Net neutrality is important. If you aren’t familiar with the term, let CGP Grey explain:
In short, net neutrality promises protection from Internet service providers slowing traffic down based on content or source.
This morning, the President issued a statement urging the FCC to consider Internet access as a public utility, which would forbid companies like AT&T, Comcast and Verizon from creating “fast lanes” on the Internet.
President Obama:
An open Internet is essential to the American economy, and increasingly to our very way of life. By lowering the cost of launching a new idea, igniting new political movements, and bringing communities closer together, it has been one of the most significant democratizing influences the world has ever known.
“Net neutrality” has been built into the fabric of the Internet since its creation — but it is also a principle that we cannot take for granted. We cannot allow Internet service providers (ISPs) to restrict the best access or to pick winners and losers in the online marketplace for services and ideas. That is why today, I am asking the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to answer the call of almost 4 million public comments, and implement the strongest possible rules to protect net neutrality.
Colin Lecher at The Verge:
FBI Director James Comey has been on a media tour lately, making an anti-encryption pitch to the public. Apple’s new encryption standards, Comey has argued, are an unnecessary hurdle to law enforcement — and the FBI needs an easy way to bypass them. Now Comey is bringing the argument straight to Congress, asking them to update a law to allow backdoors in smartphones.
Screw you, Mr. Comey.
Earlier this summer, my brother, brother-in-law and a couple of close friends left Memphis, flew to South Sudan and filmed what will be the first multi-camera documentary filmed in the war-torn country.
This fall, Lost Generation of Sudan will tell the story of a new generation of lost boys, victims of the on-going devastation brought on a helpless population.
Alex Wilhelm:
A bill introduced late yesterday in the Republican-controlled U.S. House of Representatives would “limit” the Federal Communications Commission’s ability to regulate the Internet under Title II, according to its progenitor, Rep. Bob Latta.
Title II, of course, refers to part of the Communications Act. If the FCC did push for such a regulatory structure, it would have more authority over the Internet and its constituent players.
Is anyone suprised?
ESPN:
Los Angeles Clippers owner Donald Sterling has been banned for life by the NBA in response to racist comments the league says he made in a recorded conversation.
NBA commissioner Adam Silver announced the discipline Tuesday, saying that Sterling has been fined $2.5 million and that the league will attempt to force a sale of the Clippers.
Silver also stated that Sterling cannot attend any NBA games or practices, be present at any Clippers office or facility, or participate in business or player personnel decisions.
We all hear people complaining that their right to free speech is being taken away, or that if some jerk on TV says something terrible and is fired, their First Amendment rights have been violated by a television network.
In reality, however, the right to free speech is a contract between the federal government and its citizens. It says nothing — and offers no protection — from real-world consequences for saying something others disagree with or find inflammatory.
Ezra Klein at Vox:
Today, the right struggles with Obamacare Derangement Syndrome: the acute inability to see Obamacare as anything but a catastrophic failure that the American people will soon reject. For those suffering from ODS, all bad Obamacare news is good news, and all good Obamacare news is spin. In this world, delays of minor provisions in the law prove that the entire structure is collapsing, while surges of millions of people enrolling in insurance don’t prove anything at all.
Michael Riley at Bloomberg:
The U.S. National Security Agency knew for at least two years about a flaw in the way that many websites send sensitive information, now dubbed the Heartbleed bug, and regularly used it to gather critical intelligence, two people familiar with the matter said.
The NSA’s decision to keep the bug secret in pursuit of national security interests threatens to renew the rancorous debate over the role of the government’s top computer experts.
Nilay Patel:
So there’s the entire problem, expressed in four simple ideas: the internet is a utility, there is zero meaningful competition to provide that utility to Americans, all internet providers should be treated equally, and the FCC is doing a miserably ineffective job. The United States should lead the world in broadband deployment and speeds: we should have the lowest prices, the best service, and the most competition. We should have the freest speech and the loudest voices, the best debate and the soundest policy. We are home to the most innovative technology companies in the world, and we should have the broadband networks to match.
Comcast:
Working collaboratively over many months, the companies have established a more direct connection between Netflix and Comcast, similar to other networks, that’s already delivering an even better user experience to consumers, while also allowing for future growth in Netflix traffic. Netflix receives no preferential network treatment under the multi-year agreement, terms of which are not being disclosed.
According to The Wall Street Journal, those terms include Netflix paying the ISP a big sack of money.
Bryan Bishop, on the news of Comcast’s desire to purchase Time Warner:
But with the prospect of a combined Comcast and Time Warner on the horizon, the question turns to what a merger would actually mean — both for consumers and the industry at large. If the move is approved by federal regulators, it could cement the kind of monolithic monopolies that have plagued cable subscribers all along, raising concerns over net neutrality and competition in the marketplace. Despite the very real potential for a media dystopia, however, there could be a silver lining: the chance that the deal could help break down a wall that’s kept innovation out of the living room for years.