Topic: Obama Declares Internet will be regulated like a utility! Goodbye internet!

[Libertas]

http://www.cnet.com/news/president-obama-calls-on-fcc-to-keep-internet-free-and-open/

Once again, when a statist douchebag says things like "free" and "open" it means the opposite, it means it will be "free" for the non-productive dregs of society and subsidized by those who are productive and that the government will be "open" to punishing those it determines are not following their sure-to-be-insane rules...

Cruz calls it "Obamacare for the internet" but it way worse than that, that just describes the initial ill economic effects, the real kicker is the restricted freedom of speech and freedom of commerce to quickly follow.

Soon, it will be time to be neither productive or peaceful...

[AlanS]

Once again, when a statist douchebag says things like "free" and "open" it means the opposite......

Funny how that always works out. Like "Affordable" health care.

[Libertas]

Once again, when a statist douchebag says things like "free" and "open" it means the opposite......

Funny how that always works out. Like "Affordable" health care.

Designed obfuscation...

We normals call that "lying"...   

[richb]

How to turn something useful,,,,, that could evolve into something far better into the next pet rock.   A fad that fades because if it continues to be the way it is,  people will lose interest and move on to something else.    Maybe my one computer science professor who thought the internet (yes really,  he thought mice were fads too) would be a passing fad was right after all.

Regulate it like a utility,  and it will turn into one.   And we know how well that worked out for other over regulated utilities.  Expensive,  unchanging,  cr*ppy, dominated by a few big players and anti-consumer.   

It will be like radio.   I will do a write up how  radio back in the 1910-20's turned from something very much like the early days of the internet into the being dominated by a handful of corporations.

[Pandora]

I will do a write up how  radio back in the 1910-20's turned from something very much like the early days of the internet into the being dominated by a handful of corporations.

I'm very interested in reading that, so, do.

[Weisshaupt]

I will do a write up how  radio back in the 1910-20's turned from something very much like the early days of the internet into the being dominated by a handful of corporations.

I'm very interested in reading that, so, do.

While I don't dispute that what Obama  is planning is likely to make things worse,  the last mile connection for most people is already a regulated entity - either a legacy DSL telco or a cable provider.  Most  long haul back bone providers are also legacy LD providers.. and while that side of their business is unregulated,  it probably introduces more problems than it helps - as they often make use of regulated services ( fiber owned by the regulated side of the house)  - and all of it is pretty much already in the hands of a few very large companies.

I think this is mostly about forcing their way into more surveillance ability than it is anything else.

[warpmine]

Well folks, you knew this would come after he became more of a lame jackass. He had to conceal it in typical Obama fashion until "after the election" when he had more "freedom" to do whatever the f**k he wants.

Makes all the sense in the world when he decided to make those recess appointments and speaking of those whatever happened after the court ruled he acted unconstitutionally?

[Libertas]

I will do a write up how  radio back in the 1910-20's turned from something very much like the early days of the internet into the being dominated by a handful of corporations.

I'm very interested in reading that, so, do.

While I don't dispute that what Obama  is planning is likely to make things worse,  the last mile connection for most people is already a regulated entity - either a legacy DSL telco or a cable provider.  Most  long haul back bone providers are also legacy LD providers.. and while that side of their business is unregulated,  it probably introduces more problems than it helps - as they often make use of regulated services ( fiber owned by the regulated side of the house)  - and all of it is pretty much already in the hands of a few very large companies.

I think this is mostly about forcing their way into more surveillance ability than it is anything else.

I think you are missing the huge control angle though, regulation tends to stifle content.

All that aside, working the end game...

Best people start thinking short wave radios and old school OSS techniques of communication, eh?

[Libertas]

Well folks, you knew this would come after he became more of a lame jackass. He had to conceal it in typical Obama fashion until "after the election" when he had more "freedom" to do whatever the f**k he wants.

Makes all the sense in the world when he decided to make those recess appointments and speaking of those whatever happened after the court ruled he acted unconstitutionally?

There is very little info available after the June 26th announcement, curious, eh?  It's like nobody gave a damn.  But actually, the Senate Pubbies caved, Obama withdrew the two appointees and reinserted different ones, this deal cut because of Reid's threat to deploy the nuclear option.  The most eggregious thing about this (besides Pubbie spinelessness) is outside of two rulings, I cannot tell if anything else these two jackasses impacted was overturned or revisited.  Anyway, this is what happens when you have a rogue regime running roughshod over the Constitution on a per-second basis, there is so much lawlessness going on it is hard to focus on any one issue at a time!

   demons!

