Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

President Obama Calls for a Free and Open Internet

whitehouse.gov

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

221–230 of 449 posts

Re: President Obama Calls for a Free and Open Internet

#221

Post by brandonmenc »

AndrewHampton wrote: post #9

Here's the thing that bothers me the most about a lot of the talk about net neutrality by government officials: > If a consumer requests access to a website or service, and the content is legal, your ISP should not be permitted to block it. Specifically "and the content is legal" is what raises a flag for me. I've seen similar phrases in nearly everything I've read coming from any government official regarding net ne…

I'm betting "illegal content" will eventually come to include things like "bullying." Expect a much broader array of takedown notices once the FCC is granted content-level authority over the internet.

Re: President Obama Calls for a Free and Open Internet

#222

Post by [deleted] »

cpleppert wrote: post #209
Shivetya wrote: post #193

Earlier quoted context omitted.

as they passed the ACA, they simply changed to rules to use the reconciliation process to pass what they wanted without the Republicans being able to say a word. Reid was pro at changing the rules to prevent opposing views, people need to understand just how much of the problems in th Senate were his doing and his doing alone. Mister Nuclear just got nuked by the electorate

>>as they passed the ACA, they simply changed to rules to use the reconciliation process No they passed the bill with 60 votes during the only time they actually had a supermajority. There were no rules changes needed or required. ACA was passed and signed before changes were made in the reconciliation process.

[deleted]

Re: President Obama Calls for a Free and Open Internet

#223

Post by [deleted] »

ctdonath wrote: post #77
padobson wrote: post #56

I hope no one is getting excited about this. President Obama is a lame duck. His party just got tossed out of the Senate, relegating his political capital to basically 0. In the wake of this, he's decided to take maybe the most important economic issue of the next 20 years and politicize it. Neither the red team nor the blue team could say they owned this issue, but one of the most divisive voices in politics just st…

He still has 2 years to work on legacy and narcissism[1], he still has the Executive Order power which he's shown a keen interest in using, "net neutrality" is low-hanging fruit for him to boost his popularity, and there's still enough tacit supporters in Congress to get supporting legislation thru. There's going to be a whole lotta bills reaching his desk that he won't like; now's the time to start trying to drive t…

[deleted]

Re: President Obama Calls for a Free and Open Internet

#224

Post by organsnyder »

enraged_camel wrote: post #215
dragontamer wrote: post #202

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Someone needs to learn American History... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Office_of_Censorship http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/COINTELPRO http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atomic_bombings_of_Hiroshima_an... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fred_Hampton When the FBI start assassinating American Citizens in their sleep after an agent drugs their food to silence African American Political movements... THEN we can start talking about…

>>When the FBI start assassinating American Citizens in their sleep after an agent drugs their food to silence African American Political movements... THEN we can start talking about a "police state". You do realize that the USA committed extrajudicial murder of an American citizen during the current president's term, right? Or are you just ignoring it because it's inconvenient to your narrative? >>Today's laws make…

> And yet we have the entire population under surveillance. Compared to that, spying on a handful of civil leaders is nothing.

If the FBI of the 1960's had the technology of today, I guarantee that they would have done the same—and probably more. Not to excuse the intrusion of today, but the government of the 1960's was certainly no better.

Re: President Obama Calls for a Free and Open Internet

#225

Post by narrowrail »

rayiner wrote: post #157
adventured wrote: post #108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's not going to happen. Comcast is one of Obama's - and the Democrats in general - closest corporate sponsors. And were the Republicans to win the Presidency, I can't see them pushing for a formal classification either. They think Comcast is a private company competing in a market, when it's actually a government protected and sanctioned monopoly just like AT&T and Verizon.

What substantial government sanctioned monopoly does Comcast have? Can we point to something concrete rather than hand waving? It's been illegal to grant monopoly franchises to cable companies since the mid 1990's. I don't know of a single market where Comcast is the only cable company because it has a sanctioned monopoly. There are a lot of places where Comcast has a de-facto monopoly because nobody else is willing…

Here is a link to the info regarding a franchise agreement renewal in a small Colorado town:

http://www.louisvilleco.gov/SERVICES/CityManagersOffice/Fran...

There are .pdf's with the official agreement and some attempt at simplifying the info contained within on the page itself. I haven't read it yet myself, but I'm curious if it reflects the claims you make.

Re: President Obama Calls for a Free and Open Internet

#226

Post by jobposter1234 »

ablesable wrote: post #143
chasing wrote: post #118

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not sure comparing the size of the filing cabinets of the Stasi and the NSA is particularly helpful in understanding the differences between those two organizations.

The only difference is that the Stasi didn't have the tech available to them that the NSA has.

Well, plus the culture of informing on your fellow citizens at large scale (10-20% of German citizens were active informers...)

... or the German citizens killed by the Stasi...

Do you really think the only difference between the Stasi and the NSA is the technology available?

Re: President Obama Calls for a Free and Open Internet

#228

Post by zobzu »

yc1010 wrote: post #6

I am not American (feel free to ignore my opinion) but this is just a bad joke from someone who seems to be an utmost failure. Especially in light of last week FBI/NSA/DHS undermining TOR and killing its utility for any dissidents and free speech in authoritarian states. Under his watch the surveillance state has expanded and has become downright creepy 25 years after the fall of the Berlin wall we should be saying "…

You're saying obama is responsible for everything - which is not as everything was there before him - and complain when he publicly asks to fix some of the most important issues... Then complain some more about some cult of personality and compare him as worst than the nazi regime.. Then complain about downvote.

Theres some interesting things to discuss regarding the validity of obamas actions but that doesnt seem to be the best way to start that debate ;)

Re: President Obama Calls for a Free and Open Internet

#229

Post by narrowrail »

smspence wrote: post #181
philovivero wrote: post #50

Huh? Is this the same President Obama that put Tom Wheeler in charge of the FCC? In case it isn't obvious (and since no-one else has mentioned it yet, I guess it's not), Tom Wheeler was a huge lobbyist for the very people who are trying to end net neutrality. I don't get calling for X then performing actions that negate X. Edit: there's another front-page story to Bloomberg that actually explicitly mentions the Tom W…

You don't get it. That would only be wrong if a republican president did it. When a democrat does it, it's fine.

Please don't do this on HN. We don't need to politicize the issue among technical people; we can simply discuss the pros and cons on their merits. I, personally, don't care about political parties at all (they're a distinction without a difference, IMO).

Re: President Obama Calls for a Free and Open Internet

#230

Post by zoba »

I am excited Obama is getting in on this, however, I'm concerned Net Neutrality may become a partisan issue. Ted Cruz has stated that Net Neutrality is like Obamacare for the internet (http://www.businessinsider.com/ted-cruz-net-neutrality-is-ob...) which just enrages me. Please get the message out to your conservative friends/family before the right has an opportunity to brain wash them.
Post reply on HN