Net Neutrality

[Denamic]

Network neutrality.
Since it's all in the wiki link, I'm gonna keep it short.
Net neutrality; are you for it or against it?
State your reasoning for the sake of discussion.

 

[Tamichi]

Well since no one who votes can seem to post I guess I'll go.

I'm definitely for Net Neutrality. The Wiki article has gotten a bit long winded with exact explanations so I'll regurgitate based on my understanding. Which in turn should also explain why I'm for it.

By my understanding Net Neutrality is an ideal saying that all data going over the web gets the same priority, and the ISPs must do their best in delivering all IP packets to their destination. Even if the ISP isn't the one you pay for internet access. Sounds Nice...

The recent issues concerning Net Neutrality stem from the desire of ISPs to instead make priority available at a premium. The basic argument of the ISPs is: “The data goes over our network so why can't we charge them for it?”​

This would be an extremely bad thing for a couple of reasons:

1. You already pay the ISPs once to get data for you, once to serve up your data if you have a web site. Now the want you to pay them again so they'll at least try to make sure your data gets where it's going?

2. Every ISP will charge to give priority to your data. Let's say for the sake of argument, that Net Neutrality is dead and ISPs are charging priority premiums. I'm a small website owner paying top dollar to Verizon to give my data packets high priority. Good, but I'm only paying Verizon for that high priority. Once my data packets get routed onto say a Comcast network they get lowest priority, insuring that any of my data going over Comcast networks won't make it because it doesn't get priority. Do a tracert of how you get to your favorite websites and see that the data your asking for usually goes through quite a few different networks. You would have to pay each of those networks to be sure your data gets where it needs to go. Remember now there are tons of different ISPs you'll need to pay for priority to make sure everyone can get your data.

3. Let's say all this happens. Net Neutrality goes away and you need to pay twelve different ISPs to get you data just across your home country (this is a low ball estimate). These extra fees prove too expensive for most small websites and the size of the internet is now shrinking to a few dedicated sites and the sites of fortune 500 companies. Where's 4chan.org? It's dead, couldn't pay the priority premiums. Where's addictinggames.com? It's dead, couldn't pay the priority premiums. Where's shibuyabashi forums? It's dead, couldn't pay the priority premiums. This would be the downward spiral of the internet from a great resource of boundless amounts of information, opinions, and mindless chatter to a crappy selection of a few dull company websites where the only thing boundless is their budget. (At this point I would declare the internet dead.)

 

[Dmitri]

CAPITALISM is the bane of this so-called NET NEUTRALITY. :sigh:

As long as people will race to innovate the better technology in order to sell it for high profits, then such a dream may be impossible. :notagain:

 

[AlucarD0]

sry but i have no ideea what this is all about so i voted for cheese uzzled:
Cheese is GOOD :love:

 

[chompy]

net neutrality is just a buzzword like web 2.0 and it doesn't have any real meaning, just layers of vague.

If the question was "is total freedom on the internet a good thing" i would have to say yes.

 

[AlucarD0]

:defeat: ooooo
ok thx for in the info
so i guess that i should have picked agree in stead of cheese :notagain:
oh well CHEESE IS STILL GOOD :snicker2:

 

[belanna]

I agree with Tamichi's post. Why would you pay additional costs if you want to join in on online gaming? Certain sites such as YouTube and high bandwidth media would cost you more than you're probably paying now. Small websites may only be accessible to the X amount of people with X tier and above. Why limit the internet? It's bad enough cable companies don't have good sense to equalize upstream to the downstream limit. And its also bad enough that you pay your ISP to intercept and read your packets as each packet hops from one router to the other.

 

[Tamichi]

Perhaps for people like Chompy I didn't explain this well enough. The issues surrounding net neutrality right now are about legislature which decides the fate of the internet. This isn't about what you are and aren't allowed to say on the internet, this is about if you pay enough money to be heard.

Net Neutrality summed up tidily says: "All packets are created equal." ISPs want to say “No no, not all packets are created equal, the ones we get paid the most for are the most important and the only ones we really need to provide reliable service to. You don't pay us again and the packets you send probably won't get sent. (Even though you already pay the ISPs for sending your packets.)” Meaning though websites pay ISPs to send their data, and users pay ISPs to receive data, both parties will have to pay again to make sure they get the service they've already paid for once.

You should really learn more about this stuff because if Net Neutrality goes away then 99.9% of all the websites you visit will slowly start to disappear. All that will be left will be corporate sites: Microsoft, MySpace, MTV. All other net content will go away, no more hentai, webcomics, or blogs. Not to mention that a smaller internet is eaiser to police so much of the illegal stuff we love so much will go away too, no more torrents for your warez, no more music pirating, no more scantranslations or fansubs.

Net Neutrality may sound like jargon, and big business wants to make it seem that way so people don't care about it. But it's something anyone who uses the internet should know about.





Edit: Here are some helpful wiki articles to give you a more compleat understanding of the subject.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Network_neutrality_in_the_US
(Yes it's all about the US but this is the best example of how net neutrality laws affect the internet and its users.)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Network_neutrality
(This one could be made into a small text book with little effort. Learn about everything discussed here and consider your self a net neutrality guru.)