Let My Packets Go!

If there is one thing I love it is to argue, especially when the topic is academic, I just love the idea of taking a train of thought through to the end, and I don’t get emotionally involved in the argument because again it’s just academic. However the is something in Tech news that I do feel very strongly about, and that is Net Neutrality (total name fail). Net Neutrality, which I will refer to here on out as NN, is the hot button topic where the spheres or technology meet politics.

If you are unaware of what NN is let me give it to you in the most concise why I have heard it explained. Basically NN mean that the Internet Service Providers, such as Comcast, Verizon, etc cannot prioritize the packets running over their network, in essence it would mean that an email packet, a bit torrent packet or a packet from a webpage would all be treated the same way. Without NN regulation Comcast could throttle Hulu traffic because they want you to use you’re their competing streaming web page (not sure if they have one but that is my example). The ISPs are totally against the idea of NN because they want to be able to dictate how the internet works going forward, and will obviously pick things that benefit them rather than benefit the consumers. Comcast has already been investigated by the FCC for throttling bit torrent ( I would like to point out that bit torrent is a totally legit peer to peer service and does not always mean there is piracy).

The FCC is the body that is created to regulate things like the internet and television and telephones. Basically they are there to stop the companies from totally screwing their consumers. Without FCC regulation in the internet it would be open season for the ISP to do whatever they want. Right now there is nothing set in stone, but the ISP are held to basically a best practices which give us the internet we know today, and when they violate these best practices, for instance by throttling bit torrent the FCC investigates.

The debate over NN needs to happen, and I would think it will need to be settled soon. I really hope that when this comes up for a vote that NN will prevail and the FCC will set about putting in regulations that keep the internet from being segmented. Now you might be saying to yourself that the government has no business regulating the internet, the internet should be allowed to regulate its self. This is true, and I don’t want the FCC to start laying down crazy regulation, but what I do want is regulations that stop the ISP from coming in and screwing the customers.

Let me lay out an extreme example for you of a world where there is no NN. In this world the packets you send are sniffed at every turn in the internet pipe line. So you send an email from your Gmail account to your buddy who has a Yahoo mail. Without NN the ISP you are using could hold that email back just because they don’t like Gmail, on top of that Yahoo could reject any email from Gmail, since they would want people to use Yahoo’s mail rather than a competing mail service. Does this sound good to you? I hope not, the amount of anti completive behavior that would result from a lack of NN would be staggering.

Basically the FCC just needs to lay down the law and the law is “You cannot prioritize any packets regardless of their content” and just let the internet get back to being the internet.

I have heard an argument against NN that basically says that things like Google and Twitter get a free ride and the ISP are footing the bill. Let me tell you this is BS! Google pays for the bandwidth they use, as does Twitter, the more people that use them the more bandwidth they use and the more they pay the ISP, basically the ISPs want to double dip. I am all for paying for what you use, if you are uploading HD video all day long and you need more upstream bandwidth then you should have to pay for that bandwidth, but I don’t want my packets to be sniffed and the prioritized based on their destination or content.

John McCain, who I personally did not vote for but is a person I have a decent amount of respect for, is proposing a bill called the something like the “Internet Freedom Act” but basically what it says is that the government cannot regulate the internet, dumb dumb dumb! The name of the bill is total shit too, yes while on the surface the bill is providing freedom because the government is not regulating the internet, but what it does as I have said before is open the internet up to the ISPs. McCain is also the number 1 recipient of money from the Telecom, over $900,000, companies who are for the most part the ISPs (he is not in their pocket or anything, also if you can find me a politician that is not in someone’s pocket I will print this out and eat it) McCain has said himself that he does not understand the internet, and I am not expecting him to (insert age joke here), but I don’t think it’s out of the question for me to expect him not to try to make legislation on something he has no idea about. I would like to paraphrase Dan Carlin (who I think said this) “when you make legislation the most important things is to see how the legislation is pissing off” for NN the legislation is pissing off the ISP and thus it is good.

The ISP like to claim that if the FCC regulates the internet in favor of NN then they will lose all sorts of money, but right now we have a free internet (free in the sense that all packets are the same) and they are making a mint! I think the figure I read said that Comcast had a 22% jump in earnings. A jump during a recession, they are raking in the money. Without NN the ISP would definitely make more money, but is that really the direction we want the internet to go in? I for one as a consumer and pretty heavy internet user want the FCC to regulate in favor of NN and I know that there are many tech people who are in my camp too (well really I am in their camp since I am not popular enough to have a camp) Check out the video below, it’s a clip from the long running and trustworthy show “This Week In Tech” with Leo Laporte.

If you disagree with me definitely send me an email imaglide@gmail.com! I would love to hear what you think, but if you disagree I am going to assume you are either a greedy bastard or out of touch. If you want to help go check out http://www.savetheinternet.com/ and sign the petition, they will send your request to your politician and get them to make the right call when it comes to voting on this.