Net Neutrality is in Danger!

[ChaosMageX]

First, I apologize if this is in the wrong forum or if it contains subject matter that shouldn't be posted on this forum since it could be considered political in nature.  If either is the case, please move this topic to the appropriate forum or delete it entirely.  I just felt that this issue is serious enough that it needed some signal boosting here so that as many people as possible can become aware of it and try to do something about it.  I wish I had heard about it sooner so that I could have started signal boosting it sooner.

Short TL/DR Version:
Basically, about a week ago a key law in the FCC that ensures Network Neutrality was struck down by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.  If something isn't done, your ISP could FUBAR not just your ability to access websites, but also just about anything and everything you do over the internet.
You can help stop this by signing petitions to get the FCC to reclassify ISPs as "common carriers" in telecommunication service, particularly the one below:

https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/restore-net-neutrality-directing-fcc-classify-internet-providers-common-carriers/5CWS1M4P

Those who want to do more can find and sign as many petitions as possible, signal boost this information and a link to the above petition wherever possible, and contact their congressman to notify them of this issue and prompt them to do something to fix it.

For those who want read more about why they should be concerned about this and try to do something about it, here is a longer version that I have taken the time to copy (including duplicating links) from the Tumblr post that informed me about it:

Net neutrality is dead

At least that's the verdict of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, which today struck down a Federal Communications Commission (FCC) order from 2010 that forced Internet service providers (ISPs) like Verizon, AT&T, Comcast and Time Warner Cable to abide by the principles of network neutrality. These principles broadly stipulate that ISP network management must be transparent, and that ISPs can't engage in practices that block, stifle or discriminate against (lawful) websites or traffic types on the Internet.

That's the bare bones story, wrapped in ugly acronyms (FCC, ISP, etc.). But why should you care that network neutrality ("net neutrality") may be gone for good?

1. No more net neutrality means ISPs can now discriminate against content they dislike.

Everyone gets their Internet from an Internet service provider — an ISP like AT&T, Verizon, Comcast or Time Warner Cable. Under net neutrality rules, these ISPs have to treat all content you access over the Internet "roughly the same way" — they can't speed up traffic from websites they like or delay competitor's traffic.

Now, with net neutrality gone, ISPs can discriminate, favoring their business partners while delaying or blocking websites they don't like. Think your cable CEO hates free online porn? Now you'll know for sure!

2. No more net neutrality means ISPs can now force websites to PAY for faster content delivery.

You know how some sites you go to just load slower than others? Usually, that's just because the slower site is image heavy, poorly coded, or dealing with intense server load. But with net neutrality gone, ISPs can now start charging hefty fees to websites that want quick content delivery — shifting the long load times to poorer sites that can't pay up.

Prefer indie retailers to Amazon.com? You may be in for a frustrating future.

3. Destroying net neutrality is bad for small businesses.

Put together items one and two and it becomes clear — negating net neutrality is bad for small businesses. If ISPs force website owners pay for faster load times, tiny retailers and personal websites will be the ones to suffer from slower content delivery.

Alternately — or additionally — ISPs will have no reason not to favor partner sites: Time Warner Cable, for instance, might favor the website of CNN (owned by the Time Warner Corporation) over the websites of competing cable news networks MSNBC and Fox News. Still, it's the indies again that will lose out here. While Time Warner Cable might favor CNN and Comcast MSNBC, independent news networks almost certainly won't get special treatment from any ISPs. Expand this out to music sites, web publishing, etc., and you begin to see the problem.

In extreme cases, ISPs may hinder or block content that isn't produced by partners — much like AT&T did when it owned the telephone networks back in the day.

4. Without net neutrality, entire types of online traffic (like Netflix) may be in jeopardy.

Netflix watchers and BitTorrent users might want to beware — soon your beloved services may not work like they used to. Now that net neutrality's down for the count, ISPs can discriminate against entire types of traffic: For instance, an ISP could slow or block all peer-to-peer file sharing, or all online video streaming.

Think it sounds unbelievably stupid for an ISP to stifle a certain traffic types indiscriminately? Comcast has seen reason to stifle both streaming video and peer-to-peer in the past.

From an ISP's perspective, discriminating against some traffic types makes business sense: Many ISPs are also cable television providers, which means the "cord-cutting" enabled by peer-to-peer and streaming online video isn't good for their bottom line.

5. Without net neutrality, your ISPs can make even more money without actually improving the Internet.

Right now, America's broadband is slow. It's slow because ISPs can already make gobs of money by charging the rich a ton for high-quality Internet while leaving the rest of America with subpar (or no) service.

Now, with net neutrality gone, ISPs will be able to make even more money off their existing customer base. They won't need to improve service or bring broadband to rural areas because they'll be able to keep growing (financially, at least) by charging content providers more for faster delivery and charging customers more for faster access. In all likelihood, Tuesday's ruling means the problems with America's Internet will be magnified.

QUOTED FROM THIS TUMBLR POST: http://ofpotterandwho.tumblr.com/post/73440064311/important-why-you-should-be-freaking-out-about-the
MADE BY THIS TUMBLR USER: http://ofpotterandwho.tumblr.com/

Here is what I added in my reblog of this Tumblr post, expressing my own worries about this serious issue:

People need to realize just how serious this is, because it might not be limited to just conventional websites you load in browsers over port 80.

What worries me is that ISPs could limit or outright block the bandwidth over many other protocols, not just those used for torrents and streaming video, but also those used by Skype and other VoIP services, MMORPGs and other forms of online gaming, instant messaging and other chat services, and even email services.

It's restriction of Skype and email that worries me the most, since some ISPs might have their own VoIP and email services that they'd like promote over the competition that they can now restrict.

Not only that, but they could force their customers to pay additional premiums and fees to get these protocols unblocked and/or sped back up.  This is where they'd likely target online gaming as well, especially on gaming consoles, rendering the online modes of your new Xbox One and PS4 games extremely slow and practically useless unless you submit to your ISP's greedy whims.

I read the original article and I definitely agree that those who struck down this law are very ignorant of the current ISP market.  Just like with cable television, many people can't switch to a different broadband ISP without outright moving to a different location.  Sure, there are some other alternatives, such as satellite and 3G/4G, but those are often slower and worse in many other ways.

Sorry for such a long rant, but this is a very serious issue and this needs more signal boosting.  I really hope Wikipedia starts signal boosting this issue soon like they did with the original SOPA, because this is just as bad if not worse than that and it could and probably will end up affecting them if it isn't fixed.


If anyone with a Tumblr account wants to help signal boost this issue, here is my Tumblr reblog with all the information above, including the link to the primary petition:
http://chaosmagex.tumblr.com/post/73983936800/important-why-you-should-be-freaking-out-about-the

[llearch n'n'daCorna]

Just as a hint here, you need to clarify which part of the post is _you_ talking, and which part is copied, and hence is someone else talking about "here's what I think"; you may agree, for sure since I know I do, but clarity is important, lest someone take exception to something in there _legally_...

[ChaosMageX]

Just as a hint here, you need to clarify which part of the post is _you_ talking, and which part is copied, and hence is someone else talking about "here's what I think"; you may agree, for sure since I know I do, but clarity is important, lest someone take exception to something in there _legally_...

There, I enclosed the part I copied from the Tumblr post that I didn't write in a quote block and cited the Tumblr post I copied it from.  Is that good enough?

[llearch n'n'daCorna]

Much clearer - it's now obvious that part that I thought was reposted is actually from you, for example. I had thought the break was a couple more paragraphs down.

Thanks for taking the time to straighten it out. Especially thanks for linking to the cite - that's above and beyond, and very helpful.