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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

#321

Post by tptacek »

josh2600 wrote: post #301
tptacek wrote: post #141

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, Wheeler was not a "huge lobbyist" for "the very people" working against NN. He was the president of the NCTA from the late 70s to 1984, before cable had anything whatsoever to do with the Internet. His status as an anti-neutrality lobbyist is a powerful Internet meme that does not appear to be rooted in fact.

Look, I normally agree with almost everything you say, but this is just not true. Wheeler was at the NCTA until divestiture, then he saw the writing on the wall and went to CTIA and CWA. After CWA he worked for Core which is a very industry heavy VC. Wheeler was a huge lobbyist for over 20 years, talks to Meredith at CTIA on a first-name basis and knows all of the people who run the telcos and their lobbying organiza…

I take your point, that Wheeler was a lobbyist for network operators for most of his career. I think "cable company lobbyist" is still a particularly dumb way to sum him up, but can see why lobbying for telcos is also scary for someone arbitrating net neutrality.

Re: President Obama Calls for a Free and Open Internet

#322

Post by ianburrell »

zoba wrote: post #230

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.

Net neutrality is already a partisan issue. Republicans have always been opposed to net neutrality as unnecessary regulation of the Internet.

Republicans in Congress threatened to overturn the 2010 net neutrality rules through legislation. Then the courts decided the FCC did not have the authority to enforce those rule. Congress could have passed net neutrality legislation but the Republicans are happy with the current unregulated status which is why they haven't discussed it.

Since then FCC has been trying to write new rules within their authority. Which is why the proposed rules are so limited and regulate fast lanes. The other option for the FCC is to declare ISPs as common carriers and regulate them like telephone companies. The Republicans will almost certainly try to block this.

Re: President Obama Calls for a Free and Open Internet

#323

Post by amirmansour »

crazy1van wrote: post #300

First, let me say that my local ISPs have left a lot to be desired. Comcast and Verizon have driven me crazy in the past. But making them a utility scares me. As bad as my ISPs have been, looking back 15 years, I was on a 56k modem. Now I have 50 mbps broadband. When I look at other utilities like power and water, I've seen zero innovation and my bill continues to rise. Something should be done, but I'd rather the fo…

I can only comment on the electricity utilities. The power grid of this country is a marvel of engineering, but it needs better monitoring and control systems for our future to have electric vehicles and solar panels as commonplace technologies. If everyone had electric vehicles today and plugged them in to charge overnight, the grid would crash. Unlike the internet, it is significantly more difficult to upgrade the power grid because you can't just cut offer power to upgrade, and also grid equipments are very expensive. On the internet we got cheap servers, cheap networking, easy to setup failover and backups.

With all that said, companies like Edison and PG&E are regulated monopolies, so at this point in time they don't have much incentive to innovate. You can't unsubscribe from your electricity provider.

Re: President Obama Calls for a Free and Open Internet

#324

Post by hristov »

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…

You are reading too much into this. Obama is merely adding this phrase to protect himself from those that will intentionally try to twist his words. When you hear anything Obama says, you must remember that there are literally thousands of hacks and an entire media empire out there carefully examining his words and thinking how they can twist them or misrepresent them to make him look bad.

If he did not put that phrase in there, there would be a story on fox news saying "Obama supports child pornography".

Regarding having ISPs police users, I do not know why the government would do something like that. The government already tracks internet traffic all over the US thanks to the patriot law and you know how the government hates giving up its functions to private parties.

Re: President Obama Calls for a Free and Open Internet

#325

Post by smsm42 »

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…

>>> Second, the government itself is made up largely of agencies which are outside of the ability of the democracy to affect.

Obama has been at work long and hard to make that the case. Since he has been unable to build any relationship with the Congress, and even holding majorities in both Houses his legislation and nominations had hard time going through, he has taken the decision to leverage his regulatory powers to circumvent the Congress as much as possible. It is not something that just happened - it is a deliberate policy which Obama chose. Of course, not him first - many presidents did the same, and some - like FDR - went a lot further than Obama ever did - but Obama is among those who believes in the Deep State and uses and intends to use it to the fullest extent possible. So if there is to be effort to rein them in, Obama is not your guy - he is the opposite of your guy. Of course, the blame does not lie solely or even primarily with Obama - it started long before him and undoubtedly won't end when he retires. But he is contributing as much as he is able to the raise of the power of the regulatory agencies and their ability to conduct policy completely independently of the Congress.

