Now I may have some conservative view points, but I"m not what you would call conservative. I was always made nervous by the direction and course laid out by the democratic party and Obama's inauguration because of it. I always thought that there was SOMETHING about President Obama i didn't (I write President Obama to remember how unhappy I was to write 'president bush'), trust or like, something that made me nervous or feel that this man could possibly be a threat to the American way. I assumed it was Health Care Reform, but I wasn't sure. I now have identified what it is.
Read the article. It states that the classification of the internet is going to be changed by the Obama Administration so that the internet falls under the control of the FCC. I think i see Big Brothers' just over the horizon.
Oh also, Obama admin just passed a law requiring full disclosure to the government of all businesses' financial transactions. There are bigger threats to freedom coming down from Washington every fucking day.
Do you think that maybe that's happening because of all the money that those corporations are making and not paying taxes on? But you know, if you would rather have to pay more money to the government because the rich fucks running those corporations can't afford their shiny solid gold parachutes without cheating on taxes and paying nothing, then go ahead and bitch about it.
I'd rather have the free market decide. OMG EVIL MEN IN SUITS, MADE MUCH PAYCHECK also get their money from the decisions of normal people. The government does whatever the fuck it wants, and it always wants more power. Private interests just want to please customers. At some point, it stops being Evol Coproate Entitie doing the mischief, and becomes a disinterested socio-financial trend. Whereas the government... is always going to have some bullshit up its sleeve, and that bullshit is always going to be unilaterally determined and unregulated. It takes any decision out of the arena of life and into the arena of politics. How can that be good?
It's not good, but it's less bad. Ketchikan itself is actually a good example, and most small towns/many larger cities are in the same situation. There is no competition, there is no alternative, and it is a necessary service, not a commodity. One company holds complete control over access to the largest and most important information service ever, and until now was able to edit/block that access. That is unacceptable.
tl;dr internet is closer to a utility, market crap doesn't really apply
one quick other thing: what company have you ever heard of that was formed not to make money but "just to please customers"? pleasing customers is a sometimes profitable endeavour, and when it's not, companies don't. this isn't me thinking companies would filter stuff etc, they already do and this is in response to that.
I'd say being controlled by other people sucks regardless. But private interests controlling you are always going to be better, because they're private. If there's such a thing as a necessary evil, they're it. The government is a gratuitous evil disguised as a benevolent god.
In this particular case, private interests are in a position with more power and less accountability than the government would be. There is no competition and no possibility of it. Even though you believe competition would naturally regulate it well enough, that doesn't matter in this case. There is none, and no possibility of there being any. Rights to necessary infrastructure are held by one company almost everywhere. Right here in Ketchikan, GCI is in sole control of our line off the island. KPU just leases bandwidth from them.
This time, the terrifying, irresistible might of the U.S. Government is at least for the moment on my side, crushing something that actually deserves it.
The FCC took "control" of the internet to preserve Net Neutrality against the wishes of large telecom companies like Time Warner. This is one rare example of government control being a good thing. They will not be "filtering content". They will be keeping ISP's from doing just that, and a few other nasty things they've been trying to put in place for the last few years.
Did anyone look at any sources at ALL that weren't business news? Or even any other sources than this one article? Bad thing for stock dudes wanting to suck out your delicious financial juices != bad thing for everyone.
The impression I got from this wasn't that FCC control is an immediate threat, but rather that it opens the door for possible abuses by corporate lobbies or right-wing politicians in the future.
I'm not too worried, though. If things get that bad, there will be a public outcry that will make this year's health care shitstorm look like a friendly discussion, and the government will be forced to repeal it.
The FCC taking control is in response to the threat (and the public outrage it created) of high-level telecom companies and ISP's filtering content themselves in a whole variety of nefarious ways. Many if not most companies already do stuff like this. Certain types of traffic are throttled, certain content blocked, all sorts of things of that nature. It's been happening for ages. 2003 is the earliest I can remember anything about it, but I'm sure it was an issue long before then. It's just gotten bad enough recently that the FCC finally decided they had to do something about it, I guess. Here's a summary of their statement on it: http://bit.ly/dxadfZ
Honestly I am still kind of dubious seeing in the past the FCC has been an organization so bad soccer moms can put their ritalin laden child infront of the TV and not have to worry about anything slightly dirty.
But you've obviously done more research on the matter then I have so if you say that is your intention I will believe you (no this is not sarcasm).
They will be filtering content in a similar way that they do with TV probably as in certain content can only be accessed at certain kinds, out right blocking a lot of the shock sites or more extreme sites (for once I hate to break the rules but in this case sites like 4chan). AKA internet won't totally be access free like it is now, we will have filters in that say where and where we can't go and possibly when and not we can go to these sites.
I get your being out of the loop on drug stuff, but what's your excuse here? This is directly related to things you do, and you've still got it 100% backwards.
Depending on the effect and over-reach (if say Australia's current level) brb moving to either Japan (some internet laws but nothing too harsh) or Canada.
The potential for an internet Big Brother is there, but our government is not China's, and the FCC is never going to become much more relevant than it is right now. Big Brother potential lies in private companies; the WSJ writer doesn't understand it, (for obvious reasons), but his article shows that Google is using the government, not the other way around.
Honestly, I'm not too afraid of this getting out of control during Obama's rule (yes, rule.) At least I'm trying to be optimistic about that, but I suppose as that article states, in the years to come, what will the conservatives/religious (yeah, they can go in the same category in my book, parenthesis) do with that power? Not good.
...and before you say anything about ignorance or anything... Just think about it...
No matter what you like, there will probably be a political/religious organisation against it throughout all of time. Anything you like will always have a risk of being taken away by the group that just so happened to either have enough voice, or. MONEY... to get your thing banned/fucked with.
Will we ever win? Probably not. Will they ever win? Possibly.
Why the fuck do you think to this day I participate in debates against, and argue adamantly with religious folk? They want to turn anyone that's not them into 2nd class citizens.
Debate isn't about arguing. It's about spreading awareness on both sides of the issue. Debate isn't usually meant to meter out change for any topic but rather increase the lucidity of the public on the topic. All you have to do is something towards the end you'd prefer and you can say (in a minimal amount) that you've worked for a cause you believe in, rather than retire into the same, tired idea that the world is broken and we can't do anything about it.
As for the internet, Catalyst you know the immensity of it. Even if the doomsday scenario plays out, the web is crowd-sourced to the max and I think that if the government tries to leash the contributing masses in some Orwellian fashion, it will result in a massive backfire like the prohibition of booze in the 1920's.
Login to post a comment...
34 Comments
Statistics
Recent Activity
Minecraft! (87 day)
