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President Obama Calls for a Free and Open Internet

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Re: President Obama Calls for a Free and Open Internet

#251

Post by fleitz »

revscat wrote: post #55
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 "…

Let me explain a few things about the American government. The most important thing to understand is that the ability of the executive to influence the direction of the government is limited. The reasons for this are several, but I will try to elucidate a few here. First, it is commonly believed that because of the ability to hire/fire people the President can more or less do whatever he wants in regards to the direc…

The NSA spying program is authorized by executive order not statute.

It's a signature away from ending. And Obama can forward any issues to the DoJ. If he wanted to end the NSA spying program he could simply have Holder charge those involved.

Obama is always powerless whenever people want him to do something he doesn't want to do, but to summarily try, convict, and execute a US child is apparently within his power.

Re: President Obama Calls for a Free and Open Internet

#252

Post by dragonwriter »

SergeyB wrote: post #186
revscat wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Let me explain a few things about the American government. The most important thing to understand is that the ability of the executive to influence the direction of the government is limited. The reasons for this are several, but I will try to elucidate a few here. First, it is commonly believed that because of the ability to hire/fire people the President can more or less do whatever he wants in regards to the direc…

That`s what it supposed to be like and we wish it was. In reality, starting with Iraq war, Patriot Act, Health Care, Bailouts and much more, didnt have time for debates in Congress. President pushed it, Congress approved. President is Executive branch of government, therefore can pass a new law just by signing it without approval of Congress. Example Executive Order 13233 (signed by Bush, makes President an exception…

> President is Executive branch of government, therefore can pass a new law just by signing it without approval of Congress. The executive branch of government executes laws, it does not (and Constitutionally cannot) create them. Executive orders are valid to the extent that they direct actions within the executive branch within the laws binding that branch and apply only powers the President has under the Constitution and laws.

The practical distinction may vanish when the other branches do not effectively check the executive when it exceeds its Constitutional power, but that's not inherent in the President heading the Executive branch -- the same is equally true of excesses in other branches, though the unitary nature of the executive provides less of an intra-branch check on abuses by the President than exists for any actor in the legislative or judicial branches (though collective excesses, such as -- as a purely hypothetical example -- the Supreme Court intruding into Congress' Constitutional role in judging the propriety of Presidential electoral votes including the process by which they are assigned -- can still occur and be problematic if left unchecked by the other branches.)

Re: President Obama Calls for a Free and Open Internet

#253

Post by [deleted] »

warfangle wrote: post #136
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…

On the other hand, he's also calling for it to be classified under Title II. Unless Title II is modified, that would prohibit ISPs from deep packet inspection. It would also prohibit ISPs from modifying responses in situ - like inserting tracking beacons gifs into HTML responses or returning a custom search page (with associated ad revenue) when a DNS lookup fails. Edit: So, with the 'if the content is legal' clause,…

[deleted]

Re: President Obama Calls for a Free and Open Internet

#254

Post by fleitz »

mpweiher wrote: post #30
sejje wrote: post #19

This headline is in such stark contrast to the other, which reads "President Obama calls for a free and open internet." Which reads more like the actual intent? Edit: The two submissions got merged, so my comment is now outdated.

They are the same thing: in order to protect net neutrality (the free and open internet), you need strong regulation, it doesn't happen by itself.

Such as the executive orders authorizing the wiretapping of the internet?

Re: President Obama Calls for a Free and Open Internet

#255

Post by dragonwriter »

narrowrail wrote: post #229
smspence wrote: post #181

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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).

> We don't need to politicize the issue among technical people

Its a fundamentally political issue. It doesn't make sense to discuss "politicizing" it.

Re: President Obama Calls for a Free and Open Internet

#256

Post by internet_arguer »

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 "…

> edit: Oh i see the cult of personality is still strong in this one, downvoted in under a minute.

Translated: "If you disagree with me, you're a stooge for the cult of personality."

What an effective way to make your position to be unassailable!

Re: President Obama Calls for a Free and Open Internet

#257

Post by fleitz »

KobaQ wrote: post #232
ablesable wrote: post #143

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

I know we're not historicans here, but I'm German, so I am quite sensitive when it comes to the Stasi: Please be aware of the thousands of people who have been killed, tortured, inprisoned and repressed by the Stasi in the DDR. The Stasi took the freedom of a whole nation. They destroyed so many lives. You can compare the spying techniques but not the wrongdoing (not saying the NSA is free of any wrongdoing). It's an…

You do know that the US has the largest prison population in the world...

It outdoes the DDR by a factor of two with regard to those they imprison, as well the DDR stopped executing anyone in 1987, as of last year the US still executes minors.

Re: President Obama Calls for a Free and Open Internet

#259

Post by dragonwriter »

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…

> 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.

Tom Wheeler has been one of the three members of the FCC supporting regulations promoting net neutrality. Yes, Tom Wheeler was the leader of a cable industry lobbying organization in the past.

> I don't get calling for X then performing actions that negate X.

I don't think the companies -- including cable companies -- that keep suing the FCC over Wheeler's pro-neutrality efforts would agree that appointing Tom Wheeler has been a way to negate net neutrality. I agree that his past work for them might have been a valid reason to be mildly skeptical of whether he would be a supporter of neutrality when the appointment was made (but given the distance between that role and both the appointment and any connection the cable industry had to the internet, only mild skepticism.) I don't think it makes any sense, though, to treat him as an enemy of neutrality on the basis of that when he has an actual record, at the FCC, of promoting regulations moving the status quo toward neutrality.

Re: President Obama Calls for a Free and Open Internet

#260

Post by edraferi »

fragsworth wrote: post #217
adevine wrote: post #187

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Agreed. Given the knee-jerk reaction of "Anything that Obama supports is bad", Ted Cruz is now tarring this as "Net Neutrality is the Obamacare of the Internet". I like how "Obamacare" has become the new Communism. A lot of people know hardly anything about it or what it's policies actually are, but it's baaaaad. I like the Digg headline about this: Ted Cruz is the Uber for stupid metaphors.

> Ted Cruz is now tarring this as "Net Neutrality is the Obamacare of the Internet". That is disastrous. If the Republicans unite against Net Neutrality just because Obama supports it, we could easily get a Republican president in the next election, and then the Internet in the U.S. will be doomed for a very long time.

I agree. Net Neutrality is a great opportunity for some bi-partisan problem solving. It'd be much better for the country if they could find common ground on this issue.
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