Re: President Obama Calls for a Free and Open Internet

#326

Post by foobarqux »

DigitalSea wrote: post #154

As per usual with all politicians, these are just words. Nice words, but until a bill is passed and there is movement in the senate to make something like this closer to a reality, words are meaningless. My question to Obama is: why now? This whole net neutrality debate has been going on long before Obama started his first term of presidency, why wait until you are almost out of the White House to act upon something…

> My question to Obama is: why now?

Because it will never pass with a Republican majority so he can pretend to take a stand for the public without any actual effect that would upset business interests.

Re: President Obama Calls for a Free and Open Internet

#327

Post by crazy1van »

therealdrag0 wrote: post #308
crazy1van wrote: post #300

First, let me say that my local ISPs have left a lot to be desired. Comcast and Verizon have driven me crazy in the past. But making them a utility scares me. As bad as my ISPs have been, looking back 15 years, I was on a 56k modem. Now I have 50 mbps broadband. When I look at other utilities like power and water, I've seen zero innovation and my bill continues to rise. Something should be done, but I'd rather the fo…

What innovation could be done for basic utilities? I understand your concern and sympathize with it. But it seems like there is a difference. Everyone wants faster more reliable internet (Personally I'm more concerned about reliability at peak times at this point; >10mbps is plenty otherwise). But when is the last time you heard someone complain about the reliability of their power/water/sewage? Maybe I'm spoiled, bu…

> What innovation could be done for basic utilities?

I think even asking that question leads us down the wrong path. If 15 years ago, the "experts" had gotten together to brainstorm about new ways to communicate, we never would have gotten anything as disruptive as our current social networks. Instead let new people enter the market and let's see what we get.

Re: President Obama Calls for a Free and Open Internet

#328

Post by SergeyB »

mturmon wrote: post #245
SergeyB wrote: post #186

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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." This is false. The president can change interpretations of law (this is how E.O. 13233 was couched), but cannot pass a new law on his own. This is in Articles I and II of the Constitution. In time of war or crisis, people will allow generous interpretations of the President's role to interpret…

Whatever. You can call it anything you like : act, interpretation, change, results are the same. If President signs piece of paper that restricts your liberties, then he has power to change the law, and that power is substantial - that was my point.

Re: President Obama Calls for a Free and Open Internet

#329

Post by smileysteve »

rhino369 wrote: post #311
joezydeco wrote: post #238

And it's already getting worse: https://twitter.com/SenTedCruz/status/531834493922189313 "Net Neutrality" is Obamacare for the Internet; the Internet should not operate at the speed of government.

Net Neutrality isn't, but Title II regulation is definitely the Obamacare of the internet. Title II gives the FCC broad powers over regulating the internet. You just have to look at the what the BushII-era FCC did about policing broadcast media to see the potential dangers in letting the FCC heavily regulate every ISP in America. Title II will heavily disincentivize investment into faster networks because of the unce…

> I'd only support that if the ISPs started fucking up the internet massively.

So, say they propose a fast lane for the internet. Or don't invest in the connections to level 3 to be able to provide Netflix to users.

Re: President Obama Calls for a Free and Open Internet

#330

Post by crazy1van »

amirmansour wrote: post #323
crazy1van wrote: post #300

First, let me say that my local ISPs have left a lot to be desired. Comcast and Verizon have driven me crazy in the past. But making them a utility scares me. As bad as my ISPs have been, looking back 15 years, I was on a 56k modem. Now I have 50 mbps broadband. When I look at other utilities like power and water, I've seen zero innovation and my bill continues to rise. Something should be done, but I'd rather the fo…

I can only comment on the electricity utilities. The power grid of this country is a marvel of engineering, but it needs better monitoring and control systems for our future to have electric vehicles and solar panels as commonplace technologies. If everyone had electric vehicles today and plugged them in to charge overnight, the grid would crash. Unlike the internet, it is significantly more difficult to upgrade the…

> With all that said, companies like Edison and PG&E are regulated monopolies, so at this point in time they don't have much incentive to innovate. You can't unsubscribe from your electricity provider.

Yes, exactly. Instead of competing, they are in the business of compliance. I want my ISPs to ruthlessly compete for my business and not check the boxes provided by the government required to keep their monopoly.

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