Net neutrality passed
Posted: Thu Feb 26, 2015 11:25 amSo, it passed along 100% partisan lines (3 dems for, 2 repubs against). No one knows yet what's in the 300+ pages of regulations other than that there's purportedly 700 new regulations that are targeting ISPs and Internet-based businesses. (The exact number of regulations/pages is presently unknown and depends on a number of dubious sources--take it for what it is. Substantial edits have been made to the rules in the time since.)
I'm all for rules that would have prohibited content providers from being charged or throttled unfairly by organizations like Comcast, but the problem is that this debate transformed from something sensible into a "whatever-you-want-let's-add-it-to-this." Further speculation suggests that these regulations also include rules on Internet safety, help for the disadvantaged (this shouldn't be something the FCC deals with), and probably provisions for the NSA to continue doing what they do best. Of these, the "Internet Safety" bullcrap frightens me the most.
I'm also hoping that the FCC's rules haven't indirectly made illegal Quality-of-Service (QoS) and congestion-control protocols by using overreaching language declaring that all packets are created equal: They're not, and doing so will essentially make real time services slow to a crawl if data centers and ISPs can no longer configure their routers to provide priority to time-sensitive packets.
On the other hand, this is also a good illustration of what happens when legislation or rule making is performed on the basis of emotion alone.
I'll post a copy of the regs whenever they're available. Then we can comment on them. According to some commenters on HN and the FCC rulemaking process itself, as I just located, the rules will be published some 30 days after voting to allow for analysis by commissioners and appeals made during the reconsideration period.
I'm all for rules that would have prohibited content providers from being charged or throttled unfairly by organizations like Comcast, but the problem is that this debate transformed from something sensible into a "whatever-you-want-let's-add-it-to-this." Further speculation suggests that these regulations also include rules on Internet safety, help for the disadvantaged (this shouldn't be something the FCC deals with), and probably provisions for the NSA to continue doing what they do best. Of these, the "Internet Safety" bullcrap frightens me the most.
I'm also hoping that the FCC's rules haven't indirectly made illegal Quality-of-Service (QoS) and congestion-control protocols by using overreaching language declaring that all packets are created equal: They're not, and doing so will essentially make real time services slow to a crawl if data centers and ISPs can no longer configure their routers to provide priority to time-sensitive packets.
On the other hand, this is also a good illustration of what happens when legislation or rule making is performed on the basis of emotion alone.
I'll post a copy of the regs whenever they're available. Then we can comment on them. According to some commenters on HN and the FCC rulemaking process itself, as I just located, the rules will be published some 30 days after voting to allow for analysis by commissioners and appeals made during the reconsideration period.