This site could potentially become a paid site
 

Get your attention did I? Good. I have to ask, since I haven't seen it posted here, has anyone heard the goings on of the Net Neutrality situation and the FCC? Well, let me explain it for those not aware.

Net Neutrality basically keeps the internet just that; neutral. You pay a fixed price each month and get the entirety of the internet for that price. Well, in a 3 to 2 vote, the FCC just (this last Thursday the 14th) voted to repeal Net Neutrality.

What does this mean for you? This means the ISP's (those people you pay to access the internet, Internet Service Providers) can basically do what they want. This means that they can sell you internet packages for sites to access. You could potentially have to pay $5.99 for social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc. Then another $7.99 for streaming sites such as Netflix and Hulu. Then they could charge you for a "premium" streaming package which includes Youtube and Amazon Prime Video.

Beyond that, let's say you have Comcast for internet (a stretch, I know) and want to use Netflix for streaming all your video needs. Well, since Comcast has there own streaming video service, they *could* either slow down or completely block Netflix forcing you to use there service.

Another potential: Let's say youtube wants you to be able to access there content faster than another site. Youtube could pay Comcast (or AT&T, etc) so there stuff loads faster than their competition. This means small upstart businesses (mom and pop business) can't afford to pay to make there content faster than the bigger sites.

This passed 3 to 2 despite millions of americans speaking out against it. We can all thank Ajit Pai, the head of the FCC board, for getting this going. He is also, big surprise, a former Verizon big time employee who has pushed for this stuff before.

So reach out to your senator, congress, the house, anyone you can and speak up about this. Many states, more every day, are suing over this as it is NOT the will of the people.

Sorry for this rant, but I feel it needs to be heard. Have a happy Cub day all :beerchug:

Not one good thing will result from this. I knew the FCC couldn’t refuse the bribes much longer. I’ve read some about it but thought it was never going to happen.

Sounds like it would be just like current cable and satellite TV services.

Which have been operating like that for how many years?

I see no up roar over not having "pay to see neutrality".

I’m pretty excited to pay more for stuff I already have.
I hope I can get a package Internet deal with at least 200 faster websites I’ll never go to. Then it can be just like Direct TV.

BS...BS... BS! This site was not a paid site two years ago when net neutrality was initiated. I have a hard time thinking of a entity that got better with bureaucratic regulations.

Net neutrality is not what you think it is. Once again Obama and his crew tried to take over (the internet) for government control. We do not need the government running/controlling any kind of businesses. I know people want to bash Trump for being a billionaire. He worked, invested his money and got wealthy, "The American dream". Check the net worth of some past and current politicians. Then tell me how they got the money. Oh and if this site wants to charge a fee it is the owners right. The government can't force them to remain free. You people that want things free or cheap. Who do you think picks up the bill. Look at a phone bill or Power bill and see all the taxes. Nothing in this world is free. Just pay shipping and handling.

These days education is more important than ever. Read, listen and then form an opinion.

From Wikipedia, the presently free web encyclopedia: "A widely cited example of a violation of net neutrality principles was the Internet service provider Comcast's secret slowing ("throttling") of uploads from peer-to-peer file sharing (P2P) applications."

"Comcast did not stop blocking these protocols, like BitTorrent, until the Federal Communications Commission ordered them to stop."

Net Neutrality will have NO effect on OCC. It has been and always will be FREE, and advertiser free also.

:IH Trusted Hand:

Everything will be fine, just relax and B r e a t h. We are an over taxed over regulated nation, one less regulation to burden the average citizen is a good thing.

Roland, I guess I could have worded the title of this thread differently but I wanted to grab some attention. I know you would never charge a penny for this site, that's part of what makes it great. What I meant, however, is that there is now the potential for people to be charged differently for the internet and that to access certain pages could start costing. :beerchug:

Oh yes, the removal of a regulation that keeps big corporations from making more money, censoring sites they don't like, or even blocking competition is a good thing :bigeyes:

I think you were being sarcastic but sometimes I can never tell online :biggrin2:

I'm not picking a political side here as that's a can of worms I don't want to open :biggrin2: That being said, Net Neutrality was adopted during Obama's administration to keep corporations (AT&T, Verizon, Comcast, etc) from throttling peoples internet, blocking sites, censoring things, etc.

