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posted by cmn32480 on Tuesday May 09 2017, @02:21PM   Printer-friendly
from the public-servants-not-serving-the-public dept.

Common Dreams reports

Last Week Tonight host John Oliver on [May 7] issued another powerful rallying cry to save net neutrality protections, and, repeating the outcome of his 2014 plea, his viewers flooded the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) site, causing it to temporarily crash.

[...] Oliver said it's worth noting that [FCC Chairman Ajit] Pai is "a former lawyer for Verizon", a company which "won a lawsuit which meant that if the FCC wanted strong, enforceable protection, its only real option was to reclassify the ISPs, and yet he cheerily insists under questioning that there is just not evidence that cable companies were engaging in rampant wrongdoing".

"Title II is the most solid legal foundation we have right now for a strong, enforceable net neutrality protections", Oliver said, and urged "we, the people, [to] take this matter into our own hands".

To that end, Last Week Tonight bought the domain name gofccyourself.com, which redirects users to the official FCC page[1] where open internet advocates can leave a comment and call for these protections to remain in place. (Oliver notes that it simplifies the commenting process the FCC "has made more difficult since three years ago".)

"Everyone needs to get involved. Comment now, and then maybe comment again when the FCC makes its proposal official. Even call you representative and your senators", Oliver urged.

So successful was the start of his campaign, according to Motherboard, that there was such a high volume of traffic flooding the Federal Communications Commission that the site temporarily went down. As of this writing, it is up and running again.

[1] The fcc.gov page is almost entirely behind scripts.


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  • (Score: 3, Insightful) by DannyB on Tuesday May 09 2017, @06:43PM

    by DannyB (5839) Subscriber Badge on Tuesday May 09 2017, @06:43PM (#507034) Journal

    Zero rating is evil and should not exist.

    Suppose, let's say, Netflix negotiates a dirty smoke filled back room deal to get Netflix content zero rated on AT&T. Now AT&T subscribers don't pay for bandwidth used to watch Netflix. But Netflix is paying AT&T. And Netflix is going to pass that cost on to its customers.

    If Netflix only passed that cost to its AT&T customers, the scam would be exposed. So as part of the dirty deed, AT&T will require Netflix not to charge AT&T-Netflix customers differently. That means that Verizon-Netflix users are subsidizing the costs of AT&T-Netflix users.

    Now suppose HBO negotiates a nasty deal with Verizon to have HBO content zero rated on Verizon. Now AT&T-HBO users are subsidizing Verizon-HBO users.

    Eventually ever big player will get into bed with every big ISP. All this does is conceal and shift costs around. It doesn't save anybody anything. Why can't I pay Netflix for what they provide me, and pay AT&T for what they provide me?

    If AT&T isn't making enough money because of Netflix usage, then CHARGE ME for that. It is ME that is using that bandwidth, not Netflix. Netflix is paying handsomely on their end of the connection. AT&T should charge me for the bandwidth I use in exactly the same way whether I use Netflix or HBO or something that clueless AT&T doesn't even know about yet.

    Zero Rating also disadvantages new entrants into the streaming video or streaming audio markets. Or streaming anything, really. This kinid of disadvantage hurts innovation. What if a new streaming VR service were to emerge.

    --
    People today are educated enough to repeat what they are taught but not to question what they are taught.
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