Search Results for 'net neutrality'

Woody had such a great ability to bring great minds and great folks together. He was open to hear everyone’s opinions and strongly believed that there was something to discover everywhere, in the anonymous comments or the strong polarizing opinions of some of our most active members.

When he first invited me to post a question on Askwoody, I didn’t know what I was getting myself into. It was the first and last social media I would join, and it was to try to figure out why Windows 10 was completely freezing each week at the same time if it wasn’t connected to the internet (it was the new way Windows 10 managed ntp).

I discovered incredibly smart people, some of them so consistently eloquent it was such a pleasure and inspiration to observe how they could succeed again and again at writing something so powerful and meaningful, some more like an unfortunately needed needle in the foot raising the flag on us every time we were writing nonsense because of anger, which happened a lot with the way Microsoft went with Windows 10 over the years, some quite colorful characters, some so humble but deeply knowledgeable contributors and a community of  very annoyed power users and nice ordinary folks that just wanted a computer that works right and not have to work for their computer.

IT people are weird. I think we are better than regular folks, but I don’t think they agree. In any case, we are fun or at least, we find ourselves fun. We are a bit in our own world. I feel a strong connection to many of you here, in the way we see things, in the way we know how things should be to be so much better and wondering why they are not that way, in the way we are not happy with just accepting what things are without understanding them.

I’m often very impressed by what I read coming from the community, I admire many of you techy or not, and of course the wonderful staff and I think this is all the spirit of Woody at work. When things were too quiet for a while, he knew how to drop a bomb and then let everybody discuss passionately, to the point of often having to intervene to calm things down a bit after. I suspect he sometimes used us to deliver some of his opinions passionately while preserving a certain journalistic neutrality, even if he didn’t shy away from telling what needed to be told when he felt like it. Maybe that sometimes annoyed some of the more serious experts here, but maybe it was needed for some to go through the long mourning of what Windows was before and I feel that for some of us, we had to live that with other like-minded individuals that understood our pain.

Although I never met Woody or really interacted much with him directly, I will always have a strong memory of him and what he has done and I will always be grateful for all the help he gave me through the community he brought together.

Let’s all celebrate Woody and what he represented, a true humanist that cared for everyone and knew how to get the best out of them, wherever they were coming from, and that is something that will always be in demand in the world.

 

13 users thanked author for this post.

Microfix, CAS, LongTimer, AJNorth, jburk07, LH, SueW, PKCano, Mike Hall, Myst, satrow, Fred, Cybertooth

Max is a law professor, but he’s obviously not an expert on administrative law. He says, “The [FCC’s net neutrality] rules were sustained by the trial court.” There was no trial court. Challenges to FCC rules go straight to the Court of Appeals.

https://9to5mac.com/2025/01/03/net-neutrality-protections-again-lost-as-federal-court-overrules-the-fcc/

 

It’s notable that many tech giants who would well afford to pay for priority treatment came out against it, and in favor of net neutrality. The list of good guys in this battle includes Apple, Amazon, Dropbox, eBay, Facebook, Google, Microsoft, Netflix, Reddit, Snap, and Spotify.

If this group of large players was against it, I wonder who was in favor?

3 users thanked author for this post.

jburk07, Alex5723, wavy

The FCC was not ‘heavy handed’ in applying Net Neutrality rules. Americans need and deserve Net Neutrality.

Failure to enforce anti-monopoly laws for decades has resulted in the rapid enshittification of the internet and tech, to the detriment of individual users across the world. Why does Microsoft continue to force ‘features’ that users don’t want, while making it harder and harder to avoid them? They have monopolistic control, which is not balanced by individual users being able to easily choose something else.

ISPs are monopolies. They have divided up the US and do not compete with each other, concentrating, instead, on extracting dollars from their captive users. The FCC was doing something to level the playing field for us. If they cannot implement net neutrality, Congress needs to pass legislation making it the law of the land, along with meaningful privacy laws.

May I recommend supporting EFF (Electronic Frontier Foundation). I, for one, do not want ISPs acting as gatekeepers, profiting from making special deals with a few companies and inhibiting new competition, innovation, and expression. If the courts don’t support internet freedoms, then we need legislative reform.

Non-techy Win 10 Pro and Linux Mint experimenter

10 users thanked author for this post.

jburk07, steeviebops, bowled845, wavy, deuce120, satrow, WSbobby-p, SueW, Alex5723, Sky

https://9to5mac.com/2025/01/03/net-neutrality-protections-again-lost-as-federal-court-overrules-the-fcc/

..This means that internet service providers (ISPs) and mobile carriers will again be free to accept payments from large websites and services to prioritize their traffic over the rest of the internet …

Net neutrality means that internet service providers had to treat all websites and Internet services equally. They couldn’t take payment from some sites, speeding up their traffic, while slowing down traffic to the rest of the web. They also couldn’t take money from one service to block traffic to a rival one…

https://www.opn.ca6.uscourts.gov/opinions.pdf/25a0002p-06.pdf

* Very bad news to any Internet/cellular user in the US.
* Wonder who were the ISPs, Cellular providers opposed to Net Naturality

7 users thanked author for this post.

jburk07, bowled845, deuce120, WSbobby-p, SueW, Sky, Elly

DOJ Will Push Google to Sell Chrome to Break Search Monopoly

Top Justice Department antitrust officials have decided to ask a judge to force Alphabet Inc.’s Google to sell off its Chrome browser in what would be a historic crackdown on one of the world’s biggest tech companies…

* Donald Trump has appointed Brendan Carr as the chairman of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC)

..Carr supports changes to Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act and opposes net neutrality protections.[9][10] Carr is noted for his support for banning TikTok on national security grounds.[11][12] He is an opponent of content moderation on digital platforms..

