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Week 10 [08.01-14.01.2018] Net neutrality

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Source: https://www.battleforthenet.com

What are all those rumors about net neutrality?

Net neutrality is the principle for Internet providers to not control what we see and do online. In 2015 USA FCC approved net neutrality rules. The rules prohibit Internet providers from throttling, blocking and offering premium „fast lane” for sites that pay, and „slow lanes” for those who do not pay.  

Source: https://imgur.com/gallery/zfxwB
In Poland basic communication rules are regulated by the EU. The existing rights where accepted in 2015 as well. You can familiarize with them online, on the website of the Official Journal of the European Union (http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/HTML/?uri=CELEX:32015R2120&rid=2). 

Probably you have heard about "Save the Internet” action (https://savetheinternet.eu) which is responsible for a few successful battles in defense of the Net Neutrality in Europe. 

In the past month, in the USA, the FCC (US Federal Communication Commission) has voted to end net neutrality rules. Many of the Americans are still fighting for that. If they get Congress to pass a "Resolution of Disapproval”, there is a chance for them  to stop FCC. But what may happen if they fail? In the best-case scenario Internet packets will get cheaper and users could buy additional packets for VOD or messengers. In the case of the worse scenario, the Internet will be divided in packets like cable TV (basic, premium, informational, games). And what is more, big corporations will be able to buy "speed lanes” what may be destructive for competition and may have bad impact on smaller companies. That might be also a gate to block or censor some content and websites.  

Source: https://theamericangenius.com/tech-news/net-neutrality-dies-week-get-ready-pay-read-emails-stream-movies/

A short video about the net neutrality:

Source: https://youtu.be/UsyzP5hejxI

1. What do you think about the net neutrality? Is it good or bad for users?
2. In your opinion, is there a need to make changes in that rule?
3. In your opinion, does it have or will have some kind of impact on Poland?

4. Do you think that the net neutrality issue could have impact on changing the communication law in EU?
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Comments

Andrzej Niewiadomski said…
I think that internet should stay as it is. It supposed to be place of freedom ( of course, there always been some voices that we are controlled, for example all Snowden case, I'm talking in general).
When we look at Portugal, we can see two really bad things that happened to their internet connection:
- It is way more expensive that it used to be,
- It is way slower then it used to be.
I think that changes in USA would impact Europe. All this net neutrality things is not made for our safeness - it's made to earn more money.
10 January 2018 at 17:00
Unknown said…
You’re right. The internet has become to be an important part of our lives. How does somebody dare to officially control that? I can’t believe it concerns our safeness as well.
10 January 2018 at 21:08
Unknown said…
In my opinion they shouldn't change it. Someone should invent something for dvertisments. I will pay for it. This is a big problem for me. Sometimes when I want to watch something I must fight with advertisments first. I rememeber that in the past it was completely diffrent. I know money is important but sometimes I have a feeling that some websites are only ads.
12 January 2018 at 20:57
Vladlen Kyselov said…
To my mind Internet nowadays should not be changed, because every user has a freedom in choosing what to do in the internet and limiting his freedom may cause breaking those new rules.
13 January 2018 at 14:36
Unknown said…
I think that net neutrality is something that should stay unchanged. It's just another idea how to force clients to pay more. Poland would be as strongly impacted as other countries.
Now we can browse on U.S. websites. I wonder if in future we will have to buy a special packet to get the access to the website from foreign countries.
13 January 2018 at 22:17
Unknown said…
I see your point and I have same observations, but money is everywhere and if the content is for free, there are many ads to compensate profits. It is not good but necessary for many sites.
14 January 2018 at 00:44
Unknown said…
I strongly agree with your opinion.
14 January 2018 at 00:46
Marcin Górski said…
In my opinion they shouldn't change it. Using the Internet is very easy now. Why we want to change something which is working well?
The Internet divided in packets, seriously? This is going wrong.
I hope that it will not have any bad impact on Poland. I know that money is the most important on the world but seriously we will pay for everything?
14 January 2018 at 10:43
Maciej Główka said…
In my opinion the change that FCC made is very bad. Those small changes might cause bigger ones in the future. I think USA changes might impact EU. Unfortunately, I couldn't find any news about that change in polish tv/radio/internet. Developers and IT people know what happened, but what about others? In my opinion Internet should stay as neutral as it can.
14 January 2018 at 12:27
Unknown said…
That is a good example of one of the worst-case scenario. I wish it will never be fulfilled.
14 January 2018 at 15:14
Daniel Cnotkowski said…
Net neutrality is what made internet popular in a first place, without freedo of information i doubt we would see internet as important as it is nowadays.

What i think is that FCC is basically preparing for conventional media decline like TV,Radio etc. Companies are looking for means of monetization beyond conventional approaches wich is having actually good and desirable content. Do i blame them Yes they are greedy mother^*& who had failed to realize that they era has come to an end and they need to focus on wuality again. But from buissness standpoint its a good move unforetunately only for them.