 

[warpmine]

Well folks, you knew this would come after he became more of a lame jackass. He had to conceal it in typical Obama fashion until "after the election" when he had more "freedom" to do whatever the f**k he wants.

Makes all the sense in the world when he decided to make those recess appointments and speaking of those whatever happened after the court ruled he acted unconstitutionally?

There is very little info available after the June 26th announcement, curious, eh?  It's like nobody gave a damn.  But actually, the Senate Pubbies caved, Obama withdrew the two appointees and reinserted different ones, this deal cut because of Reid's threat to deploy the nuclear option.  The most eggregious thing about this (besides Pubbie spinelessness) is outside of two rulings, I cannot tell if anything else these two jackasses impacted was overturned or revisited.  Anyway, this is what happens when you have a rogue regime running roughshod over the Constitution on a per-second basis, there is so much lawlessness going on it is hard to focus on any one issue at a time!

   demons!

 

Oh yes, I be 'member'in now. It be dat nucular option thingy. One more reason that Reid needs to hang.

[richb]

Here is the history of early radio that I promised.
We are seeing the same things with the internet today,  that happened with the radio airwaves.

About a hundred years ago now, radio was in its infancy, much like the “world web web” (when was the last time someone called it that?) is now. Everyone jumps on the bandwagon. The little guy of course, were the innovator and the early adopter. Most big companies, of course being big companies, really didn’t know what to do with this new tech as it developed and were on the sidelines for the most part. Looking on with “concern” as most big businesses are when there is a new thing that could threaten their place in the world.

Back then you didn’t need a license from the “government”, you just assembled the necessary equipment you needed and you were on the air as a radio station. Which is not that much, probably not a whole lot more then it costs to have a computer and website is today. So many individuals, churches, colleges, small businesses, organizations and whomever had the motivation to do it started broadcasting.

Yup, it was a bit chaotic, disjointed, free spirited etc. It was probably exciting, local, innovative and a lot of fun to boot. Most stations didn’t broadcast 24/7 as they didn’t have the content or the people to run them “professionally”. Most probably never made dime one. Many probably never gave making money at it a second thought either. It was new and exciting.

Of course stations would interfere with each other. There is only so much frequency to go around (like bandwidth is today). Most stations only broadcast a few miles, but some stations were so powerful they could be heard nearly nationwide (yes really!). So there were disputes over favored frequencies and of course the interference.

And that is what gave the federal government and its big business crony’s the excuse it needed to come in a regulate the little guy out of the radio business. Yes, at that point it had become a business. As you know, they were completely successful in pushing the little guy out, unless you consider citizen band radio, which doesn’t provide a single person a way to make a living.

“We have to clear the airwaves of the chaos” they claimed! We have to stop the fights and disputes, and get these unprofessional people off “our” airwaves! Note, that they used the word “ours” to describe the airwaves. As in the public ownership of the “limited” airspace of course regulated and licensed by the,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,federal government. Surprise surprise………………

Of course who were the only people who could “afford” the licenses?

You know the answer to that question.

Only a handful of those early stations exist today (mostly those small college radio stations, ever wonder why colleges have radio stations? That’s why). Most other stations were off the air by the 1930’s. One holdout fled to Mexico and broadcast a very strong signal over the border (which could be heard nearly nationwide), but that didn’t last long.

On the subject of “limited” airspace. Yes, there is only so much frequency for radio. But its not THAT limited. NBC had so many radio stations in operation they couldn’t manage it, so (after they got everyone else thrown off) they had to split into two networks, known as “NBC Red” and “NBC Blue” (NBC Blue later became the ABC network).

History, since no one really knows it well, repeats itself. The more things change, the more they stay the same.

The same thing is now happening with the internet. Yes, there will someday be licensing for internet sites or something like it, and most of us will not be welcome in that world. The internet will become one sided like radio, TV and print media is today.   Yes,  one day "its about liberty dot com" will be shut down because we won't be able to comply with some regulation that they will come up with.

They get away with it because they have managed to make the majority fear the free market.

And us little guys will be looking for the next big thing……….

[Libertas]

We'll go back to radio, broad spectrum, beamed right from space...in fact we might have to live in space to be free of statist control!

It'll be like MST3K, but hopefully with more people...and better programming.