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So, Where Are YOU on Net Neutrality?
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Brenics ~ Just to point out I do believe Chris Roberts is going down as the man who cheated backers and took down crowdfunding for gaming.
The argument isn't really Free Market vs Regulation. That is really a seperate issue from Net Neutrality, although it is related.
"Free Market" only exists where competition is not only allowed to exist, but is encouraged to exist. What we have today with ISPs in America is, by and large, not a Free Market.
So you cannot frame the argument as Free Market vs Regulation, because that just isn't the reality of the situation.
The real crux of the situation is if we allow the market to become a Free Market, or we allow it to remain a Monopoly or Duopoly in nearly every market.
If you have a truly Free Market solution, Net Neutrality isn't a requirement at that point. ISPs could, and should, be free to shape traffic as they please, because competition is there that can help consumers shape, correct, and influence the market.
If you retain the Monopoly/Duopoly situation that we currently have, then Net Neutraility is critically important, because there is no ability for the consumer to check the decisions of the ISP. The only option to shape/correct/influence the market at that point becomes regulation. Otherwise, Internet access becomes a "take it or leave it" commodity, and that serves no good purpose in a tech-based Internet-reliant economy, because then the choice is really "Take it or not participate in the economy".
Another issue is in how Federals define "Broadband Internet". Right now, the FCC says that Broadband Internet is anything that achieves 25Mbps D/3Mbps U. It says nothing about actual capacity. It could be a wireless carrier that offers 25/3, with a data cap of 5Mb, and that qualifies as Broadband - it may only be about 1 second's worth of transmission, but under the current rules, only speed matters.
Speed does matter in a round about way, but what is more important is capacity (which I am defining loosely as your data cap divided by your average speed). For example, if I purchase a typical cellular ISP plan - 54Mb LTE with a 5G data cap per month - that's really only about 12 hours of internet at maximum speed that I'm buying per month. I would say you have 12 hours of internet capacity. Now, people don't necessarily need 720 hours of capacity a month, but you'd likely like to have more than just 12.
I'm not totally railing against data caps here, I think there is a place for them as tools for ISPs, but definitions need to incorporate that the concept of capacity is what is really defining internet service, not just theoretical maximum speed. I'm also not saying that the definition needs to rate Internet in terms of hours or whatever - that's just my example to illustrate the concept, but it does need to somehow incorporate speed and data availability (cap), however those metrics are used. Latency and data reliability (and perhaps even encryption) may other good metrics that should be considered.
Here's a List of the Members of Congress Who Just Told Ajit Pai to Repeal Net Neutrality
And how much money they've taken from the telecom industry.
Brenics ~ Just to point out I do believe Chris Roberts is going down as the man who cheated backers and took down crowdfunding for gaming.
*cough* Soon as this really hits home for f2p gamers (which is slowly where all the low income people are headed) we'll have a much bigger issue/problem to deal with.
Heck, they didn't even provide a typed list of signers so some remain anonymous due to illegible signatures.
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"This is the most intelligent, well qualified and articulate response to a post I have ever seen on these forums. It's a shame most people here won't have the attention span to read past the second line." - Anon
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Currently: Games Audio Engineer, you didn't hear what I heard, you heard what I wanted you to hear.
also wtf The Simpsons predicted this day happening years ago.. somebody should look into the simpsons there is no way all this is coincidence.
"The Society that separates its scholars from its warriors will have its thinking done by cowards and its fighting by fools."
Currently: Games Audio Engineer, you didn't hear what I heard, you heard what I wanted you to hear.
BTW reread his/her second sentence again.
Bartoni's Law definition: As an Internet discussion grows volatile, the probability of a comparison involving Donald Trump approaches 1.
My Skyrim, Fallout 4, Starbound and WoW + other game mods at MODDB:
https://www.moddb.com/mods/skyrim-anime-overhaul
My Skyrim, Fallout 4, Starbound and WoW + other game mods at MODDB:
https://www.moddb.com/mods/skyrim-anime-overhaul
Bartoni's Law definition: As an Internet discussion grows volatile, the probability of a comparison involving Donald Trump approaches 1.
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That's just the tip of the iceberg. They will also have the ability to throttle, or even stop, data from opposing political websites, or any number of websites that are not in agreement with their views. Essentially having the ability to control the entirety of data on the internet. Breitbart article criticizing the top sitcom on NBC for left wing propaganda? Comcast, which owns NBC, can't have that hurting their ratings. Let's just drop those speeds to 56k while visiting their site. After 6 months of that Breitbart will need to start putting more advertisements on their pages to make up for the lost viewership. All these new ads though use a lot more data. Essentially turning an instant pop up home page into a 2 and a half minute wait, resulting in even fewer viewers. Essentially destroying Breitbart as a news source.
I think you get the idea... Keep on celebrating though. Those of us that bother to stay informed, and think things through, will keep on fighting for you.
https://techcrunch.com/2017/12/14/the-fcc-just-repealed-net-neutrality-what-happens-next/
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