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Communications United States Your Rights Online

Net Neutrality Rules Die on April 23 (theverge.com) 237

The Federal Communications Commission's net neutrality rules will be no more in two months, as the agency takes the final step in removing the regulation from its rule book. From a report: The date -- April 23 -- was revealed today after the Federal Communication Commission's order revoking net neutrality was published in the Federal Register. You can read the full order here. The publication means that a new fight around net neutrality is about to begin. States and other parties will be able to sue over the rules -- some have already gotten started -- and a battle in Congress will kick off over a vote to reverse the order entirely. While that fight likely won't get far in Congress since Republicans by and large oppose net neutrality and control both chambers, there will likely be a long and heated legal battle around the corner for the FCC's new policy. The FCC's new rules are really a lack of rules. Its "Restoring Internet Freedom" order entirely revokes the strong net neutrality regulations put in place back in 2015 and replaces them with basically nothing. Internet providers can now block, throttle, and prioritize content if they want to. The only real rule here is that they have to disclose if they're doing any of this.
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Net Neutrality Rules Die on April 23

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  • by 110010001000 ( 697113 ) on Thursday February 22, 2018 @10:53AM (#56169577) Homepage Journal
    If you start seeing nginx errors on your favorite websites, you will know you have been affected.
  • by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 22, 2018 @10:54AM (#56169579)

    Republican politicians are paid not to understand that utilities such as Comcast and Verizon were heavily subsidized by taxpayers to create the foundation of their service, and hence need to be regulated so that they don't just do whatever the heck they want to make the most coin for themselves.

    And of course it's the same with gun control, with the NRA; with climate change, with the fossil fuel industries; and with food safety, with big agriculture.

    Not saying Democratic politicians are more ethical, but their traditional big money interest (organized labor) is frankly dying anyway.

    • And of course it's the same with gun control, with the NRA; with climate change, with the fossil fuel industries; and with food safety, with big agriculture.

      Since Republicans are wrong on all major issues, it's a wonder it hasn't happened already.

    • by ABEND ( 15913 )

      Republican politicians are paid not to understand that utilities such as Comcast and Verizon were heavily subsidized by taxpayers to create the foundation of their service, and hence need to be regulated so that they don't just do whatever the heck they want to make the most coin for themselves.

      And of course it's the same with gun control, with the NRA; with climate change, with the fossil fuel industries; and with food safety, with big agriculture.

      Not saying Democratic politicians are more ethical, but their traditional big money interest (organized labor) is frankly dying anyway.

      The Democrats are now very well funded by big money (remember Hillary's versus Trump's campaign chests?). Think Google/Alphabet or Amazon (Washington Post). The days of labor vs. capital are long gone.

      Since you strayed into "gun control," how many millions of people have been killed by U.S. citizens exercising their 2nd Amendment right to self-defense? Now how many millions of people have been killed by guns wielded by soldiers in the employ of governments? Was the U.S. "Civil War" started by people exe

  • Bill ISPs ? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by psergiu ( 67614 ) on Thursday February 22, 2018 @10:59AM (#56169613)

    If the ISPs are no longer Common Carriers, can i bill AT&T for the use of my land for their buried cable and distribution box in my front yard given that i'm not their customer ?
    $10/day/feet sounds reasonable :)

    • by Ogive17 ( 691899 )
      Sounds good until they show up and just rip out the line.
    • If only I had mod points! +1 Insightful!

      • No it's not. It's uninformed drivel. It's about as insightful as a potato.

        Easement does not require common carrier status.

    • Never heard of easements?

      You don't have to be a customer for someone to be able to use your land for a specific purpose. You don't have to be common carrier to have an easement claim. I have had wire buried in my neighbors yard. I didn't have to ask. They didn't have a right to stop me or the company laying the wire. If they destroy the wire the police can be called for destruction of property by the owner of the wire (telecom).

    • Yes, hence why this whole debate is largely overblown.

      With the Obama NN rules, providers got to legally zero rate traffic (eg TMobile/Netflix fast lane) which was effectively at the expense of smaller data generators that couldn't afford the fees, the customer would get charged more for using non-Netflix services.

