After research...
OK, after some research (Google is your friend) it seems up in Canada there are Net Neutral laws but they have not been enforced. Rogers and Bell are two ISP servers and have been involved in throttling (limiting the bandwidth a site may use via their service) and/or traffic shaping. This has created (as of 2008) a big public debate for net neutral laws (which Canadians support by and large).
Here's my questions / concerns and/or observations:
(1) How do you allow all content to stream at its highest possible speed without downgrading or limiting the masses at large?
Afterall if I don't carefor P2P (peer to peer, heh, Google is your friend), why should I have to wait on the time for my prefered websites to download just so others can communicate P2P (the wife, btw, looooooves to chit chat all the long day online, and I love that woman)? I use the internet to blog and to inform myself on the daily events. I read no newspaper and do not watch any television news and only limited television commentators. The internet is my lifeline of information. Why not cater my preferences to me? Why slow down my usage in the name of maintaining "everything fair"?
(2) Is this not a sort of theft or property?
If AT&T invested the billions of dollars on internet infastructure, why can they not have a say as to how it opperates? I know any interstate automatically commerce comes under federal juristiction so obviously the federal government can have some regulatory power over internet use. But isn't the most logical solution to allow the developers to govern the establishment? Would it not be in AT&T's best interest to cater to what appeases the masses?
If I were to raise $500 milion to buil a bridge between two states, should I not be allowed to charge a toll to pay for my investment and upkeep? If the federal government were to step in and force me to allow all cars (trucks too who cause more wear and tear than does a Yugo (if those run anymore
) to be charged equally, would that not force those who pay less to pay more? And who would want to invest in me in the future if I cannot collect a profit? Or even if my profits were limited?
(3) For those that fear the fututre Google or Micrsoft not being developed in the US because of the lack of Net Neutral laws, where were Google and Microsoft created where there were no Net Neutral laws?
Why would that be any different. And, remember, in Canada there are Net Neutral laws but they have not been enforced. AKA, effectively no different than what goes on in the US.
(4) When government says it wants to make things fair, that usually makes thing more unfair.
Are we not simply seeing two big companies such as Google and Microsoft, trying to crweate law to favor their companies? So in the name of taking away from Comcast and AT&T to make things "fair" are we now essentially, giving what we take from them to favor other companies? Both Google and Microsoft (and I folowed the anti-trust suites brought against Bill Gates and his corporate giant inthe mid 90's. A crock that was) as well as AT&T and Comcast, got as successful as they are by outmarketing the others. They should reap the rewards of their success. By taking it, why would people take risks in their future based upno their own economic aspirations?