February 28, 2015

Thoughts on Net Neutrality

Filed under: News — admin @ 10:51 am

network

Like many controversial issues, it’s difficult to filter out the political noise from the reality. Since President Obama weighed in, the consensus is that if you’re Republican, you hate “net neutrality” and if your Democratic, you support it. Both positions are preposterous.

In spirit, I agree with net neutrality. It means the playing field is level, that big corporations have no pull to prioritize services, create a tiered Internet, or throttle competitors. That all sounds good, but I see many problems.

First, our Federal Government is about control. They will tax the Internet. They will regulate the Internet. The Government is owned by the major corporations, as is our Congress. My observation is that if something is bad for the corporations, it doesn’t become law. Net neutrality is now the law.

Second, with the corporations in charge, eventually you will see higher prices for more selective service on the Internet. You will see favorites. You will see throttled service. You will see fewer options. Michael Powell at C|net also sees these things; click the article link below.

Third, the corporations are about profits for shareholders. That seems to be their mission statement, above providing whatever service spawned the corporation in the first place. Together with the force of government, I don’t believe things bode well for the future of the Internet and individuals like you and me who have come to rely upon it.

Fourth, consider the term “net neutrality.” It used to mean one thing. Now it means another. That’s because the Feds and their owners in big corporations have successfully hijacked the term. In the end, my opinion is that it’s all bad news.

C|net

2 Comments

  1. Governments love to take the fun out of anything useful to general public 🙁 And if they can find ways to tax it too, even better for them! and eventually wrap it all up in enough red tape that no-one will ever be able to unravel it again much to the delight of future governments. However it goes, one thing’s for sure, we’ll end up paying a lot more for a poorer service 🙁

    Comment by coder — March 3, 2015 @ 11:52 am

  2. I agree, coder. Still, who didn’t see this coming?

    Comment by admin — March 3, 2015 @ 12:03 pm

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