One wonders whether Craig ever gets beyond the yahoo extremist media outlets,
to get an education? Seems maybe not. This article is right on the money:
"Pai argues that what he's really doing is freeing ISPs from burdensome
regulations, they'll be more profitable and thus more inclined to expand
bandwidth. In short, it's an argument for a free and open market. There's only
one little problem with this. ISPs, as we all know, don't compete in a free and
open market. They've divided the country into regional monopolies."
That sounds familiar. What used to work, when ISPs operated over Title II
dialup lines, is no longer the case. Duh.
Bert
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http://www.zdnet.com/article/whats-what-with-the-net-neutrality-day-of-action/
What's what with the Net Neutrality Day of Action
On July 12, you will get a taste of what the internet would be like if the FCC
gets its way in breaking net neutrality.
Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols
By Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols for Networking | July 11, 2017 -- 23:26 GMT (16:26
PDT) | Topic: Networking
There's one issue that Americans agree on. Regardless of income and education
levels, race, gender or even whether they're Democrats and Republicans,
Americans wants strong net neutrality. Unfortunately, Trump's picked man at the
head of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), Ajit Pai, is well on his
way to destroying net neutrality.
According to a recent Civis Analytics poll, 77 percent of Americans support
keeping Obama's strong net neutrality rules and over 80 percent agree with the
principles of net neutrality. Specifically, "73 percent of Republicans, 80
percent of Democrats, and 76 percent of Independents want to keep the FCC's
Open Internet rules. 81 percent of Americans agree that ISPs should not ...
block or throttle websites or charge extra for preferred access to consumers."
All of which is exactly what Pai and the big last-mile internet companies such
as AT&T, Comcast, Verizon, and the umbrella lobby of large ISPs, the National
Cable & Telecommunications Association, want.
Under Pai and company's rules, ISPs will be able to record your web activities,
sell your data, hijack your searches, and, oh yes, interfere with your access
to some sites. For example, AT&T will be happy to give you free access to its
video-streaming service DirecTV Now, but it will charge you its usual rates for
watching Netflix, YouTube, SlingTV, etc, etc. We can also also be sure that
ISPs will offer you a "fast" lane to some sites, while slowing down access to
others with bandwidth throttling.
Pai argues that what he's really doing is freeing ISPs from burdensome
regulations, they'll be more profitable and thus more inclined to expand
bandwidth. In short, it's an argument for a free and open market. There's only
one little problem with this. ISPs, as we all know, don't compete in a free and
open market. They've divided the country into regional monopolies.
How many of us have a real choice between broadband providers? Darn few of us.
So, to wake the government up, almost 200 companies, such as Amazon, Google,
Twitter, Reddit, and Mozilla, along with advocacy groups such as the ACLU,
Change.org, and the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) have organized an
internet-wide protest.
They've been loosely organized in the Battle for the Net on July 12 by three
pro-net-neutrality groups: Fight for the Future, Free Press Action Fund, and
Demand Progress. Here's what will happen.
Most sites will display a prominent JavaScript-powered alert on their homepage
that warns visitors that net neutrality is in danger. Messages include, "Sorry,
we're stuck in the slow lane", "This site has been blocked by your ISP", and
"Please upgrade your plan to proceed." Each includes an easy-to-fill-out form
to send Congress and the FCC a pro-net-neutrality message.
None of these messages will actually block, slow, or paywall sites. They will
appear only once, so visitors won't see the same message over and over again at
a given site.
The protesters have also supplied social network users with sample Facebook
posts and Twitter tweets. They're also supplying banners, memes, and many
social network-friendly images to help spread the word.
AT&T is trying to co-opt the protest. The company's websites, channel guides,
and apps will feature a banner "proclaiming our support for a free and open
internet".
Will any of this help? We can but try and hope.
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