6 ms·

I would really like to see larger corporations like google, facebook, reddit, 4chan, etc. do this to anyone connection from a government end point for a day or

I would really like to see larger corporations like google, facebook, reddit, 4chan, etc. do this to anyone connection from a government end point for a day or two. Just make them see how bad removing net neutrality would be.

adrr 13y ago
I don't get why these companies just don't charge the cable companies for the right to carry their content. TV stations charge cable companies, cable company has a choice to not carry it but risk losing customers because they lack content. Content is king in this war .
- crashandburn4 13y ago
  The problem is that america is almost a monopoly, no other country really has these problems[0] [0] http://blog.level3.com/global-connectivity/observations-internet-middleman/ http://blog.level3.com/global-connectivity/observations-inte...
  - lotsofmangos 13y ago
    Cheers for posting that, was pretty enlightening.
    - crashandburn4 13y ago
      No problem, I found it on hacker news and as always here the comments[0] are almost as enlightening as the piece itself. [0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7699862 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7699862
      - lotsofmangos 13y ago
        I'm in the UK and I thought the situation here was pretty terrible on the basis that if you go out into the sticks things get pretty slow. There's a joke, that BT develops core telecoms technologies and sells them across the world. Then when they are finally obsolete, it installs them in Britain. However it sounds like the US has cities running on worse than you get over here in farming villages.
        crashandburn4 13y ago
        I've always thought of the UK as quite good but I'm in london so have easy access to fibre-optic.
- AnthonyMouse 13y ago
  Because "content is king" is a load of malarkey. Not having Netflix on Comcast causes damage to both Netflix and Comcast, but it causes less damage to Comcast because their customers have no viable alternatives whereas Netflix customers do, and the damage to Comcast is offset by the gains made when Netflix customers use Comcast's video services instead of Netflix.
  - mikeash 13y ago
    I'm not sure that's an argument against "content is king". The thing is, Netflix produces almost no content. They have one self-produced show? For everything else, they're merely a distributor, and one of many. If Netflix had a lot of popular original content, they would have a lot more leverage here. For an example of that, see how much HBO gets paid for letting the cable companies carry their stuff.
    - rayiner 13y ago
      I don't get Netflix's business model. It's so thin. Distribute other peoples' content from other peoples' servers over other peoples' wires.
      - peddamat 13y ago
        Software eats the world.
        rayiner 13y ago
        "Software eats the world" usually refers to a situation where something previously done by humans is automated. How does that apply here?
      - AnthonyMouse 13y ago
        They're an aggregator. I can pay Netflix one monthly fee and watch content from multiple different content providers. Customers going direct to the content providers would require dealing with them each individually, paying multiple bills, etc. The convenience of that gets them customers, the existence of paying customers gives them leverage when negotiating for exclusive licenses with content providers. Locking up exclusive licenses gets them more customers and creates entry barriers for competitors, repeat ad infinitum. It's kind of like saying: "I don't get eBay's business model. It's so thin. Distribute other peoples' products from other peoples' facilities using other peoples' trucks."
- Shivetya 13y ago
  Get the search engines to never return hits for Comcast and related entities and I am pretty sure someone would take notice. The can pad for search results or simply not exist in them
- rrss1122 13y ago
  If that is the case, then what's the big deal about net neutrality? If a cable company throttles Netflix, then according to you they are killing themselves because they are risking losing customers over the bad connection to content.
- guelo 13y ago
  Because that is not how the internet works. The internet has been a huge source of innovation because of the implicit net neutrality. If net neutrality dies innovation will slow to cable-tv levels.
- Nanzikambe 13y ago
  You know, whilst this i true, there're definitely many solutions. To use your example of Netflix: they could work incrementally through a list of ISPs and make object lessons of them. What do I mean? Well, take Comcast, Netflix/Google/whomever subsidizes the ISPs competitors through value added offers. Eg. 100gb of Google Drive space for each comcast user that switches to <insert non-shitty ISP here>. Do that for a month or so, then move to the next ISP. The benefits from this far out-weight the negatives, the idea here isn't a mass switch from ISP A to ISP B, more the publicity such an action would generate - would make the ISPs position untenable. I would LOVE to see this done across the board to obliterate ISPs control of their customers content. Filter my porn? Fuck you! Throttle my bit-torrent? Fuck you! etc etc Ah wishful thinking, but you get the idea :)
lucb1e 13y ago
Me too. That's why I posted lucb1e.com/!119 but nobody seemed to care. A few days later all the calls started to throttle the Internet and show them what it's like.

