Stories
Slash Boxes
Comments

SoylentNews is people

posted by martyb on Sunday November 02 2014, @12:59PM   Printer-friendly
from the we-all-provide-something dept.

At the Washington Post, Brett Frischmann elaborates on the theory that the continuing flaw with the FCC's Net-Neutrality strategy lies in the perverse distinction between "End User" and "Edge Provider". Succinctly:

The key to an open Internet is nondiscrimination and in particular, a prohibition on discrimination or prioritization based on the identity of the user (sender/receiver) or use (application/content).

and then:

Who exactly are the end users that are not edge providers? In other words, who uses the Internet but does not provide any content, application, or service? The answer is no one. All end users provide content as they engage in communications with other end users, individually or collectively.

...

Think of all the startups and small businesses run from people’s homes on home Internet connections, using WordPress tools or Amazon hosting services. Are they “end users” when they email their friends but “edge providers” when they switch windows to check their business metrics?

This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.
Display Options Threshold/Breakthrough Mark All as Read Mark All as Unread
The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.
  • (Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday November 02 2014, @01:53PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday November 02 2014, @01:53PM (#112403)

    People using a Chromebook or a tablet probably aren't creating any content. Those devices are damn limited. Even sending an email is a pain in the ass, especially on a tablet where there's no keyboard. So most of the time people don't even bother creating anything. They just consume, consume, consume!

    • (Score: -1) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday November 02 2014, @02:06PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Sunday November 02 2014, @02:06PM (#112405)

      Yous right, nigga! When yo comment on Soystain, you ain't cratin' no contents!

      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday November 02 2014, @07:36PM

        by Anonymous Coward on Sunday November 02 2014, @07:36PM (#112462)

        My dear friend from Ferguson, I am using a desktop to write this comment. Therefore I am in fact creating content.

        • (Score: -1, Offtopic) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday November 02 2014, @09:43PM

          by Anonymous Coward on Sunday November 02 2014, @09:43PM (#112484)

          Yo Fool!

          Yous on "teh Internetz" nigga!

          Aint no desktop, and the only chrome is teh shit on mah ride biatch!

    • (Score: 3, Funny) by RamiK on Sunday November 02 2014, @02:16PM

      by RamiK (1813) on Sunday November 02 2014, @02:16PM (#112411)

      I would argue that the quality of literature will rise tremendously if all book authors were to only use tablets with clunky interfaces and painfully slow spell checks and saves.

      --
      compiling...
  • (Score: -1) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday November 02 2014, @02:09PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday November 02 2014, @02:09PM (#112406)

    For sale: asscrack lint.

  • (Score: -1) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday November 02 2014, @02:11PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday November 02 2014, @02:11PM (#112409)

    Praise the LORD

  • (Score: 2) by FatPhil on Sunday November 02 2014, @05:54PM

    by FatPhil (863) <pc-soylentNO@SPAMasdf.fi> on Sunday November 02 2014, @05:54PM (#112448) Homepage
    > In other words, who uses the Internet but does not provide any content, application, or service? The answer is no one.

    If you replace the question with "... but does not provide any novel, useful-to-others, content, application, or service?", then the answer is "most people".

    The ability to bleat like a tardsheep, whilst it may be all "Web 2.0" (spit!) is not *content*, and certainly isn't an application or a service. It's at best "filler", and often isn't even that; its redundancy levels are so high the number of *new bits* is next to zero. But please keep telling the masses that their presence as teat-sucking consumers is valuable, that you want their "comments" and "contributions", so you can project more nice adverts onto the backs of their retinae. Or the backs of their skulls.

    Insert XKCD references at will. (202, 481, ...)
    --
    Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
    • (Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday November 02 2014, @08:22PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Sunday November 02 2014, @08:22PM (#112468)

      It hardly matters whether Comcast's residential subscribers are creating content hosted on facebook, wordpress, or youtube, because that content is not being delivered from the subscribers' connection. Comcast (and all the other ISPs) forbid their subscribers from running servers and thus providing content.

      TFA seems to be based on the disingenuous confusion of "provide" in the sense of create and "provide" in the sense of make available. In no reasonable sense does writing a wordpress blog or a solylent comment mean that you "provide any content, application, or service over the Internet" or "provides a device used for accessing any content, application, or service." Edge providers are clearly intended to be publishers/distributors of content, and not the authors of said content. The ridiculousness of TFA's position is, perhaps, best illustrated by this quote:

      Some people find content delivery networks like Akamai confusing. I don’t understand the confusion, to be honest. Akamai is an end user.

      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday November 02 2014, @09:53PM

        by Anonymous Coward on Sunday November 02 2014, @09:53PM (#112486)

        Akamai is an end user.

        given that millions of people receive content from Akamai and not the original content provider, i would have thought Akamai was the edge provider

        its only an end user when it scrapes the content from the original host, which is a minor part of their operation