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Community Debate: Should we Discriminate Internet Data?

Started By:
Three of Seven, Fri 24 Nov, 2017 5:09 PM
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    #1
    COMMUNITY DEBATE
    SHOULD WE DISCRIMINATE INTERNET DATA?


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    The notion of treating data differently is back on the table again in America, the subject of Net Neutrality, a topic that has been hard to miss. But where does everyone stand on the idea of discriminating data, and throttling users based on packages? The EU has already stated that it is interested in keeping an open internet, back in 2015, you can read that here, so for most EU nations, it's not something that is going to be a discussion point at this stage.

    An article on The Verge, which you can read here, discusses what countries might look to America, stating that counties like France would be unlikely to follow the example set by America when it comes to regulating internet data.

    So, should ISPs be allowed to discriminate what and where data comes from to their customers? Or should consumers be allowed to access all website equally?
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    #2
    Short answer is no, we shouldn't. Giving priority over one packet over another will disrupt the internet which has always functioned as free and open.

    Long answer is situation dependent. I think we should work to put an end to the goings on in the Dark Web. Child Pronography. Drug and Human Trafficking. Terrorism.

    Moving on, just because the US is considering doing what it's planning on doing doesn't mean it won't effect the rest of the world. The internet is a network, weaken one part of it and it effects everything else. Nearly all internet traffic at one point passes through US servers, what do you think is going to happen when one ISP starts charging a 'toll' to use those servers to ensure priority service, its going to happen.

    These are dark times for our beloved series of tubes.
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    #3
    I think the issue here is precedent as much as the act of throttling certain data types.

    I agree with the idea that if something actually costs more to implement/maintain then it should have a higher cost. However the idea of throttling different packets is simply driven by profit - from what I can am aware (and I'd welcome any information on this point) it costs the same to send a packet whatever it's contents. Ok, so packets relating to video are likely to be more frequent as the file is larger than, say, email. But that doesn't mean that consumers should be charged more - there's no additional cost simply because of the type of packet - only the quantity being sent.

    But what if this trickles to businesses? That's likely to be a real concern. The scenario of ISP's offering rival businesses better packages than each other to harm competition in that market is not a pleasant one but it may become a reality. Then it will start affecting people outside of America.
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    #4
    Considering the only argument that can be marshaled by the FCC for repealing Net Neutrality is disingenuous at best, and deliberate deception at worst, it's clear that ISPs should not be allowed to directly or indirectly extort money from the population.
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    #5
    First, I'm a Yank. Sorry about that.

    My ISP has NOT come out in favor of Net Neutrality, and I feel a certain level of dread about the whole thing.

    Media consolidation is the issue here. ISPs will be given the ability to throttle content from competing online sources, or to package their service into tiers based on site access.

    For example, "You have Time Warner Cable/Internet and you want to watch Youtube videos? You'll have to buy the 'Silver Internet Package' to do that. Your kid wants access to Steam? You'll need to tack on the 'Ultimate Gamer Pack' to the already required 'Gold Internet Package'."
    This is how we get our cable/satellite TV.

    There are too many ways that repealing Net Neutrality will be harmful to real people. The poor, people in rural communities, small businesses, and Internet start-ups will all suffer. This is not some "The market will prevent the corporations from doing bad things" situation. The ISPs have already demonstrated that they are willing to limit or even deny access to sites and services if it will boost their profits. That's why Net Neutrality was enacted in the first place.

    Giving ISPs the ability to block, throttle, or package access to the Internet is wrong. It's not cricket.

    Click for examples of what will happen if Net Neutrality is repealed:


    MADISON RIVER: In 2005, North Carolina ISP Madison River Communications blocked the voice-over-internet protocol (VOIP) service Vonage. Vonage filed a complaint with the FCC after receiving a slew of customer complaints. The FCC stepped in to sanction Madison River and prevent further blocking, but it lacks the authority to stop this kind of abuse today.

