Net neutrality: round 2

Some time ago there was a ground swell of fierce opposition against the SOPA and PIPA bills. Those bills threatened the very foundation of the internet and were (kind of) struck down because of the outcry.

Now we're in round 2 of the battle and I don't see half the movement I saw rise against SOPA and PIPA. I bet the media and cable provider are lobbying harder than ever to kill net neutrality permanently. The FCC could reclassify ISPs so they have to comply with net neutrality but they won't unless we force them to.

We get one shot at this and it's happening right now. Why is the support so scarce? Why isn't there a second round of shutdown for Wikipedia, Reddit and others?

The escapist wrote a great piece on the issue recently, you should read it

Ding, ding motherfuckers.

@patrickklepek: do you intend to revisit this issue?

Here is a pretty straightforward way to explain the issue:

- Netflix pays its Hosting and ISP a fee for so much bandwidth to do whatever it is they want to do, which just happens to be a business based upon streaming digital video.

- I pay my ISP a fee for so much bandwith to do whatever it is I want to do with it. Sometimes that is watching Netflix. Sometimes it is surfing Giantbomb.com.

What this fast lane garbage is trying to do is have a middle man say "Wait a minute, I need to charge Netflix and the end user (me) more for them to transfer stuff because 'it is expensive'". What is really going on is that these companies want to promote their services (both consumer and industrial) and demote others. If it really was an issue of capacity or miss-pricing on bandwidth they'd raise rates. No they can handle the bandwidth just fine because their own services seem to be immune.

The time is now!

Most US consumers have no option to vote with their wallet. I'm super lucky to have some major competition in my area, but most people can't say the same.

Until consumers get true competition, the large companies will have their say because they can afford to buy legislation that favors them.

Arghhhh, so frustrating that we have to fight this over and over and over.

I feel like the ISPs are going to do this every year until they eventually sneak it through.

I feel the US is doomed to some corporate run cyberpunk future, then we'll drag the rest of the world with us, till climate change "ends" the world and its post apocalypse stuff till mankind recovers. I'm not all tinfoil hat wearing type guy, but come on, it seems kinda obvious its coming slowly but surely. Hopefully someone less apathetic than me stops them.

As much as I would love to deny Comcast and co of being able to cap speeds, I don't live in the US and to be honest don't know what else I can do other than sending e-mails to my politicians in Canada.