lothar
yea, lol it up ! that's the future . you don't get it ?
the internet in it's current state is raw freedom of speech, nothing threatens the corporate overloards more than that ! and , after all , they are the ones in control. not the white haired old men in congress! politicians are just their tools

The old me would argue this for hours. New me is just going to say "Ok" and drop it. :/

Does nobody care about this ?
this is probably the most relative and important topic to people on DD !
this could tottaly Skrew all of us here !
this is the future of the whole goddamned internet we're talking about !

This has been going on for years.

If even Microsoft and Google can't fight this, I'm not sure what the layperson can do.

lothar
Does nobody care about this ?

Uh, I started the topic, and I have spoken passionately about it. So have others. So yeah, people care about it. I get the feeling that a lot of people don't think there's much that can be done.

Your predictions, although extreme, are totally within the realm of possibility. The internet as we know it could become a ONE WAY MEDIA, just like TV and radio have become. For people that don't think this will affect the internet, you are nuts.

Oh, and if you think that this will not affect you if you are not American, you'd better think again.
The U.S. government's ultimate control of the Domain Name System translates into substantial power over the entire Internet. Other countries reject this American dominance and would like to see control of the Internet handed over to the UN or the ITU. The United States could have a legal claim for control based on ownership because the Internet is, or was at least originally, an American "thing", which was invented and funded by the United States.

So if we get screwed, you do too. Just sayin'.

SpANG
Uh, I started the topic, and I have spoken passionately about it. So have others. So yeah, people care about it. I get the feeling that a lot of people don't think there's much that can be done.

yea,i know, i'm just Angry ! i feel like theres a giant meteor headed twards our planet

And it does seem awfully strange to hear about this so late in the game. I mean, I'll admit to being pretty ignorant of the issue until it was brought up here.

You'd think of all the places to raise a big stink about this issue, the internet would be the place to do it.

It has been, actually. Many of the sites I go to rant about it. I'm just as surprised that many DDers didn't know.

It makes me wonder just how many other things folks miss out on that you think they know because its well covered in your reading area.

SpANG
Not to mention the censoring of anyone that wants to have an opposing voice. The internet is the last bastion of free speech.

Kind of like if someone wanted to talk about ninjas on a specific comic company's forum, but that company just chose to ban the person because of an unwritten anti-ninja policy.

Yeah, the internet getting regulated is a bad thing. For ninjas. And the rest of us.

SpANG
Oh, and if you think that this will not affect you if you are not American, you'd better think again.

Thankfully there's always China to completely ignore american copyright, patent, and ownership laws.

;)

Vindibudd
Do you mean "conservative" or do you mean "Republican"? I view the Internet not as a good, but as the public airwaves. The government created the Internet with public tax dollars and now companies are trying to limit public access to the thing that public money funded. That is where I think the government needs to stay out of the issue.

Really? This strikes me as a time where the government needs to fight back to protect its investment and keep public property out of corporate hands. Hopefully the new congress can catch the drift of that.

Where's good ol' Teddy when you need him?

Thankfully there's always China to completely ignore american copyright, patent, and ownership laws.

The new land of freedom, yo.

I'll admit I don't know a lot about this issue.

But if "free market forces" are at play instead of government controls, doesn't that potentially mean that the possibility is there for a company to competitively use net neutrality as a selling point?

I don't trust the big corporations or the executive branch at all, but isn't the Internet global, which means there is lots of potential for competition for the US Internet consumer?

TitanOne
But if "free market forces" are at play instead of government controls, doesn't that potentially mean that the possibility is there for a company to competitively use net neutrality as a selling point?

That's something I was thinking about just today... What if after the net became screwed, one provider said "We're Net Neutral" as one of their selling points? Obviously, that's the internet provider most knowledgeable consumers would want.

But the retaliation of other non-neutral providers would probably be to drastically lower their price. After all, they could afford a price drop thanks to all the kickbacks they've been getting from corporations to control bandwidth. In the end, consumers would be choosing between a more expensive net-neutral internet and a cheaper internet that's being screwed by big businesses.

Of course that's all a theory. But if it did happen I'd like to think I'd pay extra for the untampered internet access.

TitanOne
But if "free market forces" are at play instead of government controls, doesn't that potentially mean that the possibility is there for a company to competitively use net neutrality as a selling point?

it's almost touching ; the childlike belief Americans have in "free market forces"
you do realize, there is No such thing ! In this case , the cable and isp companies have used the government to make the market easier for them. True, you can say that all they are doing is deregulating the industry, just like they deregulated television, radio, and newspaper. And we all know how f*cking wonderfull the radio is now!
"FREE" market is a lie ! people tend to think that the governemnt is always the worst party, but in this situation these Companies are much worse and more powerfull than the government. The companies have no responsibility to the people, they are not elected, they are essentially Imortal super humans !!! do you think they care what people want to see??? THEY will TELL you what you want to see , and you'll shut up and like it !

this subject goes right to the core of the American peoples problem :

We need to STOP being Consumers and Start being Citizens again !!!!!

