Mozilla Offers FCC a Net Neutrality Plan With a Twist 123
An anonymous reader writes "The Mozilla Foundation is filing a petition asking the FCC to declare that ISPs are common carriers, with a twist. 'The FCC doesn't have to reclassify the Internet access ISPs offer consumers as a telecommunications service subject to common carrier regulations under Title II of the Communications Act, Mozilla says. Instead, the FCC should target the service ISPs offer to edge providers like Netflix and Dropbox, who need to send their bits over ISP networks to reach their customers. Classifying the ISP/edge provider relationship as a common carrier service will be a little cleaner since the FCC wouldn't have to undo several decade-old orders that classified broadband as an "information" service rather than telecommunications, Mozilla argues.'" Here's the Mozilla blog post and the 13-page petition.
Re:Half a fix? (Score:4, Informative)
I'm guessing because half is better than none and that this fix addresses the evil that the big ISPs are doing right now.
Re:ISPs are Shady (Score:5, Informative)
Why should we nationalize ISPs? In our case, the ISPs are not behaving properly because the regulations give too much and take only what the ISP does not care about. Try appropriate regulation.
Appropriate regulation would be to restrict ISPs to only providing connectivity services to the end-user. No ownership of content or other services of any kind. Much like electricity providers cannot also run the grid unless they're a monopoly. No one can realistically compete with them since if the generation costs for the competition are undercutting the grid provider's price, they can merely up the access fees. Regulate them there, you say? There's far too many shenanigans going on with GAAP to have that come out any differently under regulation, and far more opportunity for corruption and fleecing.
Re:Isn't this just "implement Squid"? (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Even easier solution (Score:2, Informative)
Obama does not lack courage. Obama lacks loyalty. Specifically loyalty to the people that voted for him.
But that is the way all politicians are these days. I wonder who's fault that is.
Re:ISPs are Shady (Score:4, Informative)
Too bad you posted AC. This. Corporate lobbying (and for that matter union lobbying) is poisonous to democracy and leads to just this sort of thing.
Re:Even easier solution (Score:1, Informative)
Replacing them would require congressional approval and we've all witnessed that the Republicans would rather see this country burn to the ground than give Obama anything.
conflict of interest (Score:5, Informative)
There is a conflict of intersest between what the customer expects of an ISP (equal access to competing services on the Internet) and the ISP hosting their own service in competition with "external" services. This could be voice, streaming video, videoconferencing, etc.
Any time the ISP offers services beyond being a dumb pipe, there is a natural temptation for the ISP to prioritize the traffic belonging to their own services above the traffic coming from competing "external" services. This can show up in many ways, the simplest being to not upgrade their external connectivity as much as they could--which has the natural effect of making their own services more attractive due to better bandwidth, latency, etc.
By making ISPs dumb pipes and preventing them from shaping traffic due to any reason other than rated subscriber bandwidth, we could ensure fair treatement across all services.
Send the FCC Your Own Comments (Score:5, Informative)
Send your opinions and desires about the issue of net neutrality to the FCC now using the following link: https://www.fcc.gov/comments [fcc.gov]
attach your comments to the Proceeding # 14-28, which is at the top of the list, it is entitled "Protecting and Promoting the Open Internet"
Leave a few paragraphs, tell them what you want.
You might not get what you want, but at least you'll have given them a hint of public opinion. Be nice.
again the link is https://www.fcc.gov/comments [fcc.gov] proceeding #14-28 .. make it happen. it only takes a minute or two.. as long as it took you to comment here on slashdot.
they are asking for comments, give them some.