And people aren't asking for free stuff here. Obviously people are willing to pay for the internet, that's why it's such a huge issue. But the issue is we should be able to access the whole of the internet, not what one company or another deems ok for us to access.

Again, my wording in the title was a bit of an attention grabber. I know Roland would never charge for this site. My point was that the way we access the internet as a whole will most likely change in the not to distant future. It won't happen over night, but it will happen.

Yes, TV has been operating like that for a long time now which is why TV isn't as popular in the home as it used to be. Streaming services like Netflix, Hulu, and more are what a lot of people are going to (not all, but it's shifting that way). At my household, we do not have or pay for Cable TV services. Everything we do is streaming for many reasons. Now take a look back, when I was growing up, we had an antenna and got all of the TV we could receive for free/one charge. Then they started selling satellite, cable, etc and charging for more and more channels, PPV, etc. Now all I hear people complain about is how big there cable bill is and it irks them. All this in the name of the all mighty dollar, not peoples best interests.

Although this website might never be a pay site, without net neutrality, your internet provider could make you pay them extra to access this site.
Or any other websites that they deem you would be willing to pay extra to access.
Like Amazon or even Google, Craigslist, etc. all could remain "free" websites but you would have to buy certain packages from your IP to get to them.

The websites are not the potential problem, the IP companies are the potential problem.

As I understand it.

See a few examples below of things that happened before/without Net Neutrality. These things can, and did, and will again, happen without this set of reg's protecting us.

https://s26.postimg.org/wnmxw1t8p/ac...y-examples.jpg

And you could very well start seeing things like this when signing up for your next internet package.

https://s26.postimg.org/xon6l6a89/wh...-diagram.0.jpg

where is the OCC package?

:biggrin2: Good point, I didn't catch that :biggrin2:

Anyone who has Obama care knows how effective Big Government is in looking out for the working man. I'm so mad that the Republicans are letting the big companies do what they want with their own property.

I just hope all this deregulation leads to more "made in the USA" products that are more well built, so my local craigslist "farm and garden" section isn't littered with cheap crappy broken down big box store tractors that are all made by MTD. Probably a pipe dream... :BangPC:

I thought this was a paid site!:angry: I've been sending Sam Mac $50 a month for my membership.:bigeyes:

Must be how he affords all those toys.:biggrin2:

There is another way to look at this. If I am willing and able to pay for better service (faster/more bandwidth) should I be allowed to? With "net nutrality" the answer is NO.

If I am allowed to always seek better service then over time everyone's service will improve because the companies have incentive to add better service for the top tier customers which results in the current infrastructure being used by the top tier trickling down to the next tier until the lowest tier infrastructure becoming obsolete. How many people still have dial up?

If ISP's are not allowed to charge top tier customers more there is no incentive for them to improve their infrastructure and over time the system degrades and everyone's service gets worse.

You're missing the point on this one. Right now, since nothings changed yet, you can pay for faster internet and get access to the whole of the internet under that package based on what speed level you can afford. Business's can pay for a business package, etc. But either way, you get all of the internet for that said price.

Now, the potential exists for not only specific sites to have speed prioritization but for them to even block certain sites they don't like. They could also charge you, as pictured on the previous page, for access to certain site packages. The future of the internet has just opened to include limited access to it. No bueno. :beerchug:

I'm all for small government, and de-regulation.

There's a whole lot of "what if" in the pro-government regulation argument. "The ISP's could do this" or "This bad thing could happen" etc.

The game changer is technology. It's moving so fast that a service provider who doesn't do the job is going to be overtaken by tech driven solutions who CAN do the job.

The internet 5 yrs ago worked ok, and didn't need the heavy hand of government to provide an answer to a problem that didn't exist. I'm wary of ANY sort of solution that mandates "we all must be equal". Invariably that means lowering the bar.

Regardless, this is tilting at windmills. Let's see how things work out.

Use your memory fellas, think back to the dawn of cable tv "yes you pay for it but theres no commercials" turned into paying out the rear for more than 50% commercials. It's going to cost us more for less.

And in my town, it lasted all but about 3 or 4 years IIRC, and it was gone.

Conversely, think of $19.99 for AOL at 1200 baud.

:bigthink:

Yeah what an outrage. Getting kicked off all the time because of a noisy phone line. Or someone else in the house picking up a phone. At least they gave away 90 days free.