Random Musings

Great, the network neutrality amendment to the new telecom bill was shot down. This means that, for example, ISPs could just arbitrarily decide to not let their customers use Bittorrent (yes, the current bill prohibits ISPs from blocking “legal” sites, but the RIAA and its buddies will probably press Congress to get Bittorrent et al declared “illegal”). Or, they could slow traffic to sites not hosted by them down to a trickle, sort of like what would happen if AT&T decided if calls to non-AT&T customers should have more interference. “Oh, you can get a new ISP”, you say. Not where I live, I can’t. Comcast has a monopoly on broadband in my part of Monmouth County, NJ. ISPs seem to want all the perks of common carrier status but none of the responsibility.

# posted by Dan @ 5:01 PM