    COMCAST: In 2005, the nation’s largest ISP, Comcast, began secretly blocking peer-to-peer technologies that its customers were using over its network. Users of services like BitTorrent and Gnutella were unable to connect to these services. 2007 investigations from the Associated Press, the Electronic Frontier Foundation and others confirmed that Comcast was indeed blocking or slowing file-sharing applications without disclosing this fact to its customers.

    TELUS: In 2005, Canada’s second-largest telecommunications company, Telus, began blocking access to a server that hosted a website supporting a labor strike against the company. Researchers at Harvard and the University of Toronto found that this action resulted in Telus blocking an additional 766 unrelated sites.

    AT&T: From 2007–2009, AT&T forced Apple to block Skype and other competing VOIP phone services on the iPhone. The wireless provider wanted to prevent iPhone users from using any application that would allow them to make calls on such “over-the-top” voice services. The Google Voice app received similar treatment from carriers like AT&T when it came on the scene in 2009.

    WINDSTREAM: In 2010, Windstream Communications, a DSL provider with more than 1 million customers at the time, copped to hijacking user-search queries made using the Google toolbar within Firefox. Users who believed they had set the browser to the search engine of their choice were redirected to Windstream’s own search portal and results.

    MetroPCS: In 2011, MetroPCS, at the time one of the top-five U.S. wireless carriers, announced plans to block streaming video over its 4G network from all sources except YouTube. MetroPCS then threw its weight behind Verizon’s court challenge against the FCC’s 2010 open internet ruling, hoping that rejection of the agency’s authority would allow the company to continue its anti-consumer practices.

    PAXFIRE: In 2011, the Electronic Frontier Foundation found that several small ISPs were redirecting search queries via the vendor Paxfire. The ISPs identified in the initial Electronic Frontier Foundation report included Cavalier, Cogent, Frontier, Fuse, DirecPC, RCN and Wide Open West. Paxfire would intercept a person’s search request at Bing and Yahoo and redirect it to another page. By skipping over the search service’s results, the participating ISPs would collect referral fees for delivering users to select websites.

    AT&T, SPRINT and VERIZON: From 2011–2013, AT&T, Sprint and Verizon blocked Google Wallet, a mobile-payment system that competed with a similar service called Isis, which all three companies had a stake in developing.

    EUROPE: A 2012 report from the Body of European Regulators for Electronic Communications found that violations of Net Neutrality affected at least one in five users in Europe. The report found that blocked or slowed connections to services like VOIP, peer-to-peer technologies, gaming applications and email were commonplace.

    VERIZON: In 2012, the FCC caught Verizon Wireless blocking people from using tethering applications on their phones. Verizon had asked Google to remove 11 free tethering applications from the Android marketplace. These applications allowed users to circumvent Verizon’s $20 tethering fee and turn their smartphones into Wi-Fi hot spots. By blocking those applications, Verizon violated a Net Neutrality pledge it made to the FCC as a condition of the 2008 airwaves auction.

    AT&T: In 2012, AT&T announced that it would disable the FaceTime video-calling app on its customers’ iPhones unless they subscribed to a more expensive text-and-voice plan. AT&T had one goal in mind: separating customers from more of their money by blocking alternatives to AT&T’s own products.

    VERIZON: During oral arguments in Verizon v. FCC in 2013, judges asked whether the phone giant would favor some preferred services, content or sites over others if the court overruled the agency’s existing open internet rules. Verizon counsel Helgi Walker had this to say: “I’m authorized to state from my client today that but for these rules we would be exploring those types of arrangements.” Walker’s admission might have gone unnoticed had she not repeated it on at least five separate occasions during arguments.


    Or read this post. It's what I copied above.
    SOURCE: Net Neutrality Violations: A Brief History
    "And when I saw the breadth of my domain, I wept, for there were no more worlds left to conquer."
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    #6
    No.

    The head of America's FCC knows intimately Verizon's interest to remove Net Neutrality regulations as he was once employed by them.

    The internet as America has known it for the past few years is a stable environment that has benefited every consumer from the individual to the corporations (which allow me to negatively remind myself is a person too).