Vote was 3-2 in favor of restoration, with Democratic commissioners voting in favor and Republican counterparts against the change.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZwTK19irAWQ

Mele20 wrote:

OscarCP wrote:

In this 58-minute long video

Is there a link for READING it? I hate videos and rarely watch them…the proliferation of videos on the internet is part of what is killing it IMO.

InterNet Neutrality is a concept that is later born, and used by f.i. EFF to build on a “less bound and less-dependant” use of the internet, trying to minimize some of the data eagerness of the big companies.
In EU some parliaments have embrased this already.

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2021/07/eff-30-freeing-internet-net-neutrality-pioneer-gigi-sohn

 

* _ ... _ *

1 user thanked author for this post.

Mele20

here is an EFF link to “Net Neutrality”, , though it’s not very recent, it’s very actual

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2021/07/eff-30-freeing-internet-net-neutrality-pioneer-gigi-sohn

* _ ... _ *

Alex: “[About alleged complicity of Kaperski with the Kremlin] It’s McCarthy era yet again.
Brendan Carr is a republican a President Trump nominee and was with the FCC when they Killed Net Neutrality.”

How relevant can all this be to the alleged China espionage or to the fact that a young girl hanged herself and died, because she was playing a “blackout” game she found in TikTok?

(For that I have provided three links, in an earlier post here, to three sources with good reporting credentials.)

As to spying for China, Brian’s article quotes other sources, besides Carr, as it has ben pointed out here already by Cybertooth.

And no, this is not the return of McCarthyism’s Red Hysteria, whether or not allegations about Kapersky are true. Because this topic now under discussion is, above all, about taking a candid look at the scary ugliness of the world we have worked us humans into, all by ourselves, either by action or inaction.

Ex-Windows user (Win. 98, XP, 7); since mid-2017 using also macOS. Presently on Monterey 12.15 & sometimes running also Linux (Mint).

MacBook Pro circa mid-2015, 15" display, with 16GB 1600 GHz DDR3 RAM, 1 TB SSD, a Haswell architecture Intel CPU with 4 Cores and 8 Threads model i7-4870HQ @ 2.50GHz.
Intel Iris Pro GPU with Built-in Bus, VRAM 1.5 GB, Display 2880 x 1800 Retina, 24-Bit color.
macOS Monterey; browsers: Waterfox "Current", Vivaldi and (now and then) Chrome; security apps. Intego AV

4 users thanked author for this post.

rc primak, wavy, Cybertooth, JohnW

rc primak wrote:

If there is evidence of specifically what traces TikTok is leaving of its alleged “spying” and data transfers to the Chinese government, I’d like at least the opportunity to see the original data dumps.

There isn’t evidence just as there was never evidence found that Kaspersky software is spying for the Russian.
It’s McCarthy era yet again.

Brendan Carr is a republican a President Trump nominee and was with the FCC when they Killed Net Neutrality.

2 users thanked author for this post.

rc primak, Fred

Mr. Austin: “But it might eventually come up again. Right?”

I very much hope this is the beginning, not the end of this story.

In fact, originally the tittle of this thread was:

California net neutrality law unblocked. So what is next?

But when I submitted the initial comment, the whole background of the text turned up to be not white, but a pale blue, a sign that some bug in the AskWoody/WordPress software had kicked in, because something in the title, that was perfectly OK, had waken up the bug. The thing to do when this happens is to take something out of the title to see if this makes the posted comment become normal. So after several tries, guess what in the title of this thread had to go to get things working properly?

Yes, the EFF ideal is a bright thing, its generous vision of the way the Internet could be a power for good stands in stark contrast with the stormy, darker and often sad reality of what it actually is:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electronic_Frontier_Foundation

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2022/04/eff-statement-declaration-future-internet

Excerpt:

“EFF Statement on the Declaration for the Future of the Internet
By Karen Gullo
April 28, 2022

The White House announced today that sixty one countries have signed the Declaration for the Future of the Internet. The high-level vision and principles expressed in the Declaration—to have a single, global network that is truly open, fosters competition, respects privacy and inclusion, and protects human rights and fundamental freedoms of all people—are laudable.