adrr 13y ago

I don't get why these companies just don't charge the cable companies for the right to carry their content. TV stations charge cable companies, cable company has a choice to not carry it but risk losing customers because they lack content. Content is king in this war .

crashandburn4 13y ago
The problem is that america is almost a monopoly, no other country really has these problems[0] [0] http://blog.level3.com/global-connectivity/observations-internet-middleman/ http://blog.level3.com/global-connectivity/observations-inte...
- lotsofmangos 13y ago
  Cheers for posting that, was pretty enlightening.
  - crashandburn4 13y ago
    No problem, I found it on hacker news and as always here the comments[0] are almost as enlightening as the piece itself. [0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7699862 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7699862
    - lotsofmangos 13y ago
      I'm in the UK and I thought the situation here was pretty terrible on the basis that if you go out into the sticks things get pretty slow. There's a joke, that BT develops core telecoms technologies and sells them across the world. Then when they are finally obsolete, it installs them in Britain. However it sounds like the US has cities running on worse than you get over here in farming villages.
      - crashandburn4 13y ago
        I've always thought of the UK as quite good but I'm in london so have easy access to fibre-optic.
AnthonyMouse 13y ago
Because "content is king" is a load of malarkey. Not having Netflix on Comcast causes damage to both Netflix and Comcast, but it causes less damage to Comcast because their customers have no viable alternatives whereas Netflix customers do, and the damage to Comcast is offset by the gains made when Netflix customers use Comcast's video services instead of Netflix.
- mikeash 13y ago
  I'm not sure that's an argument against "content is king". The thing is, Netflix produces almost no content. They have one self-produced show? For everything else, they're merely a distributor, and one of many. If Netflix had a lot of popular original content, they would have a lot more leverage here. For an example of that, see how much HBO gets paid for letting the cable companies carry their stuff.
  - rayiner 13y ago
    I don't get Netflix's business model. It's so thin. Distribute other peoples' content from other peoples' servers over other peoples' wires.
    - peddamat 13y ago
      Software eats the world.
      - rayiner 13y ago
        "Software eats the world" usually refers to a situation where something previously done by humans is automated. How does that apply here?
    - AnthonyMouse 13y ago
      They're an aggregator. I can pay Netflix one monthly fee and watch content from multiple different content providers. Customers going direct to the content providers would require dealing with them each individually, paying multiple bills, etc. The convenience of that gets them customers, the existence of paying customers gives them leverage when negotiating for exclusive licenses with content providers. Locking up exclusive licenses gets them more customers and creates entry barriers for competitors, repeat ad infinitum. It's kind of like saying: "I don't get eBay's business model. It's so thin. Distribute other peoples' products from other peoples' facilities using other peoples' trucks."
Shivetya 13y ago
Get the search engines to never return hits for Comcast and related entities and I am pretty sure someone would take notice. The can pad for search results or simply not exist in them
rrss1122 13y ago
If that is the case, then what's the big deal about net neutrality? If a cable company throttles Netflix, then according to you they are killing themselves because they are risking losing customers over the bad connection to content.
guelo 13y ago
Because that is not how the internet works. The internet has been a huge source of innovation because of the implicit net neutrality. If net neutrality dies innovation will slow to cable-tv levels.
Nanzikambe 13y ago
You know, whilst this i true, there're definitely many solutions. To use your example of Netflix: they could work incrementally through a list of ISPs and make object lessons of them. What do I mean? Well, take Comcast, Netflix/Google/whomever subsidizes the ISPs competitors through value added offers. Eg. 100gb of Google Drive space for each comcast user that switches to <insert non-shitty ISP here>. Do that for a month or so, then move to the next ISP. The benefits from this far out-weight the negatives, the idea here isn't a mass switch from ISP A to ISP B, more the publicity such an action would generate - would make the ISPs position untenable. I would LOVE to see this done across the board to obliterate ISPs control of their customers content. Filter my porn? Fuck you! Throttle my bit-torrent? Fuck you! etc etc Ah wishful thinking, but you get the idea :)

lucb1e 13y ago

Me too. That's why I posted lucb1e.com/!119 but nobody seemed to care. A few days later all the calls started to throttle the Internet and show them what it's like.