This is how the money flows on the internet.
First, it starts with the people that create stuff.
Then, they put it on the internet so that other people can use it to create more stuff.
As more and more stuff is created, more and more money flows.
When enough money flows from the people that create stuff, then the people that like to tell people where the stuff can be found also start making money.
Finally, everybody pays the ISPs. The ISPs connect to the stuff that makes money. They don’t actually create the money.
That’s why ISPs have lots of money, because the people who make the money give it to them. Why do they give it to them? Are they stupid?
No, they give money to the ISPs as long as the ISPs make it easier and faster for everybody to give them even more money. Sound crazy?
Net Neutrality wants the ISPs to get money from more people over a longer period of time.
So why would the ISPs not want to keep everyone giving them even more money?
The problem is that the ISPs aren’t patient enough to wait for more money. They want their money now, not last in line. But they don’t understand that they aren’t in the connection-making business. They are in the business of making stuff move faster for the connections people create between each other.
That’s how money works. But it seems like the ISPs like pretending they have more friends than money. Well, good-bye money. Then good-bye friends.
youre wrong. that’s not the actual problem. career bureaucrats and non-partisan government official would be fine.
what we have is regulatory capture by big business of our public institutions.
they have used the meme that government is bad, inefficient, and not to be trusted and have used massive amounts of money to push libertarian philosophy into the core of both parties.
as pointed out elsewhere the fcc chairman came from verizon and he’s delivering what they want.
The second ones embody a tendency that’s been denounced for a long time by the likes of Benjamin Bayart, former chairman of French non-profit ISP FDN. In particular, he pointed out that most ISPs in France offered ADSL instead of SDSL, which he found indicative of their centralized vision of the Internet.
I wonder if this disingenuous “misunderstanding” of the Internet could be described in three short questions. The EFF article is long. If you could boil it down to 3 questions we could ask each other or our congressfolk, maybe they’d understand rather than be swamped by more pages.
Not to go all cynical, but what does an FCC that exists to obey corporate special interests need to know other than how to obey?
Now, of course, the FCC’s ignorance would matter if America was a democracy. Fact is, America isn’t a democracy, only plays the role of one. A nation that engages in voter disenfranchisement, gerrymandering and refusal to hold elections (not to mention the existence of the Electoral College), with public officials who serve only an elite is, well, if one considers that a democracy… (The good news: We have enough freedom to changes things if enough of us knew enough and cared enough.)
Yeah, that’s kinda my point. Big Bidness types are more than happy to “explain” how stuff works to ignorant gov’t types, and that ain’t never good. Gov’t types, for the most part (there are few exceptions), are loathe to admit they don’t know what they’re doing. But trust me, while you’re right that it is business, it’s also politics (as in POWER). In America, there’s no difference anymore, if there once may have been, however briefly.
Man, Ajit Pai is really embracing his new supervillain role; I wonder if he’s been taking notes from pharmabro? In any case he’s certainly working hard at being the second-most-loathed man in America.
