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The End of the Internet

Started by dalebert, September 16, 2008, 06:33 PM NHFT

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dalebert


Jared


memenode

This net neutrality BS is beginning to piss me off. I was a former supporter of that, prior to becoming a voluntaryist, and I gotta say that thing is just positively deceptive to the core! Most people have embraced the idea wholeheartedly and pretty much nobody sees that they're handing over the last bastion of the free market, a totally new world developed through the advance of digital technology, in the hands of the government.


dalebert

Like any other lobbying effort for new policy, follow the money. Content providers, particularly those with high bandwidth streaming video like Google and YouTube (which I think are now the same) are looking to prevent service providers like cable companies from offering streaming video packages. The cable companies would likely want to expand the bandwidth they offer to people dramatically and devote a portion of that bandwidth to their own streaming video package. That way they can provide a more reliable service and can afford the extra bandwidth it would require to make it worthwhile by charging people who want the fancy streaming video package. Meanwhile, the content providers would LOVE to make it illegal for them to devote some portion of their bandwidth to their own services, purely according to the demands of their customers. In other words, that extra bandwidth, which would probably mean more bandwidth for everyone, will be delayed at the very least and EVERYONE would share the cost instead of the people who want all the fancy crap. It would make Internet more expensive for everyone than it otherwise could be and it means Google can offer streaming video packages cheaper and on the backs of users, even those who don't use it, because everyone is having the divy up the cost of extra bandwidth that they may not even want.