As long as the rule has no impact on EU and Poland stays in EU i dont think it will change anything.
14 January 2018 at 15:51
Krzysztof Kanigowski said…
Its a hugely important topic, comparable with the freedom of speech, which might be at risk if the regulations fall. Imagine an internet where you have to not only pay to access social media, but also have all your post approved by somebody before they go out of your computer. A place where unknown people control all the news feeds, deciding which messages reach your computer and which don't. It's a truly frightening future, that might come true if we don't push back against rich corporations trying to rule our lives.

It might sound overly grand, but this is a political issue. Something that can change our lives forever, and not a topic to be ridiculed and belittled (unless you're an international corporation that stands to gain if there safeguarding rules fall).
14 January 2018 at 16:12
Krzysztof Kanigowski said…
*these safeguarding rules
14 January 2018 at 16:12
Unknown said…
Thanks for your feedback. I agree with you in this matter. I also couldn’t imagine vision of a paid internet access.
14 January 2018 at 18:43
Unknown said…
The same problem already existed in 2014, with the same person leading the idea of monetizing internet - Ajit Pai. I still can't understand how does it happened that such person as Donald Trump was elected as president of the United States, and as it turned out, there is already a lot of bad consequences. The internet is the best thing that was created since industrial revolution, it connects people all over the world. So it would be really sad if government will monetize it for their needs.
P.S. Looks like the FCC website has already blocked comments, or has simply crashed.
14 January 2018 at 20:37
Tomasz Morawski said…
I think net neutrality is good for users and it shouldn't be changed but I believe it wouldn't change much if it didn't exist. If Internet stops to be valuable, I'm sure the new way of communication will appear.
I don't think it'll have any impact on Poland but we should be aware of it and make sure it won't be implemented here.
I think it may affect a law in EU but I don't think it'd be negative.
14 January 2018 at 20:37
Unknown said…
Of course net neutrality is a positive thing. I would compare the subject to one of the roads. Who does the infrastructure belong to? The government. Why? Because otherwise people would abuse the system. It might happen with the internet.
I am really glad that we live in the EU and that whatever happens in US hardly affects us (at least in this topic). I thought it was going to have some impact on the global economy but it doesn't seem to be an issue yet.
14 January 2018 at 21:17
Unknown said…
I did observe the situation around net neutrality in "the land of free" on reddit for quite a while and really wanted them to win and keep the rules. Turns out they lost and big telecoms bought themselves out of chains of this regulation. Not that they fully obeyed the rules previously as there are numerous examples of them blocking or throttling certain services over the wire just because the service was a direct competition to their services. That's why net neutrality is obviously good. Access to the internet should be considered a service same as access to the electricity or water. The quality should be uninterrupted and access unobstructed w/e the destination.
Murica is going through tough political period and I hope it will all end good and such, most of all that it won't affect us in Europe. But it just might. Oh and anefword.... Ajit Pai.
14 January 2018 at 21:42
Łukasz Domeradzki said…
It's definitely a bad thing, and we should make our best to stop it before it goes too far. Government is basically testing how far they can go before people go crazy over it. Internet should always be free in terms of accessed information, and nobody should charge extra for how you're using it.
14 January 2018 at 21:50
Aleksander Bartos said…
Internet is not the same as it used to be. Back in the old good days it was a beautiful idea, an open place for everyone, it really could have become the place for a new community to be born. Thanks to the way the system works, it became commercialized and highly supervised. I still don't get why so many people use it without some kind of content blocker.

Of course net neutrality is a good thing, without it the Internet would degrade even further. The sad thing is that it probably won't be kept. There are many ways to implement further restrictions, either directly or indirectly. That's the reason we should all fight for the idea of unrestricted web, but the problem is that the masses are easily controlled by fear. So I think it won't take long before the changes, which are necessary for the powerful to keep power, will come through.
14 January 2018 at 22:23
Unknown said…
Without the net neutrality the Internet wouldn’t be the same as it is now. I think it should stay as it is right now. The impact on Poland probably wouldn’t be immediate but it would impact EU sooner or later.
14 January 2018 at 23:20
Jakub Mańkowski said…
I do not like it - you should always have the possibility to choose what you like to watch in the internet - it should not be ban in any way. For me the best option would be a plugin for people that could filter the web but there should be a possibility to turn it off if you need so.
14 January 2018 at 23:26
Krzysztof Maciaszek said…
I think that the Internet should stay the same, and we should definitely preserve net neutrality. It sure has a huge impact on users, and actually it really helps them. I think that EU will preserve net neutrality, because revoking it would be really bad for EU citizens.
14 January 2018 at 23:39
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