      Now the carriers have to once again choose between prioritizing paid traffic and losing common carrier status.

      The fact that TWC/Charter/Verizon let their POP at the IX run at 100% capacity hasn't c

  • Mini poll (Score:4, Insightful)

    by rsilvergun ( 571051 ) on Thursday February 22, 2018 @11:14AM (#56169709)
    Is this going to change how anyone votes? Will you be voting against a candidate because of this? Will you vote in a party primary? Will you vote in other elections you otherwise wouldn't (like mid terms) or be voting for the first time in years?
    • Is this going to change how anyone votes? Will you be voting against a candidate because of this? Will you vote in a party primary? Will you vote in other elections you otherwise wouldn't (like mid terms) or be voting for the first time in years?

      No, because even if you do buy into the rhetoric that the sky is falling, this has to be one of the least consequential reasons to suddenly become a single-issue voter.

  • The last mile to my home: *RAGETROLLFACE* RRRRRAWWWWRRR MUH INTERNETZ!!

    PaaS/IaaS/SaaS/APIs: Tell us what to do and we'll go Galt on you/It's our property, just build your own multi-billion dollar platform.

    Considering the fact that we have muncipalities in banjo territory building their own ISPs, makes you kinda wonder if the real area where the net needed to be neutral wasn't further up the stack...

  • Magnet/BitTorrent (Score:5, Interesting)

    by djbckr ( 673156 ) on Thursday February 22, 2018 @11:24AM (#56169773)
    I see this as an excuse for Comcast and their ilk to block Magnet and BitTorrent traffic. Watch that be one of the first things to quit working.
    • by Khyber ( 864651 )

      Considering several high-profile online multiplayer games download and update via torrents, good luck with that.

      • That's the whole point, they'll get paid off by EA Origin and tell Steam to get bent or whatever. If they were only mucking with stuff no one cared about there's nothing for them to gain from it.
        • That's the whole point, they'll get paid off by EA Origin and tell Steam to get bent or whatever. If they were only mucking with stuff no one cared about there's nothing for them to gain from it.

          I think Steam is all direct download.

  • This story is misleading on the date. The congressional review act allows them to repeal the rule within 60 LEGISLATIVE days of Congress receiving the rule (days the chambers are in session), not calendar. The rule can go into effect within 60 calendar days depending on certain criteria, but the review act should be duly noted.

  • by schwit1 ( 797399 ) on Thursday February 22, 2018 @12:53PM (#56170271)

    The GOP says it supports state's rights. Time for them to put up or shut up.

  • Its "Restoring Internet Freedom" order entirely revokes the strong net neutrality regulations put in place back in 2015 and replaces them with basically nothing. Internet providers can now block, throttle, and prioritize content if they want to. The only real rule here is that they have to disclose if they're doing any of this.

    And the FCC's intention is disclosed in the document title, we're just reading it wrong. They're restoring freedom to the ISPs and corporations, not consumers. Bribes, kickbacks and revolving-door jobs for the people in charge of the FCC are more valuable than their tax-payer funded jobs. /cynical

  • One of issues cited by cable providers is the explosive growth in Netflix and other streaming use. The existing system was never designed for this high bandwidth use. It was assumed people would get most video from the cable companies own service and that cable modem would be mostly for static content and short pieces of video, with brief bursts, not continuous high bandwidth streams and so on. So the growth in netflix, in order for cable companies to be able to keep up with demand, and to prevent congestio

    • Why does it matter if it's Netflix, YouTube, Vimeo, online gaming, or downloading photos or audio books? The people who want faster (and more) internet access already pay more. The companies that receive more requests for their content already pay more.

      Net neutrality is an issue of fairness and greed. Without net neutrality Comcast can make Netflix run slowly for their customers because Comcast would prefer you purchase their crappy cable TV package instead. And since Comcast has a monopoly in many places
      • Its true they could offer some tiers that are for burst use and some that are for continuous streaming. The burst plan would allow for burst downloads but would have a throttle algorithm, while a continuous bandwidth plan would be more expensive but have no throttle. The burst plans are for people that dont do a lot of streaming but want downloads and page loads to run fast. None of this requires any destination based rules that would discriminate against one site or another, and would not require an obnox

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