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U.S. FCC chairman plans fast-track repeal of net neutrality: sources

reuters.com

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Re: U.S. FCC chairman plans fast-track repeal of net neutrality: sources

#61

Post by aanm1988 »

kablaa wrote: post #26
seanp2k2 wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's also amazing how little it costs to buy them. It's on the order of a hundred thousand dollars. Check out campaign contributions and you'll see. It needs to be at least 10-100x more expensive to really make a difference. It'd be hilarious / depressing is politicians started colluding to squeeze companies for orders of magnitude more in bribes (sorry, "campaign contributions").

I wonder if it would be possible to make some kind of "internet superpack". Like a collection of registered voters who would crowdfund more money than they are getting.

Wasn't tehre an article recently about how SV (and coastal companies in general) have pretty much screwed themselves when it comes to this stuff?

Re: U.S. FCC chairman plans fast-track repeal of net neutrality: sources

#62

Post by aanm1988 »

wavefunction wrote: post #3
doctorshady wrote: post #2

Is there anything that can be done here? Pai and his little buddy O'Rielly have an easy majority on the FCC here, and I doubt they'll listen to any comments. Short of like, the Trump government being dismantled before then, how do you get rid of such a transparently corrupt head of a federal agency?

You vote in a new President.

That was tried. Plurality voted for Clinton.

Re: U.S. FCC chairman plans fast-track repeal of net neutrality: sources

#63

Post by aanm1988 »

liquidise wrote: post #7

A part of me wonders if net neutrality ending would be unintuitively beneficial. Right now we are depending on policy decisions to protect the internet's privacy and neutrality. This has been a flawed approach for over a decade. At some point we need to solve this with technology in a similar way that E2E encryption is a step toward solving chat privacy. Maybe the selling of browser histories and then end of net neut…

Using tech to fight policy problems doesn't get us far enough.

Re: U.S. FCC chairman plans fast-track repeal of net neutrality: sources

#64

Post by seanp2k2 »

doctorshady wrote: post #2

Is there anything that can be done here? Pai and his little buddy O'Rielly have an easy majority on the FCC here, and I doubt they'll listen to any comments. Short of like, the Trump government being dismantled before then, how do you get rid of such a transparently corrupt head of a federal agency?

Let them do their thing until people are so mad that they go after them. At the end of the day, if politicians aren't scared of armed mobs, we don't have real democracy anymore. Because a real militia capable of overthrowing DC in 2017 is laughable, I'm not sure how we keep the power of politicians in check anymore.

They do whatever they want, and the people have little recourse. Call and complain all you want, they'll still do whatever they want for the next three and a half years. Start a riot and you'll get zip-tied up into jail, blasted with a water cannon, get on watchlists and have trouble flying + re-entering the country, and they'll still do whatever they want.

Re: U.S. FCC chairman plans fast-track repeal of net neutrality: sources

#65

Post by dzdt »

Cable television periodically has "channel blackouts" where the cable operator feuds over price with the content provider. I guess we can expect to see this now for internet. Imagine going to Netflix to find an error 5xx instead: unavailable until they agree on payments to the cable company.

Re: U.S. FCC chairman plans fast-track repeal of net neutrality: sources

#66

Post by sangnoir »

kablaa wrote: post #11

It's amazing how much money influences these politicians. I would be amazed if any of the people who voted for this bill even fully understand what it is.

> It's amazing how much money influences these politicians.

I don't understand the hand-wringing[1], why don't the well-paid technologists use their money to influence politicians too? Where is the copyleft-equivalent judo move to Citizens United? Are techies so savvy that getting involved in politics is beneath us? Or is Slacktivism enough 'engagement'? Black site banners can only take you so far.

1. Disclaimer: not american

Re: U.S. FCC chairman plans fast-track repeal of net neutrality: sources

#67

Post by sangnoir »

liquidise wrote: post #12
ajross wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How does encryption solve the problem of Verizon squeezing Netflix to degrade its service in favor of its own offerings? Net neutrality isn't about consumer surveillance (which is a problem too, just a different one). It's about access to markets and the ability to choose the services you use on the internet.

I'm not saying encryption is the solution. The solution to internet neutrality and user privacy may be something entirely different. Maybe it is mesh networks of an open source wifi solution. I'm not an expert in networking, but it doesn't take much to understand the policy-first approach is fundamentally flawed.

> Maybe it is mesh networks of an open source wifi solution

Once mesh networks threaten the profits of telecom companies, How quickly do you think the laws to make mesh networks illegal (or onerous to set up) will be enacted? You can't solve political/legislative problems with technology, unless you are prepared to go to jail.

Re: U.S. FCC chairman plans fast-track repeal of net neutrality: sources

#68

Post by nebabyte »

sangnoir wrote: post #66
kablaa wrote: post #11

It's amazing how much money influences these politicians. I would be amazed if any of the people who voted for this bill even fully understand what it is.

> It's amazing how much money influences these politicians. I don't understand the hand-wringing[1], why don't the well-paid technologists use their money to influence politicians too? Where is the copyleft-equivalent judo move to Citizens United? Are techies so savvy that getting involved in politics is beneath us? Or is Slacktivism enough 'engagement'? Black site banners can only take you so far. 1. Disclaimer: not…

"Surely we can wait for another corporatocracy to save us from this corporatocracy!"

Re: U.S. FCC chairman plans fast-track repeal of net neutrality: sources

#69

Post by nebabyte »

seanp2k2 wrote: post #64
doctorshady wrote: post #2

Is there anything that can be done here? Pai and his little buddy O'Rielly have an easy majority on the FCC here, and I doubt they'll listen to any comments. Short of like, the Trump government being dismantled before then, how do you get rid of such a transparently corrupt head of a federal agency?

Let them do their thing until people are so mad that they go after them. At the end of the day, if politicians aren't scared of armed mobs, we don't have real democracy anymore. Because a real militia capable of overthrowing DC in 2017 is laughable, I'm not sure how we keep the power of politicians in check anymore. They do whatever they want, and the people have little recourse. Call and complain all you want, they'…

> if politicians aren't scared of armed mobs, we don't have real democracy anymore

I've never accepted that idiotic premise. If your ultimate trump card is armed mobs ousting a 'regime' if it occurs, you're just inviting your ruling class to start acquiescing to draconian measures in the name of 'national security' for their own safety.

You already see this with "freedom spaces" or whatever the hell you americans call them. If the 'right to petition' is a basic right, you'll just start seeing courts "define" and restrict when and how you can petition in the name of public safety - because when is a court ever going to rule that a potentially violent mob is the correct solution to a problem?

"Real democracy" is a laughable term to use while you're shrugging your shoulders and looking around to see who has the biggest rocks. If 'might makes right' is your only remaining fallback, you might need to stop lying to yourself about your 'democracy' first.

Re: U.S. FCC chairman plans fast-track repeal of net neutrality: sources

#70

Post by lostlogin »

seanp2k2 wrote: post #22
kablaa wrote: post #11

It's amazing how much money influences these politicians. I would be amazed if any of the people who voted for this bill even fully understand what it is.

It's also amazing how little it costs to buy them. It's on the order of a hundred thousand dollars. Check out campaign contributions and you'll see. It needs to be at least 10-100x more expensive to really make a difference. It'd be hilarious / depressing is politicians started colluding to squeeze companies for orders of magnitude more in bribes (sorry, "campaign contributions").

As a total outsider - it's amazing that a place as huge as the US has a two-party system. splitting everything into one camp or the other makes for groupings that don't always work.
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