(snip)"The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is poised to add the Internet to its portfolio of regulated industries. The agency's chairman, Julius Genachowski, announced Wednesday that he circulated draft rules he says will "preserve the freedom and openness of the Internet." No statement could better reflect the gulf between the rhetoric and the reality of Obama administration policies.
With a straight face, Mr. Genachowski suggested that government red tape will increase the "freedom" of online services that have flourished because bureaucratic busybodies have been blocked from tinkering with the Web. Ordinarily, it would be appropriate at this point to supply an example from the proposed regulations illustrating the problem. Mr. Genachowski's draft document has over 550 footnotes and is stamped "non-public, for internal use only" to ensure nobody outside the agency sees it until the rules are approved in a scheduled Dec. 21 vote. So much for "openness."
The issue of "net neutrality" is nothing new, but the increasing popularity of online movie streaming services like Netflix have highlighted an area of potential concern. When someone watches a film over the Internet, especially in high definition, the maximum available capacity of the user's connection is used. Think, for example, of the problems that would arise at the water works if everyone decided to turn on their faucets and take a shower simultaneously. Internet providers are beginning to see the same strain on their networks.
In some cases, heavy use of this sort slows the Web experience for everyone sharing the same lines. That has prompted some cable Internet providers to consider either charging the heavy users more or limiting access to the "problematic" services. Of course, if cinema buffs find themselves cut off from their favorite service, they're going to be mad. If companies don't act, they're just as likely to find irate customers who don't want their experience bogged down by others.
It's not clear why the FCC thinks it needs to intervene in a situation with obvious market solutions. Companies that impose draconian tolls or block services will lose customers. Existing laws already offer a number of protections against anti-competitive behavior"(snip)
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The apparent 'gist' of the FCC's new regulatory efforts is the rapidly increasing burden that 'streaming video' is placing on the US internet backbone. From an official standpoint the FCC is attempting to exert new regulatory authority on the internet in general, and on 'streaming video' and other ultra-high bandwidth requirement internet applications specifically, under the premise that such regulation is now necessary to avoid future systemic degradation of internet service to ALL US internet users.
The leaked FCC notes don't specifically say how they plan to reduce ultra-high bandwidth internet activities. However, there is a strong hint that new fees / taxes will be leveed on high speed end user internet connections ( i.e. T1, Cable Modems etc. ) as well as new fees / taxes being leveed on ultra-high bandwidth internet servers / content providers ( i.e. NetFlix, Webcams ). There is also a strong hint that internet service providers will be allowed to selectively block access by their customers to domains that consume / require very high amounts of bandwidth in order to avoid degradation of service to customers connecting to other lower bandwidth requirement domains.
This is a particularly damaging scenario for Adult Webcams, since it would be very easy for a Time Warner / Comcast Cable or an AT&T broadband to simply block access to every Adult Webcam IP for their customers entirely, or to block access for customers who don't agree to pay a much higher monthly internet 'ultra-high bandwidth' access fee. After all, if this ultimately comes down to a 'fight' over bandwidth rationing, there is absolutely no question that Adult Webcams and other high bandwidth adult content are going to get 'thrown overboard' before NetFlix ! From a political standpoint, forcing regular internet customers to give up streaming Netflix movies at full speed in order to provide Adult streams with an 'equal share' of bandwidth is an impossible sell.
And from a vested interest standpoint, allowing Time Warner / Comcast to block access to both Neflix and Adult Webcams / other high bandwidth adult content would undoubtedly increase the sales of pay-per-view regular content and adult content that their own cable systems are attempting to sell to their customers ! The 'gold foil hat' crowd would tell you that THIS is one of the actual reasons behind the new FCC regulations.
As there won't be any additional 'public airings' of the FCC's proposed new regulations, we'll find out the specifics after the FCC's internal 'vote' establishing new regulations takes place on December 21st.
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