Net Neutrality And You

re: Net Neutrality And You

Ben S. — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 21:44:46 GMT

OK, I honestly don't know much about Canada's situation, so that could be a fair comparison.

Interestingly enough, I just did a product search on Google. I couldn't remember the name of her book, so I just put in "Sarah Palin". When sorted by "Relevance", which is the default, the book actually written by her doesn't show up in the first 20 pages, at which point I remembered the title (it's "Going Rogue") and I gave up.

I know it's a slightly different issue, but where are the Net Neutrality people complaining about the liberals at Google clearly modifying the common sense search results to point to stuff that denigrates Sarah Palin rather than her only actual retail product? All bits clearly aren't created equal at Google. Do we need to craft legislation to make them be fair in their search results?

Perhaps surprisingly, I don't think so. If they want to have ridiculous and irrelevant results for a political purpose, that's their right as a private company.

re: Net Neutrality And You

BenM — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 21:24:25 GMT

Whoops! Bad editing. I added the China line after writing the paragraph. "They" == "Canada." Canada has what seems to be the internet freedom act.

re: Net Neutrality And You

Ben S. — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 21:15:09 GMT

Are you seriously comparing the Internet Freedom Act to the Communist Chinese lockdown of the internet? I can't think of two things that could be more different.

Get the government in on something and I guarantee you they will start meddling. That's their track record.

re: Net Neutrality And You

BenM — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 20:02:26 GMT

Thanks for the comment BenS. Two things: 1) Comcast has already tried to block/degrade BitTorrent traffic but were told they couldn't by the courts. So yes, they are trying already. 2) The main country I was referring to was not China, Cuba, etc but Canada. I don't think anyone argues that we should have what China does. They do an large amount of traffic shaping/filtering already backed by what is basically their equivalent of the "internet freedom act."

The bottom line is that this bill doesn't give government the right to filter the Internet. It says that NO ONE can filter the internet. All this talk about the government shutting down your website because of this bill seems like nothing more than scare tactics and FUD.

re: Net Neutrality And You

Ben S. — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 19:04:12 GMT

Hi Ben! I'm one of those ones who made the argument, "the company paid to lay the cable, so they should be allowed to do what they want with it."

I understand that "really gets you" but consider this: that's a fundamental underpinning of private property. If you purchase a shed so that you can store your stuff in it, should I be allowed to just walk in and put my stuff in it too? Maybe I have junk in my yard that needs storing. See? It's a "public good" to all of our property values if I get the junk our of my yard. As such, you must let me use your shed.

I dunno, for my part, I'm going to defend private property rights here.

Another thing... you paint a slippery slope saying "couldn't the telcos block this or block that if they wanted to?" Sure, I suppose they could. So the question you have to ask yourself is: Why *aren't* they already? (Or if they are, why is the perceptible difference in net traffic minute and ultimately immaterial?) Because there competition isn't doing it, that's why. Because they would lose more customers and revenue from putting arbitrary restrictions in place than they would from allowing you and I to go to any site we want to go to.

Finally, you speak of how this has already happened in "other countries." You're right it has - as a direct result of the government regulating the use of the internet. Everywhere you see a nation that can't get to any and every web page they want to you see a government behind the reason that page is inaccessible. China, Cuba, countless Middle Eastern countries, Scandinavian countries - the story is always the same. It's the government blocking access, not the telcos.

Ultimately, while I completely understand what you want as the goal, this Net Neutrality stuff will achieve the exact opposite.

re: Net Neutrality And You

Melanie — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 17:06:55 GMT

Wow...nice change of pace coming from a conservative. I thank you for putting this out there and shedding some light for those who may be misled by the so-called Internet Freedom Act.

My heart is full and cheers to you.

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