This means your favorite Tumblrs, forum sites (even UMD!), blogs, and many other sites that don't pay into the cable company will run significantly slower. Granted the internet is full of websites that have no business being online, but because a website doesn't have as much traffic as, let's say Hulu.com or Netflix.com, it doesn't mean their connection should be limited or almost non-existent. That's not the internet, that's like having cable or satellite TV!
You can make a difference with 1 phone call or 1 e-mail to your congressperson to STOP this legislation from happening. You may say to yourself "that'll never happen..." but big cable has made a lot of changes in this past year and now they're going after the internet. Your favorite download stores could be affected as well! So do your part and keep the internet weird, for all of us
jilly said: You may say to yourself "that'll never happen..."
Oh, I suspect that it will happen. The only reason that it hasn't happened yet is that until recently it wasn't legal. Now that it potentially is, they are only waiting to make sure it stays legal before implementing it. There is no other reason for them asking the FCC to allow it to remain legal (but they promise not to do it:ohbruther. If the FCC takes the lighter approach, I wouldn't expect it to be more than a year before we see it starting up.
Verizon has even asked for the former laws to be reimplemented (you know the ones that THEY sued to have overturned, and therefore set legal precedent for them to be overturned easily if they are ever reinstated).
These ISPs have demonstrated again and again that they have very little interest in providing actual service to customers (even testifying before Congress that the reason that the US doesn't have faster service is because people don't really want it, they just don't know that they don't).
Whatever your stance on government regulation, they have forced the FCC into a position where they have to go with title II regulation to protect the public's interest.
Thank you for shedding more light on this important topic! I for one dread this ever happening because this site is not only like Facebook for me, it runs our stores! It would be very unwelcome news if something like this were to pass. Very, very unwelcome.