4 ms·

Hopefully a judge will throw this out too.

tbrownaw 17y ago
Why, so we can have the only ISP that's allowed to serve an area filter out bittorrent and maybe charge a premium to access certain sites?
- yummyfajitas 17y ago
  Now that the internet is under political control, the FCC might be the one banning bittorrent. Joe Biden is, after all, in the pockets of big content.
  - tbrownaw 17y ago
    See, that doesn't make any sense. "The Internet" is not being placed under any form of "political control". The ISPs, the people with the last-mile pipes are becoming regulated in the same manner as the phone companies already are. There's no more danger of the FCC banning bittorrent than there is of them banning phone sex operators; this reclassification DOES NOT give the FCC the power to ban sites/protocols/etc.
    - dantheman 17y ago
      Throughout history innovation and technology progressed and then became regulated, once regulated entrenched powers used regulation to stifle competition and cement their positions. This has happened again and again. Look at the history of the ICC for a brief example. If this was in reaction to a serious problem some might say it's justified, but as of right now we don't have any problems so lets let things progress naturally.
  - ajross 17y ago
    Wait. So Comcast actually has tried to filter and cap torrent traffic, and regulation to prevent that practice is bad because the regulatory agency might try to do the same thing? How does that logic possibly work?
    - hga 17y ago
      Because we know the history of governments, especially our Federal government, and there is no higher authority to appeal to.
- kgermino 17y ago
  >the only ISP that's allowed to serve an area Your pointing to a regulated market, saying its bad, and using that as you argument for regulation. I'm sorry but I don't follow...
  - tbrownaw 17y ago
    "A free market does a very good job of providing most things other than a free market." Much (possibly most) regulation is harmful, but some is good or even necessary. Given that ISPs tend to have local monopolies, they need to be prevented from abusing those monopolies like they've started trying to do. If the having local monopolies is not taken as a given, and the local governments don't hand out monopoly powers... well you still have to deal with how the high up-front costs of laying new wires makes various anti-competitive tactics more effective, and how the already meager competition seems to be merging into fewer and fewer competitors. So in this case, you can either regulate to try to preserve a mostly-free market (lots of antitrust investigations and suits) in last-mile connectivity, or assume a monopoly and regulate to minimize the damage it can cause. The first probably minimizes harm to the regulated industry, the second minimizes harm to industries damaged by monopolistic actions in the regulated industry. I expect that the last-mile industry itself is relatively low value compared to the industries it can damage (much like water, electricity, and phone service), so the second option would be preferable.

Why, so we can have the only ISP that's allowed to serve an area filter out bittorrent and maybe charge a premium to access certain sites?

yummyfajitas 17y ago
Now that the internet is under political control, the FCC might be the one banning bittorrent. Joe Biden is, after all, in the pockets of big content.
- tbrownaw 17y ago
  See, that doesn't make any sense. "The Internet" is not being placed under any form of "political control". The ISPs, the people with the last-mile pipes are becoming regulated in the same manner as the phone companies already are. There's no more danger of the FCC banning bittorrent than there is of them banning phone sex operators; this reclassification DOES NOT give the FCC the power to ban sites/protocols/etc.
  - dantheman 17y ago
    Throughout history innovation and technology progressed and then became regulated, once regulated entrenched powers used regulation to stifle competition and cement their positions. This has happened again and again. Look at the history of the ICC for a brief example. If this was in reaction to a serious problem some might say it's justified, but as of right now we don't have any problems so lets let things progress naturally.
- ajross 17y ago
  Wait. So Comcast actually has tried to filter and cap torrent traffic, and regulation to prevent that practice is bad because the regulatory agency might try to do the same thing? How does that logic possibly work?
  - hga 17y ago
    Because we know the history of governments, especially our Federal government, and there is no higher authority to appeal to.
kgermino 17y ago
>the only ISP that's allowed to serve an area Your pointing to a regulated market, saying its bad, and using that as you argument for regulation. I'm sorry but I don't follow...
- tbrownaw 17y ago
  "A free market does a very good job of providing most things other than a free market." Much (possibly most) regulation is harmful, but some is good or even necessary. Given that ISPs tend to have local monopolies, they need to be prevented from abusing those monopolies like they've started trying to do. If the having local monopolies is not taken as a given, and the local governments don't hand out monopoly powers... well you still have to deal with how the high up-front costs of laying new wires makes various anti-competitive tactics more effective, and how the already meager competition seems to be merging into fewer and fewer competitors. So in this case, you can either regulate to try to preserve a mostly-free market (lots of antitrust investigations and suits) in last-mile connectivity, or assume a monopoly and regulate to minimize the damage it can cause. The first probably minimizes harm to the regulated industry, the second minimizes harm to industries damaged by monopolistic actions in the regulated industry. I expect that the last-mile industry itself is relatively low value compared to the industries it can damage (much like water, electricity, and phone service), so the second option would be preferable.