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The Internet Your Rights Online

Dutch Net Neutrality Law Goes Too Far Say Critics (telegeography.com) 183

An anonymous reader writes: The Dutch Senate has passed the revised Net Neutrality Law as part of an amendment to the country's Telecommunications Act. The strict new law seeks to ensure that telcos and ISPs treat all internet traffic equally and cannot favor one internet app or service over another. Opponents, however, say the legislation, which was approved by the lower house of parliament in May this year, is overly severe and is out of line with the EU's own open internet standards. Afke Schaart, Vice President Europe at mobile industry body the GSMA, commented: 'We are greatly disappointed with the outcome of today's vote. We believe that the Dutch Net Neutrality Law goes far beyond the intent of the EU regulation. We therefore call on the European Commission to ensure the harmonised implementation of Europe's Open Internet rules.' The GSMA says the tighter laws in the Netherlands will 'hinder development of innovative services and consumer choice'.
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Dutch Net Neutrality Law Goes Too Far Say Critics

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  • Must be a good law (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Actually, I do RTFA ( 1058596 ) on Thursday October 13, 2016 @11:37AM (#53069793)

    The GSMA says the tighter laws in the Netherlands will 'hinder development of innovative services and consumer choice'.

    Anytime I read that quote, I imagine its because they don't have any real objection other than "this will cost us money." If they said "this will prevent 5G rollout because X" I would think they had a reason.

    • by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

      Translation: "It's really good for consumers!"

      Kicks 'em right in the profits.

    • The GSMA says the tighter laws in the Netherlands will 'hinder development of innovative services and consumer choice'.

      Anytime I read that quote, I imagine its because they don't have any real objection other than "this will cost us money." If they said "this will prevent 5G rollout because X" I would think they had a reason.

      Given the only reason I don't have a 500/500 connection is because I didn't want to pay 35euro per month I would say the Netherlands can hinder development for a few years and still not drop off the top 10.

  • "Opponents" (Score:4, Informative)

    by freeze128 ( 544774 ) on Thursday October 13, 2016 @11:38AM (#53069799)
    In order to tell if this is a realistic complaint, or just some crazy whining, we need to know exactly who these "opponents" are.
  • by Anon E. Muss ( 808473 ) on Thursday October 13, 2016 @11:40AM (#53069811)

    A group representing psychopaths issued a statement saying that the laws against murder had 'gone too far". They particularly complained that legislators focused primarily on the public interest, and failed to balance those concerns against the needs of killers.

  • by Anonymous Coward on Thursday October 13, 2016 @11:41AM (#53069819)

    Either you shape traffic based on type or not, how can you be tooooo neutral to the type of traffic. Packets are packets. You can't shape delivery and resell the artificial disadvantage you just created as a service. That's double dipping.

    As to trying a reacharound via the EU Commission, yeh we get it, the unelected problem gets more influence from lobbyists than electorates.... if you have a valid argument why can't you argue against it in Holland?

    Manuel Barrosso just joined Goldman Sachs, he undermined EU's privacy, commercial interests and finance. An Elop for the EU, and the mechanism by which these men get to the top isn't anything approaching a democracy.

  • by Empiric ( 675968 ) on Thursday October 13, 2016 @11:44AM (#53069853)

    Objective rules means no opportunity of injection of subjectivity by the regulatory bodies.

    No subjectivity means no opportunity for "rent seeking".

    No rent seeking means no additional power or profit for politicians.

    Therefore, simply "treat all traffic equally" is a definition of Net Neutrality that won't be tolerated.

  • Our. Hearts. Bleed.

    Naaaat!

  • T-Mobile NL is complaining about having a music streaming service (such as Spotify, Deezer, Soundlcoud, Apple Music, whatever) that does not count towards the data cap, and it helps them get users. We also have a lot of these stunts here in Portugal (e.g. for Youtube, Vodafone, Spotify, and even ISP-exclusive services), and this is a good example on why this might seem as "going too far" in their scope: it is affecting their marketing. Honestly, I believe hard measures like this are for the best, as they ul

  • 'hinder development of innovative services...'

    Usually when bullshit like this comes up one can be pretty sure that the nail has been squarely hit on it's head and that the law is exactly doing what it is supposed to do. Perfect.

  • If the primary backlash is from industry lobbyists and their surrogates, the law is probably a good one.

    Wake me up if the EFF criticizes the law.

  • Sadly, you need to prioritize certain types of data over other types of data. For instance, if that bits that make you your cute cat picture show up out of order, late, or need to be retransmitted, it isn't really a big deal. However, if the packets making up your 911 call show up out of order, late, or need to be retransmitted, someone could quite literally die as a consequence. That's why we have things like DSCP marking. Different services, by definition, need to be given priority over other services bas
  • ...if the GSMA doesn't like it.

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