Well I think we all are against this or at least should be.

Honestly I think this attempt to dominate information is based on several motivations from different parties.

The desire to make more money.
The desire for regulation.
The desire for order/fear of chaos.
The desire for power.

I think the power issue here is one most people miss. Prior to the internet, a company could decide to some extent what you were going to be successful and what was going to fail based on how they manipulated media. If you wanted a show to succeed you advertised for it and stuck it in a prime time slot, if you wanted it to die you put it on at 11:00 on sunday.

Thusly could stars be build, shows controled etc. etc. Largely most tradionaly media didn't care so much about the internet until it started to eat away at their ability to control media. Now people go online and watch free content. They take what they want, start what they want etc. etc. and all that means a loss of control for business and added chaos to an already chaotic and uncertain (but extreamly profitable) industry.

The problem is this. The inovators, the people who are making this content, seeking it out, using the internat as an alternative media are in the vast minority. The majority of Walmart shopping, TV Watching Americans don't understand computers or even care.

Many of them will blindly sign up for AOL because it is there and it is cheep and won't care if AOL is ruling their lives anymore then they care enough about the Walmart Effect to stop shopping there. If anything from theif viewpoint it might be an improvement.

I've been against this for years. Shamfully this idea was first put forward years ago my local senators among others who were republican. Yet I got into a terrible fight over this with liberal democrat card carrying grandmother who thought it would be a good thing for the internet to be taxed, regulated and boxed. Needless to say she was the last person I expected to support this.

Just to give you a small taste of this conversation

Grandma: ....and they should tax e-mails. It would raise a lot of money to help people and cut down on all those viruses and spam. I pay for my letter, I don't see why people can't pay for their E-mail. It would be a good thing for everyone.
Me: Has raising the cost of postage cut down you real physical more effort to send out junk mail???

To her credit my grandmother later soften her views on this after our conversation.

However I hope this outlines the mindset, misconceptions, apethy and over all sheep mentality that allows industries like TV & radio end up this way. In the end people don't vote with their wallet the way we would like them to. It it true money talks but ours is always a quiet murmur from our wallent to the companies to the powers that be who regulate and control such things.

Our only real option is to try and educate people as best we can. Sadly like most issues the people who are going to frequent forums & read web comics probably already got the message and the ones we need to reach are the people who are fearful surf to far way from the AOL main page whom are going to the hardest to reach. Worse we need to motivate people who don't see how this will affect them.

The best course of action, in addition to those already mentions, it to start talking to people about this like it is the Iraq War and writting to your local paper about it encouraging them to run a story on it. People have a very limited ability to care about things we need to make this clear this is current and critical issue.

You do realize that this would create an even more batshit crazy underground internet? Or perhpas they would develop something better than the internet?

Its about time something new came out that was a million times crazier than the internet. Telepathy perhaps? Imagine the idea of actually having to have "thought police" like Spang and other people that link to propaganda videos are afraid of.

I like the idea of being a citizen, but I'm a jackass whose somewhat mentally limited, possibly even functionally retarded. What difference in the world can I make?

After all I'm on the internet, where everyone has net neutrality. Or as some argue, equal standing.

subcultured
dirty.

for such a superpower we are pretty behind with information

Someone
European countries and Singapore have surpassed the United States in their ability to exploit information and communication technology, according to a new survey.

The United States, which topped the World Economic Forum's "networked readiness index" in 2006, slipped to seventh. The study, out Wednesday, largely blamed increased political and corporate interference in the judicial system.

The index, which measures the range of factors that affect a country's ability to harness information technologies for economic competitiveness and development, also cited the United States' low rate of mobile telephone usage, a lack of government leadership in information technology and the low quality of mathematics and science education.

and this crap just makes it worst. thanks greedy companies. thanks for stamping down on innovations and bleeding america dry. how political of you

i think America is slipping in quite a number of things latlely...should be interesting to say the least.

lothar
We need to STOP being Consumers and Start being Citizens again !!!!!

this is probably the truest, most thoughtful and real thing i have read in some time. very thomas jefferson of you sir.

when did we become cattle and sheep? let us walk again as men and women and remind the politicians and companies that they work for us, not the other way around, its now or never.