[skibo25]

Court Unfriendly To FCC's Internet Slap At Comcast

For those who have not been following this situation, this basically sums it up;

Quote

Now FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski, a Democrat, is proposing new open Internet rules to prevent companies like Comcast, Verizon Communications Inc. ( VZ), and AT&T Inc. (T) from selectively blocking or slowing certain Web content.

When Comcast tried to do such in the past, the FCC issued a citation against them. Comcast brought them to court over it, and it is in the U.S. Court of Appeals which is one step below the Supreme Court. There are certainly alot of ifs here, but we could very well see a future where the Internet is no longer open, but in complete control of the ISPs.

What are people's thoughts and opinions on such a future?

[KYA]

I'll just stop using the internet if this happens:





clarification: I hate this. I am against it. It is dumb. go FCC.

This post has been edited by KYA: 08 January 2010 - 04:30 PM

[PsychoCoder]

So @KYA you think it's ok that companies do this based on where you surf? I think it's crap that they're allowed to adjust my bandwidth based on where I chose to surf. Go get 'em FCC

[anonymouscodder]

Go get 'em FCC.

[KYA]

PsychoCoder, on 8 Jan, 2010 - 04:07 PM, said:

So @KYA you think it's ok that companies do this based on where you surf? I think it's crap that they're allowed to adjust my bandwidth based on where I chose to surf. Go get 'em FCC

I agree with you. Thought my post was clear. I'll edit.

[PsychoCoder]

I was wondering if I misunderstood what you were saying, that's why I asked in Twitter as well

[no2pencil]

I can't go on Twitter. My ISP got sick of all my spam tweets & downgraded my bandwidth.

</lie>

[PsychoCoder]

LOL No2 ,,!,,

[Moshambi]

This would be dumb. I agree with KYA, just quit using the internet if it happens.

[KYA]

This wouldn't even be an issue if there wasn't a monopoly situation in many areas. The free market system would prevent this bullshit as people would switch ISPs if any tried any of this crap.

[-=m0n1k3r=-]

As long as I can still find a wifi signal I'm cool with it.

[merlinfire]

When I lived in Nashville, Comcast was using packet sniffing/shaping technology to see if a packet contained information from Bittorrent. If it did, it would send a false reset packet. In other words, Comcast actually IMPERSONATED your computer, and sent a false packet in its place.

This is particularly insidious, when you start considering the anti-competitive behavior that suddenly starts happening when you consider that VOIP is becoming more prevalent. If a cable internet service offers it, what is to stop them from shaping/throttling Vonage or MagicJack? If comcast has video on demand, what is to stop them from throttling Netflicks streaming on demand service?

Beyond that, you start talking corporate censorship. A new website posts a damning editorial about a CEO of Time Warner? Maybe some negative article about comcast? If they can block and/or throttle what they want, whats to stop them from blocking anything they don't want us to see?

If Comcast or whomever has to adjust their prices to compensate for usage and expansion of their network to handle that usage, then so be it. The customers will have the option to switch if it is an unfair amount. But throttling or blocking protocols entirely because they don't like them? Unfair, and as far as I'm concerned, should be illegal.

They must NOT be allowed to be the gatekeepers.

Edit: I would also add that companies like those, are the ones that further research into the types of technology that repressive regimes like China and Iran currently use to prevent full access to the internet. Thus, the way to circumvent is largely the same. Onion routing and/or VPN tunneling worked quite well. An obfuscated packet is a happy packet.

This post has been edited by merlinfire: 24 February 2010 - 12:34 PM

[BetaWar]

If they do this I will quit using the internet, and just start making my own network with a local server that I use. It will be small at first, but given the number of people around the world smart enough to do the same thing people could make a world-wide (free) internet over time. It would be like the black market, for surfing the web...

[merlinfire]

BetaWar, on 24 February 2010 - 02:03 PM, said:

If they do this I will quit using the internet, and just start making my own network with a local server that I use. It will be small at first, but given the number of people around the world smart enough to do the same thing people could make a world-wide (free) internet over time. It would be like the black market, for surfing the web...

It's not the network they own, really. Its the backbone of infrastructure that the network operates on. I hope you plan on laying thousands of miles of copper or fiber

[baavgai]

BetaWar, on 24 February 2010 - 02:03 PM, said:

If they do this I will quit using the internet

Too late. All the major ISPs traffic shape to some extent. Which, in effect, means they also inspect the traffic as well. They deny it, they get caught, then they spin it. One of them, Comcast, I think, just started firing RST packets on traffic streams they felt were taking too much bandwidth.

The real problem is that ISPs simply under estimated how much their customers would use the "unlimited" bandwidth they sold. Now they're try even trick available to cut the cost of actually providing the service they sell.