But clearly they are aspirational. Implementing these principles will require many signatory countries to change their current practices, which include censoring online speech of marginalized communities, failing to build out affordable high-speed internet, using malware and mass surveillance to spy on users, fostering misinformation, secretly collecting personal information, and pressuring big tech platforms to police online speech.“

Ex-Windows user (Win. 98, XP, 7); since mid-2017 using also macOS. Presently on Monterey 12.15 & sometimes running also Linux (Mint).

MacBook Pro circa mid-2015, 15" display, with 16GB 1600 GHz DDR3 RAM, 1 TB SSD, a Haswell architecture Intel CPU with 4 Cores and 8 Threads model i7-4870HQ @ 2.50GHz.
Intel Iris Pro GPU with Built-in Bus, VRAM 1.5 GB, Display 2880 x 1800 Retina, 24-Bit color.
macOS Monterey; browsers: Waterfox "Current", Vivaldi and (now and then) Chrome; security apps. Intego AV

1 user thanked author for this post.

Mr. Austin

[OscarCP]

Net neutrality used to be a hot topic some years ago, but it has not been talked about much recently, at least that I’ve noticed.

Today, there is this from California:

https://apnews.com/article/technology-business-california-sacramento-telecommunications-732b9740af727ed718c244a9dff87bfc

Excerpt:

“Telecommunications industry groups on Wednesday ended their bid to block California’s net neutrality law that prevents broadband providers from throttling service.

In a federal court filing in Sacramento, the groups and California Attorney General Rob Bonta jointly agreed to dismiss the case.

The move followed a January decision by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals allowing enforcement of the 2018 law, which bans internet providers from slowing down or blocking access to websites and applications that don’t pay for premium service.”

In this very long and detailed article on different aspects of Net Neutrality, there is also presentation of arguments for and against it, as well as the story of its evolution.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Net_neutrality

Ex-Windows user (Win. 98, XP, 7); since mid-2017 using also macOS. Presently on Monterey 12.15 & sometimes running also Linux (Mint).

MacBook Pro circa mid-2015, 15" display, with 16GB 1600 GHz DDR3 RAM, 1 TB SSD, a Haswell architecture Intel CPU with 4 Cores and 8 Threads model i7-4870HQ @ 2.50GHz.
Intel Iris Pro GPU with Built-in Bus, VRAM 1.5 GB, Display 2880 x 1800 Retina, 24-Bit color.
macOS Monterey; browsers: Waterfox "Current", Vivaldi and (now and then) Chrome; security apps. Intego AV

• This topic was modified 3 years ago by OscarCP.

2 users thanked author for this post.

Mr. Austin, cesmart4122

Further down the same BleepingComputer article, there is the following, perhaps not a really big surprise (two purely political statements redacted by me):

“Former FCC Chair Ajit Pai blamed for current state of things”

” U.S. Senator Ron Wyden said in a statement following FTC’s report that Ajit Pai, the former head of the FCC, is likely the one who made it possible for tech firms to disregard their users’ privacy by harvesting and using their data for business purposes.

“If Congress needed any more proof that America desperately needs a consumer privacy law, the Federal Trade Commission’s report about internet service providers’ rampant abuse of their customers’ private, personal browsing information should be enough to get Washington to act,” Wyden said.

“Whether it’s advertisers, tech companies or Big Cable, corporate America is showing absolute contempt for the idea that consumers can control personal details about their lives.” “

…..

” “Finally, it’s worth remembering that former Federal Communications Commission Chair Ajit Pai opened the floodgates to ISPs’ unchecked use of browsing data when he repealed … broadband privacy and net neutrality regulations.

“The FCC needs every tool available to stop cable companies from gouging consumers and selling their data.” “

Ex-Windows user (Win. 98, XP, 7); since mid-2017 using also macOS. Presently on Monterey 12.15 & sometimes running also Linux (Mint).

MacBook Pro circa mid-2015, 15" display, with 16GB 1600 GHz DDR3 RAM, 1 TB SSD, a Haswell architecture Intel CPU with 4 Cores and 8 Threads model i7-4870HQ @ 2.50GHz.
Intel Iris Pro GPU with Built-in Bus, VRAM 1.5 GB, Display 2880 x 1800 Retina, 24-Bit color.
macOS Monterey; browsers: Waterfox "Current", Vivaldi and (now and then) Chrome; security apps. Intego AV

3 users thanked author for this post.

Steve, Kenneth Stephens, Lars220

OscarCP wrote:

So you think the baby has been split already. Well, I am for waiting and seeing, because (a) this brilliant idea might not get passed into law and then not vetoed when it gets to Biden, or (b) it might become law and then deter Ligado’s owner (and investors) from going ahead with their plan and, instead, with the gentleman in question deciding to go back to managing his hedge fund full-time

Contrary to you, I think this is the stupidest thing Congress has done (might do) in a long, long time. And that is a very high bar. I also think the FCC selling that bit of spectrum in the first place over the objections of every agency that has an opinion, none of which are competitors with this guy, is one of the stupidest things to come out of the FCC since they canceled net neutrality.

I do know a little bit about spectrum management and this is frighenting.