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from the broadband-blockade-benevolently-bypassed dept.
Boing Boing reports
After North Carolina Republicans banned cities selling internet, a town decided to give it away instead
North Carolina is one of many states in which telcoms lobbyists have gotten the state house to ban towns and cities from selling high-speed internet to the public--even in places where the cable/phone duopoly refuses to supply broadband.
FCC Chairman and decidedly non-dingo babysitter Tom Wheeler pushed through FCC rules invalidating these state laws, only to have Republican lawmakers and telcoms lobbyists use the courts to win back the right to force people to buy internet service from cable or phone companies, or do without if neither wish to supply internet to them.
The town of Wilson, North Carolina was one of the places whose municipal fiber ISP was threatened by the court decision, but after a close read of the rule, they've decided that since they're only banned from selling broadband, they can safely give it away for free. Wilson is offering free broadband to people outside the town limits, whose rural homes are not adequately served by Big Telco, and who were hammered hard by Hurricane Matthew.
The plan is to offer the service for free for six months and hope that during that time the state legislature--the same one that passed the awful, nonsensical "bathroom bill"--will come to its senses and strike down the ban on municipal internet service. Lotsa luck.
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Town Loses Gigabit Connections after FCC Municipal Broadband Court Loss
FCC Considering Action on Municipal Broadband State Laws
(Score: 4, Informative) by tekk on Monday October 31 2016, @02:07PM
NC Resident. The issue wasn't that businesses were only having 1 bathroom, in fact there is nothing businesses have to do. What happened is that Charlotte, the biggest city in the state and one of the biggest in the Southeast (3rd after Miami and Atlanta I think?) passed a law which explicitly allowed trans people to use their preferred bathroom. This law was passed as a "fuck you" to Charlotte and does the opposite: you must use the bathroom according to your birth certificate's gender.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday October 31 2016, @03:27PM
Which bathroom do I use if my birth certificate says "Intersex", and who is standing guard outside the bathroom checking everyone's birth certificates? Just how badly do these dipshits want government to micromanage everyone's lives?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday October 31 2016, @04:02PM
Just how badly do these dipshits want government to micromanage everyone's lives?
I think 'idiots' would be a better term. Not only are they being hypocritical about 'big' government, the great thing about this law is that, if followed, it will actually create the effect that the people pushing it claim terrifies them.
Do a google image search for 'born woman', and you'll see what I mean. I'd love to see these jack-asses create what they are most afraid of, if only it didn't affect anyone else.
(Score: 1) by kurenai.tsubasa on Tuesday November 01 2016, @03:27AM
Glad somebody else realizes this.
I did that search, and it didn't seem very illustrative for me at least (keeping in mind that Google skews search results depending on things). Sort of guessing at what you were expecting, but I thought this “woman” [mirror.co.uk] was pretty hot!
My image search go-to example of a “man” is Korean pop star Harisoo (sometimes romanized as Harisu).
Somehow in the RWNJ bizarro world I wind up being straight, which is ok I guess. Nothing wrong with being straight!
(Score: 1) by tekk on Monday October 31 2016, @09:00PM
One of the many complaints about the bill :)