Reddit, Tumblr will fight for net neutrality with protests this week
Phil Nelson The Verge on the internet-wide #OneMoreVote protest scheduled for tomorrow. I will be participating, too.
Let’s give Ajit Pai the worst week of his shitheaded life.
Internal FCC Report Shows Republican Net Neutrality Narrative Is False
The FCC, and it’s vile Head Liar Ajit Pai, withheld even more information from the American people than we already knew:
Internal FCC documents obtained by Motherboard using a Freedom of Information Act request show that the independent, nonpartisan FCC Office of Inspector General—acting on orders from Congressional Republicans—investigated the claim that Obama interfered with the FCC’s net neutrality process and found it was nonsense. This Republican narrative of net neutrality as an Obama-led takeover of the internet, then, was wholly refuted by an independent investigation and its findings were not made public prior to Thursday’s vote.
The longer this goes on the more obvious it becomes that Ajit Pai is a plant from Verizon, whose job is to torpedo Net Neutrality before he’s fired for incompetence. Congress can still stop the Verizon/FCC power grab by letting Congress know. We have to stop this asshole and the assholes that he works for. Join the Battle for Net Neutrality.
Level3 is without peer, now what to do?
The idea here is pretty clear: these five ISPs want to be paid extra for doing the job they are already being paid for. Extra ports are required to handle the current level of traffic and these companies are assuming that when the pain becomes great enough — that’s our pain, by the way — Level3 or some Level3 customer like Netflix will pay the extra money to make the problem go away.
The major ISPs (basically any one of Comcast, Time Warner Cable, CenturyLink, Charter Communications, AT&T U-verse, Cox Communications, and Verizon FiOS) want to essentially freeze the current, busted-ass, infrastructure, and get end-users and major traffic users like Netflix to pay for the newer, better, infrastructure, then charge us all extra after we’ve paid for it. Net Neutrality has to die for them to achieve this, so they’re making their big push to kill it.
Anti-Net-Neutrality “Fast Lanes” Are Bullshit
Be honest.
This is not building anything new — it’s discriminating and restricting what we already have.
This is not making anything faster — it’s allowing ISPs to selectively slow down traffic that they don’t strategically or financially benefit from, and only permit traffic from their partners to run at the speeds that everything runs at today.
It’s ostensibly the FCC’s job to see through this bullshit language and do what’s right for the country and the people, but only the fool who believed that ISPs are trying to build something beneficial here would believe that the FCC gives a damn about what’s best for American citizens.
Court strikes down FCC’s anti-blocking rules
The Federal Communication Commission’s net neutrality rules were partially struck down today by the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, which said the Commission did not properly justify its anti-discrimination and anti-blocking rules.
I have an extreme and intense dislike for the FCC (an unconstitutional entity which has done nothing but make itself important and block my favorite artists from appearing on TV or radio) but I was just glad ANYONE was standing up to the cable companies on Net Neutrality. Looks like we’re going to have to do it on our own. Again.
Google, Verizon, Net Neutrality, and iTunes Cloud
Google: Makes money by selling ads. Has a smartphone OS that helps them sell ads on search results, apps, etc. Upset with Apple’s foray into advertising. Starting to feel the pinch of a possible iPhone for Verizon, their most visible Android partner.
Verizon: Makes money by selling bits. Sells dozens of phones with dozens of different operating systems from dozens of different manufacturers. Has sunk some money into Droid, but isn’t married to the platform. Will go with whichever benefits their bottom line most.
Apple: Makes money selling software, and some bits. Just got into the ad space with iAds. Their iPhone sells its own bits and sells its own ads. Doesn’t like making concessions to wireless carriers, and will call them out in public. If they launch a version of their iPhone for Verizon, Verizon isn’t likely to get a cut of their App, Music, Video, or Ad market. Those are all bits that Verizon wants to charge extra for.
iTunes Cloud: Live streaming of a user’s purchased iTunes tracks to any supported device. Only likely supported phone platform? iOS, the iPhone’s operating system. No phone carrier is going to get a cut of tracks purchased for this service.
Net Neutrality: Means that carriers aren’t allowed to slow down certain kinds of internet traffic to help their business goals. Means that iTunes Cloud can stream as many tracks as the user is willing to buy bandwidth for. Means Verizon doesn’t get a cut aside from their 3G bandwidth spectrum pricing, which is getting cheaper all the time despite their (recent) complaining about capacity problems.
Dots: Partially connected.
“Wireless is Different”
Wireless isn’t different, AT&T. It just suits your business model that it be treated differently. It’s enough to clog your bullshit filter.
With bullshit.
Voogle Wireless
Google’s 2006 PSA for net neutrality underscores the severity of their about-face this week. Is there any way Google can still claim this isn’t about money?
Credibly?
Why Google Became A Carrier-Humping, Net Neutrality Surrender Monkey
Compare Monday’s statement to this one, from a post on Google’s official blog in 2007: “The nation’s spectrum airwaves are not the birthright of any one company. They are a unique and valuable public resource that belong to all Americans. The FCC’s auction rules are designed to allow U.S. consumers — for the first time — to use their handsets with any network they desire, and and use the lawful software applications of their choice.”
Compare, indeed. Yes, it’s true that people and corporations change their minds, and they’re welcome to. But Google has apparently changed its mind for one reason: They stand to make more money with their pals at Verizon. They just won’t come out and say it.
The EFF Reviews Verizon and Google’s Net Neutrality Proposal
Mostly the same as what has been going around, but this time covered in the candy shell of an actual lawyer’s thoughts.
There’s Only One Internet
John Bergmayer for Public Knowledge:
[…] Google CEO Eric Schmidt claims to be crafting rules that will protect “the next Google.” But with weak “rules” like the ones his company has proposed, he can rest assured that the next Google will be…Google. If the Verizon/Google proposal is adopted, the window of openness that allowed companies like his to thrive and grow will be closed.
Craig Aaron on The Google-Verizon Pact: “It Gets Worse”
This is really, really, bad stuff. Wonder what the news coverage will be like? Will any mainstream non-blog sources even bother?
Google and Verizon Say No To Wireless Net Neutrality
Read the full policy on Google’s policy blog.
Here’s how it reads to me: The “wireline” (read: everything but cell networks) internet, where it helps Google’s business that providers are not allowed to make one site or service load faster than another (Say, Bing gets priority over Google Search) net neutrality is sacrosanct. The “wireless” (cell) internet, with Verizon, where it helps Google’s business if traffic to their sites and services load faster, net neutrality isn’t a big deal, and should be abandoned. “For now.”
This is the PATRIOT Act of the wireless internet. If net neutrality for wireless is abandoned now, we will pretty much never get it.