John Oliver on net neutrality

[Brock Beauchamp]

Pure comedy gold, mixing a very serious issue with hilarious commentary. Watch the entire thing and then comment at the FCC website.

 

[video=youtube;fpbOEoRrHyU]

[TheLeviathan]

Oliver has been nothing short of brilliant so far and this episode was no different.

[steve]

According to this =>

He's convinced lots of people to comment.

[TheLeviathan]

According to this =>

He's convinced lots of people to comment.

 

That's FANTASTIC! I have to say, this is the one political issue in the upcoming cycle that might dominate my decision making. I don't care about party...just where do you stand on this.

[Brock Beauchamp]

That's FANTASTIC! I have to say, this is the one political issue in the upcoming cycle that might dominate my decision making. I don't care about party...just where do you stand on this.

 

Unfortunately, I have the feeling that in this election cycle, we're gonna get screwed by both sides on net neutrality.

 

What we need to happen is for Google, Microsoft, Apple, Netflix, Amazon, and Hulu to step up and square off financially against Comcast, Time Warner, Verizon, and AT&T. Combined, the internet titans have the money to slap the ISPs into place.

[TheLeviathan]

Unfortunately, I have the feeling that in this election cycle, we're gonna get screwed by both sides on net neutrality.

 

What we need to happen is for Google, Microsoft, Apple, Netflix, Amazon, and Hulu to step up and square off financially against Comcast, Time Warner, Verizon, and AT&T. Combined, the internet titans have the money to slap the ISPs into place.

 

One would hope....but sometimes these things make strange bedfellows too.

 

I agree, both parties are taking kickbacks and defending something that is hurting the American people. That was the scariest thing about Oliver's report: that we put an ex-head honcho of Comcast into a prominent advisor role in the White House.

 

That's why anyone that is standing on the right side of this issue will get my vote, possibly without any consideration for other issues. I think it's that important for the future.

[ashbury]

Capitalism, free markets, and highest bidder winning auctions, are on the way out?

[Brock Beauchamp]

think it's that important for the future.

 

It is. I wish the American people would wake up and realize that.

[TheLeviathan]

Capitalism, free markets, and highest bidder winning auctions, are on the way out?

 

There is nothing free market about using the government to create monopolies.

[Hosken Bombo Disco]

Klobuchar's site said nothing about net neutrality and I have emailed her twice in the past six months. Crickets. Thanks, Amy.

 

Thus, it's off to the FCC, or as Oliver says, this is the moment all of us internet posters have been waiting for! Brilliant commentary on such a critical issue.

[ashbury]

There is nothing free market about using the government to create monopolies.

 

I'm just trying to understand the points to be made on both sides of the argument before making up my mind. The monopoly itself happened long ago when Al Gore used gubmint funding to invent the internet.

 

Lots of good things have been nurtured by a public kickstart, and then privatization occurs at some point. What's the right path forward for this very important shared resource? "Change nothing" doesn't sound right to me. But (despite my attempt to provoke some actual discussion) I'm hardly in blind allegiance to the magic of the unfettered free market.

[steve]

Klobuchar's site said nothing about net neutrality and I have emailed her twice in the past six months. Crickets. Thanks, Amy.

 

Fortunately, our Junior Senator is leading the fight for Net Neutrality.

 

[video=youtube_share;WhwzZC7lnWM]

[TheLeviathan]

I'm just trying to understand the points to be made on both sides of the argument before making up my mind. The monopoly itself happened long ago when Al Gore used gubmint funding to invent the internet.

 

Lots of good things have been nurtured by a public kickstart, and then privatization occurs at some point. What's the right path forward for this very important shared resource? "Change nothing" doesn't sound right to me. But (despite my attempt to provoke some actual discussion) I'm hardly in blind allegiance to the magic of the unfettered free market.

 

Your comment came across as a snipe against free markets. We need more of a free market in tech access rather than the monopolistic realities most face.

 

The net is a 21st century utility and Comcast is actively using its massive lobbying efforts locally and nationally to shut out and gouge competitors with government indifference. Comcast is forming a private monopoly on digital access - it's destroying the free market.

[diehardtwinsfan]

Unfortunately, I have the feeling that in this election cycle, we're gonna get screwed by both sides on net neutrality.

 

What we need to happen is for Google, Microsoft, Apple, Netflix, Amazon, and Hulu to step up and square off financially against Comcast, Time Warner, Verizon, and AT&T. Combined, the internet titans have the money to slap the ISPs into place.

 

One would hope. Didn't these companies band together and do something a while back? It needs to happen.

[TheLeviathan]

http://consumerist.com/2014/05/29/netflix-ceo-says-comcast-is-coming-for-the-whole-internet/

 

This link, and the subsequent links inside it, are helpful for those unsure why this is a problem. Franken's speech did nicely as well.

[Brock Beauchamp]

I'm just trying to understand the points to be made on both sides of the argument before making up my mind. The monopoly itself happened long ago when Al Gore used gubmint funding to invent the internet.

 

Lots of good things have been nurtured by a public kickstart, and then privatization occurs at some point. What's the right path forward for this very important shared resource? "Change nothing" doesn't sound right to me. But (despite my attempt to provoke some actual discussion) I'm hardly in blind allegiance to the magic of the unfettered free market.

 

The problem is that the "free market" label is being misused to defend this atrocity, much like it's mis-used to talk about health care, which is anything but a free market.

 

Internet providers are even more monopolistic/duopolistic than their health care counterparts, though. Most Americans have no more than two choices for internet providers. In my case, I literally have one choice for true broadband service (not the FCC's badly outdated definition of the term). Comcast. That's it. That's my choice.

 

And I live in the Minneapolis city limits. I live in the largest city in Minnesota and I have one choice.

 

This is basically extortion on the part of the ISPs. Consumers have no choice to move carriers if their service is bad. The ISPs leverage that lack of choice into forcing companies like Netflix to pay more money to receive not "faster" but merely acceptable bandwidth speeds.

 

The ISPs use the asinine "fast and faster" argument to defend this regulation but in reality, we all know that won't be the case. As a country, we invented the damn internet yet we receive some of the slowest average speeds of all industrialized nations. We pay more than anyone for that slow service. How do you think this is going to play out once ISPs are allowed to create a "fast" and "faster" lane? It's absurd.

 

On top of all of that, ISPs like Comcast and Verizon also compete with the likes of Netflix, Hulu, etc. They offer their own streaming services. Do you think all of their native streaming services will be automatically granted "faster" lane access? I think that's a given. So, not only are they extorting companies like Netflix, they're also leveraging their own competing services and granting them fast lane access without additional cost, undermining competition in yet another way.

 

A handful of companies "win" if this regulation passes. Those companies are AT&T, Verizon, Comcast, and Time Warner.

 

Who loses? Everybody else. This is as cut-and-dry as arguments get.

[diehardtwinsfan]

There's a few other things being packed into this. The government likes it for surveilance reasons as well as they can deal with a handful of ISPs a lot easier than a larger number of them.

 

Make no mistake, this will destroy the little guy. This bill is bad all around.

[Willihammer]

I am not privy to all the details on this topic but found this link informative:

 

http://consumerist.com/2014/02/23/netflix-agrees-to-pay-comcast-to-end-slowdown/