What the Google/Verizon Deal Means for Net Neutrality – and You

[ProfessionalLeftist]

This agreement brings the prospect of a tiered internet closer, with fast premium services prioritised over the 'public internet'

by Mehan Jayasuriya
During the last decade, a battle has been brewing here in the United States. The outcome of this battle could decide who will ultimately control the internet – large corporations or internet users.

The internet was designed to respect the so-called "end-to-end" principle, which places control at the ends of the network with users and ensures that all traffic is treated equally. The upholding of this principle has come to be known as "net neutrality", which has been the status quo for as long as the internet has existed. But as the internet has grown to become the 21st century's most powerful engine for economic growth, internet service providers (ISPs), the middlemen of the internet, have begun greedily eyeing the web, hoping to wring additional fees out of users and content providers alike by instituting a tiered system similar to that of pay TV.

During the last three years, this fight has begun to come to a head. In 2007, the largest American ISP, Comcast, began to block its users from using the BitTorrent file transfer protocol. In 2008, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), the government body that is meant to oversee such matters, ordered the company to stop. In 2010, a court overturned that decision, contending that the FCC did not have the legal authority necessary to punish Comcast. In the wake of this decision and the FCC's subsequent existential crisis, large corporations have begun to devise their own rules. While there's nothing stopping the FCC from placing its authority on firm legal ground, the agency is under tremendous pressure from ISPs to not act.

MORE...

http://www.commondreams.org/view/2010/08/13-10

[KansDem]

1. Oh, wonderful! The Internet's now on track to become the biggest advertiser...

...and catapulter of propaganda, 24 hours-a-day, 365 days-a-year...

And what did Newton N. Minnow say about television in 1961?

But when television is bad, nothing is worse. I invite each of you to sit down in front of your television set when your station goes on the air and stay there, for a day, without a book, without a magazine, without a newspaper, without a profit and loss sheet or a rating book to distract you. Keep your eyes glued to that set until the station signs off. I can assure you that what you will observe is a vast wasteland.

You will see a procession of game shows, formula comedies about totally unbelievable families, blood and thunder, mayhem, violence, sadism, murder, western bad men, western good men, private eyes, gangsters, more violence, and cartoons. And endlessly commercials -- many screaming, cajoling, and offending. And most of all, boredom. True, you'll see a few things you will enjoy. But they will be very, very few. And if you think I exaggerate, I only ask you to try it.

--more--
http://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/newtonminow.htm

[ProfessionalLeftist]

2. and very heavily censored and slanted . just like

Fox and most of the television networks now. We'll have nowhere to get actual news or the truth. Which of course, is the objective. I expect that corprats will own and control the internet just like they do all the rest of the media. And the FCC clearly intends to let them.

[rurallib]

3. Tom Paine weeps

[New Dawn]

4. Kick for truth.

[KakistocracyHater]

5. how could the judge legally redefine the FCC?

the FCC LET the judge, I think so. It should be challenged.