Comcast Losses Net Neutrality Case
August 5th, 2008 10:33 AM | by Christen da Costa
My jury (aka my decision) it still undecided on the whole ‘net neutrality’ but I’m glad to hear that Comcast lost it’s case for Net Neutrality today. In short, the FCC ruled that it’s illegal for Comcast to interfere with high-bandwidth peer-to-peer traffic.
My reason for being undecided? I don’t have all the facts. I’d like some empirical evidence proving one way or the other that those downloading large files from P2P sites really screws things up for web surfers like me. At this point, though, I’m ANTI Net Neutrality and here’s why: I recently tested a Netflix Player. In order for me to stream content, especially of that caliber, I needed a reasonably high download speed. If Net Neutrality was imposed I might have had choppy video with long buffering times. Most importantly, though, is that if Comcast and Timewarner got their Net Neutrality, it would be like imposing a passive aggressive monopoly on all visual media going forward, because it would force folks like me to choose Cable over on demand streaming services like Hulu and Netflix.
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November 13th, 2008 at 10:57 am
Well, it looks like the courts are doing a sufficient job in keeping the corporations in line when it comes to free speech on the internet. What should cause everyone great concern is if intermittent abuses by corporations were replaced by government control of the internet. Surely we would all like to have the same people who are “bailing out” the financial industry to define “neutral” on the internet.
November 24th, 2008 at 4:44 pm
Seems like someone has the whole concept backwards. Comcast and Time-Warner are AGAINST Net Neutrality, not FOR it.
If Net Neutrality were imposed, the very situation you described would NOT be possible due to it being illegal for ISPs to “prioritize” connections and make services like Netflix slower. A “Neutral” internet is an internet in which the free flow and non-discrimination of data is promoted.
I believe you have switched the platforms of Deregulation vs Regulation in this scenario.