free market is great, but it doesn't mean that the citizen's best interests (or customer's interests, even) are represented by <insert corporation here> and this is where regulation comes in.
There's a balance. Anti-competitive capitalism can, in moderation, be absolutely great for democracy. The free market is not the ultimate oracle of truth, it is yet another weight on the scale of a free, open, and intelligent society where common good is the ultimate goal.