The lobbyists win - this time...

Well, I was thrilled to post the other day about a win for "the people" regarding a judge slapping down part of the Patriot act. But today, I learned that we lost a small battle to a judge. I'm sure the BIG cable and phone companies lobbyists did their part on this. It is regarding the whole "Net Neutrality" issue. The Judge ruled on the side of the big corps, giving the ISP's the ability to either "limit" data streams they don't like, AND/OR charging more to us customers to access certain parts of the internet.
If you read through the "excuse" the judge states for his decision, it smacks of propaganda on behalf of the corporations. Read the full clip here from AP. Listen to this quote:

The agency said providing different levels of service is common, efficient and could satisfy consumers. As an example, it cited that the U.S. Postal Service charges customers different guarantees and speeds for package delivery, ranging from bulk mail to overnight delivery.

I think that's a horrible analogy.
Here's my attempt at a better analogy...
Lets say you have a friend that works at company XYZ. It turns out that the USPS also has a contract with the company XYZ. So, when you mail a letter to your friend, the letter zips through in one day. Now lets say you have another friend who works at company RRR... But the RRR company is a rival of the USPS. So guess what happens to your letter... it gets pushed to a slower system that now takes 5 days to deliver. Of course if it HAD to be there in one day, you could pay extra if you like.
See... It stinks.
these ISP's are going to exploit this now, and WE the consumers are going to get stuck with either paying extra, or putting up with slower speeds. Grrr.

Tech Tags: net+neutrality ISP Verizon Comcast Judge