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The interstate highway analogy isn't really excellent either. "Slow lanes." So bandwidth = speed limit. Now instead of ISPs dictating your speed, it's the gover

by danjoc 9y ago

The interstate highway analogy isn't really excellent either. "Slow lanes." So bandwidth = speed limit. Now instead of ISPs dictating your speed, it's the government. The interstate has speed limits. Drat, foiled again! The argument here is against capitalism. The owner of the network dictates what happens on that network. To take a argument directly from HN, if you want (Net Neutrality | free speech), go build your own (network | Facebook). The author even makes that argument. "The clear solution is to appropriate the means of distribution, the cables and airwaves, and develop mesh internets." Guess what, now you're an "evil ISP" who is traffic shaping on your own equipment. Are we going to have Net Neutrality for Facebook and Twitter too? Do we limit what they can do on their services? Classify them as a public utility?

xena 9y ago
Honestly twitter and facebook being a public utility would be a net improvement because then they can't ban people for arbitrary reasons.
- krrrh 9y ago
  How do you figure? Government officials make arbitrary decisions all the time. Border agents for instance have wide latitude, lots of regulations are unevenly applied, and DAs often spend their resources based on public perception and press coverage.
orwin 9y ago
Then, as it was said in another HN comment, make ISP liable like facebook and twitter are. They have to detect and prevent DDoS from their customers, detect and prevent malware, as well as child pornography and stuff. If they want to look at what you're sending and receiving, they should be liable for it too. If a law allowed all post office to take a look into your personnal mail, they should at least uses this power to prevent criminal activities.
- danjoc 9y ago
  >They have to detect and prevent DDoS from their customers, detect and prevent malware, as well as child pornography and stuff. What makes you think they don't do this already? I can't run a mail server on port 25. I call my ISP and ask why. They tell me they are combatting open relays, and I need to accept a business class agreement with them to open the port. ISPs have data retention policies to assist law enforcement with investigations into criminal activity. They will terminate your account for breaking the law as well. https://www.wired.com/2010/01/verizon-terminating-internet-accessinternet-access/ https://www.wired.com/2010/01/verizon-terminating-internet-a... It's their network. They are motivated to protect it.

by danjoc 9y ago

xena 9y ago

Honestly twitter and facebook being a public utility would be a net improvement because then they can't ban people for arbitrary reasons.

krrrh 9y ago
How do you figure? Government officials make arbitrary decisions all the time. Border agents for instance have wide latitude, lots of regulations are unevenly applied, and DAs often spend their resources based on public perception and press coverage.

orwin 9y ago

Then, as it was said in another HN comment, make ISP liable like facebook and twitter are. They have to detect and prevent DDoS from their customers, detect and prevent malware, as well as child pornography and stuff. If they want to look at what you're sending and receiving, they should be liable for it too. If a law allowed all post office to take a look into your personnal mail, they should at least uses this power to prevent criminal activities.

danjoc 9y ago
>They have to detect and prevent DDoS from their customers, detect and prevent malware, as well as child pornography and stuff. What makes you think they don't do this already? I can't run a mail server on port 25. I call my ISP and ask why. They tell me they are combatting open relays, and I need to accept a business class agreement with them to open the port. ISPs have data retention policies to assist law enforcement with investigations into criminal activity. They will terminate your account for breaking the law as well. https://www.wired.com/2010/01/verizon-terminating-internet-accessinternet-access/ https://www.wired.com/2010/01/verizon-terminating-internet-a... It's their network. They are motivated to protect it.