More irritations

So here's the thing, the more I learn about the internet around the world, the more irritated I get. Not only do we pay considerably more for internet access than the rest of the world, but it's slower than what they get too. Even better, there's a bill being passed from country to country where if a person is accused of pirating online three times, his access is pulled and he's blacklisted. Think about that for a second. Three accusations, you're out. No proof needed and, since they'll just get in the way, things like due process, evidence and an actual trial are unnecessary. 

To make sure ISPs maintain their monopolies, the courts just pushed the rest of us down. Basically, it was ruled that ISPs have the right to look at what we're using the internet for and adjust our bandwidth accordingly. So let's pretend you're paying for 1 mb/s. If your ISP notices you're using it for a lot of downloading, they could choke you back some. So while you're paying for 1 mb/s, not only do you never actually get that, you'll get shafted further if you use it for things they don't want you to do. According to one article I read, in the instance of downloading there's no way to tell if the files are legally purchased or not. Even trickier, this could mean that companies that are friendlier to ISPs might have faster loading web pages. 

On the flip side, ISPs should be able to manage bandwidth to some extant. I don't want my internet dragging because my neighbor is downloading gigabytes of stuff. Seems to me this whole thing could be solved by moving some serious bytes. Think of the internet as water. If there's just a stream coming into my neighborhood, I don't want to watch my neighbor drink some, water his lawn, wash his car and fill his pool while I get what's left. But if we're living next to the mighty Mississippi, then he can use all the water he wants no matter what a waste because there's still plenty left for me to do whatever I want with. They'll probably make more money and save a few bucks not watching our every move. 

This really got on my nerves because our internet had been turned off a few months ago for pirating copyrighted materials. Of course when I asked, nobody could provide me with any information. Just that they knew something was up. The only good news there is, since they're clearly winging it, just tell them what they want to hear and they'll turn it back on. 

So to make sure we're on the same page, it's called Net Neutrality and it's all over the internet. Those in favor of it are of the opinion that once you pay for the bytes, they're yours to do whatever you want with (this is the over-simplified version). Those against it believe it's their responsibility to keep a few users from using most all of the resources. Keep an eye and ear out for this issue, I'm sure we'll be hearing more and more about it. Make sure you do your part, election ads should start running in a month or two...

Posted via web from Super Attema Bros.