We need an open internet - "That's Bullshit" with Sam Seder

i've lost track of the petitions and pleas and letters and faxes i've signed and sent begging that the internet be allowed to remain open and unconstrained by greedy corporations hell-bent on profits...

the combo of my laptop and rapid, readily available internet access literally makes my current life possible... every few months, i'm on the move, conducting my personal life and my business from different cities, different time zones, different countries and different continents... from the keyboard of my laptop, i shop, make travel arrangements, conduct business correspondence, make phone calls, hold business meetings, keep in touch with family and friends, do my banking, conduct research, post material for students in my classes, keep up with news and current events, and a thousand and one other things that are an essential part of my daily routine... the last thing i need is to have some money-crazed corporation telling me what i can access and what i can't or throwing pay-as-you-go speed bumps in the way of doing what i need to do...

sam seder courtesy of atrios...



capitalism and the profit motive ran amok a long time ago... there's going to come a time - and i predict it will be soon - when there will simply be no more blood money to be squeezed from us turnips peasants...

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In today's editorial on the internet, the NYT actually makes sense

all i can say to this is "amen"...

With the Internet fast becoming the most important communications channel, it is untenable for the United States not to have a regulator to ensure nondiscriminatory access, guarantee interconnectivity among rival networks and protect consumers from potential abuse.

Yet that’s exactly where the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit left us all when it said this month that the Federal Communications Commission didn’t have the authority to regulate the Internet — and specifically, could not force the cable giant Comcast to stop blocking peer-to-peer sites.

The decision, in the words of the F.C.C.’s general counsel, Austin Schlick, undermines the agency’s ability to serve as “the cop on the beat for 21st-century communications networks.” It also puts at risk big chunks of the F.C.C.’s strategy for increasing the reach of broadband Internet to all corners of the country and fostering more competition among providers.

Chairman Julius Genachowski said the commission is not planning to appeal the decision, and is studying its options. The F.C.C. could try to forge ahead with its broadband plan despite the court’s decision. Or Congress could give the F.C.C. specific authority to regulate broadband access.

But the court tightly circumscribed the F.C.C.’s actions. And with Republicans determined to oppose pretty much anything the administration wants, the odds of a rational debate on the issues are slim.

Fortunately, the commission has the tools to fix this problem. It can reverse the Bush administration’s predictably antiregulatory decision to define broadband Internet access as an information service, like Google or Amazon, over which it has little regulatory power. Instead, it can define broadband as a communications service, like a phone company, over which the commission has indisputable authority.

the nyt correctly argues that, since everything is moving into a single pipe, it requires robust regulation... there's no question that the internet is way more than just an information resource... it's my primary communication medium, a medium without which i simply couldn't live my life the way i do now and i know lots of folks who would say the very same thing...

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B-A-A-A-A-AAAD news for the internet

the goddam supreme court... just another bunch of stooges that don't have a clue about what serving the common good means... i'm sure there's dancing in the halls of the executive suites at both comcast and verizon...

A federal appeals court has ruled that the Federal Communications Commission lacks the authority to require broadband providers to give equal treatment to all Internet traffic flowing over their networks.

Tuesday’s ruling by the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia is a big victory for the Comcast Corporation, the nation’s largest cable company. It had challenged the FCC’s authority to impose so called “net neutrality” obligations.

It marks a serious setback for the F.C.C., which needs authority to regulate the Internet in order to push ahead with key parts of its national broadband plan.

why is it that corporations in the u.s. get all the breaks and us poor slob private citizens get absolutely none...? who, may i ask, is looking out for us...? no-fucking-body, that's who...

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