since9
Campaign Veteran
Mine is. So I wrote my Congressman with the details:
To the Honorable Congressman X:
I would like to give you a concrete example of why I heartily endorse 100% Net Neutrality.
For the last couple of weeks, Comcast has been directly and flagrantly violating several federal telecommunication regulations by unlawfully blocking access to a legal Internet streaming pay-per-view movie site. The movies are the same as you'd see in any public movie theater, and are licensed to this streaming company for resale.
Apparently, Comcast doesn't like the site because unlike Netflix, Hulu, and Amazon, they're not getting customer subscription kickbacks from the site as they are from the three big companies.
This is NOT Net Neutrality. When our ISP decides what we can and cannot access based on whether or not they're making any profit from it, they absolutely WILL choke off EVERYTHING that takes up any significant bandwidth, particularly in the near ISP monopoly existing here in Colorado Springs. When this behavior is allowed to continue, costs go through the roof while all incentive for innovation, cost reductions, and competition are robbed. We the People LOOSE, and so does our nation as a whole.
What happens if Congress throws Net Neutrality out the window, and Comcast and other Internet Service Provides have an even greater financial incentive to slow unfavorable content to such a crawl that it's no longer available AT ALL to a paying customer?
I know they're blocking the website, for several reasons:
1. The site still returns pings and traceroutes. Just no content.
2. When I access the site through an encrypted proxy, the content comes through immediately, without interception, hindrance, or blocking. In this mode, Comcast is unable to penetrate the encrypted tunnel or see what's in the content. Similarly, the site appears as being fully up on any number of website monitoring programs which do NOT access the Internet through Comcast.
3. Whenever I try to access the content directly, I receive no errors from either the website or the DNS servers. I simply don't receive any content at all.
4. These tests are verifiable and repeatable.
To the best of my knowledge, that directly and flagrantly violates several current federal telecommunication regulations.
It is for these and many similar reasons I FULLY support 100% Net Neutrality. Please do NOT allow any Internet Service Provider, including Comcast, Verizon, and AT&T, to make ANY decisions about what their customers can and cannot access, or the rate at which they may access the content. Please allow We the People to make that decision. Allow We the People to directly set the course of innovation, the continual improvement of speed while simultaneously slowing costs, by our open and free market choices.
Indeed, when competition is allowed free range, as it is in Houston Texas, consumers may choose from upwards of 12 ISPs. They pay HALF of what we pay here in Colorado Springs for TWICE the throughput. This is the direct result of Net Neutrality in the midst of free and open market competition.
In fact, I strongly suggest Comcast be called forth to explain their behavior, receive censure, and possibly face criminal prosecution for their flagrant violation of federal telecommunications laws.
I also strongly encourage you to increase the fines and penalties for this sort of behavior, as it should NEVER be tolerated in a free society!
Sincerely,
TIME TO WRITE YOUR OWN CONGRESSMAN!
To the Honorable Congressman X:
I would like to give you a concrete example of why I heartily endorse 100% Net Neutrality.
For the last couple of weeks, Comcast has been directly and flagrantly violating several federal telecommunication regulations by unlawfully blocking access to a legal Internet streaming pay-per-view movie site. The movies are the same as you'd see in any public movie theater, and are licensed to this streaming company for resale.
Apparently, Comcast doesn't like the site because unlike Netflix, Hulu, and Amazon, they're not getting customer subscription kickbacks from the site as they are from the three big companies.
This is NOT Net Neutrality. When our ISP decides what we can and cannot access based on whether or not they're making any profit from it, they absolutely WILL choke off EVERYTHING that takes up any significant bandwidth, particularly in the near ISP monopoly existing here in Colorado Springs. When this behavior is allowed to continue, costs go through the roof while all incentive for innovation, cost reductions, and competition are robbed. We the People LOOSE, and so does our nation as a whole.
What happens if Congress throws Net Neutrality out the window, and Comcast and other Internet Service Provides have an even greater financial incentive to slow unfavorable content to such a crawl that it's no longer available AT ALL to a paying customer?
I know they're blocking the website, for several reasons:
1. The site still returns pings and traceroutes. Just no content.
2. When I access the site through an encrypted proxy, the content comes through immediately, without interception, hindrance, or blocking. In this mode, Comcast is unable to penetrate the encrypted tunnel or see what's in the content. Similarly, the site appears as being fully up on any number of website monitoring programs which do NOT access the Internet through Comcast.
3. Whenever I try to access the content directly, I receive no errors from either the website or the DNS servers. I simply don't receive any content at all.
4. These tests are verifiable and repeatable.
To the best of my knowledge, that directly and flagrantly violates several current federal telecommunication regulations.
It is for these and many similar reasons I FULLY support 100% Net Neutrality. Please do NOT allow any Internet Service Provider, including Comcast, Verizon, and AT&T, to make ANY decisions about what their customers can and cannot access, or the rate at which they may access the content. Please allow We the People to make that decision. Allow We the People to directly set the course of innovation, the continual improvement of speed while simultaneously slowing costs, by our open and free market choices.
Indeed, when competition is allowed free range, as it is in Houston Texas, consumers may choose from upwards of 12 ISPs. They pay HALF of what we pay here in Colorado Springs for TWICE the throughput. This is the direct result of Net Neutrality in the midst of free and open market competition.
In fact, I strongly suggest Comcast be called forth to explain their behavior, receive censure, and possibly face criminal prosecution for their flagrant violation of federal telecommunications laws.
I also strongly encourage you to increase the fines and penalties for this sort of behavior, as it should NEVER be tolerated in a free society!
Sincerely,
TIME TO WRITE YOUR OWN CONGRESSMAN!
