Kicking each other (and you) off the internet

I dunno. Maybe content should be universally accessible across platforms and networks instead of subject to artificial proprietary fragmentation benefiting one or another oligopolic megaliths.

The latest standoff between Google and Amazon was ridiculed by a trade association of high-speed internet providers. The group, USTelecom, has been trying to persuade skeptics that internet providers will preserve equal access to all digital services, even if the Federal Communications Commission adopts a proposal to rescind current "net neutrality" regulations .

Internet providers are committed to "protections like no content blocking or throttling," said USTelecom CEO Jonathan Spalter. "Seems like some of the biggest internet companies can't say the same. Ironic, isn't it?"

 Or maybe this is the best of all possible worlds. Who is to say?

It's been fun, guys

But the telecoms are now free to kick you all off the internet. A federal appeals court says so.

The decision holds tremendous portent for the future of the Internet.

Net neutrality advocates fear that without rules in place, big companies like Netflix, Disney, and ESPN could gain advantage over competitors by paying ISPs to provide preferential treatment to their company's data. For example, YouTube might pay extra so that its videos load faster than Hulu's on the ISP's network.

We've already seen shades of What Could Happen in AT&T's Sponsored Data and Comcast's decision to have the Xfinity TV streaming app for the Xbox 360 not count against Comcast subscribers' data caps.

Instant Update:

Yesterday, I linked you over to this very important Gawker essay about how this is all going to go down.  Here's a critical passage.

The plutocrats are haunted, as all smarmers are haunted, by the lack of respect. Nothing is stopping anyone—any nobody—from going on a blog or on Twitter and expressing their opinion of you, no matter who you think you are. New media and social media have an immense and cruel leveling power, for people accustomed to old systems of status and prestige. On Twitter, the only answer to "Do you know who I am?" is "One more person with 140 characters to use."

Without Net Neutrality, this is no longer the case.  The plutocrats are now back in charge and they are free to shame and shout down the impudent... wherever they find them.  

Learned helplessness

This morning's New York Times Business section presents us with this essay about the diminishing skills of the average American handyman.

“In an earlier generation, we lost our connection to the land, and now we are losing our connection to the machinery we depend on,” says Michael Hout, a sociologist at the University of California, Berkeley. “People who work with their hands,” he went on, “are doing things today that we call service jobs, in restaurants and laundries, or in medical technology and the like.” 

That’s one explanation for the decline in traditional craftsmanship. Lack of interest is another. The big money is in fields like finance. Starting in the 1980s, skill in finance grew in stature, and, as depicted in the news media and the movies, became a more appealing source of income.

By last year, Wall Street traders, bankers and those who deal in real estate generated 21 percent of the national income, double their share in the 1950s. And Warren E. Buffett, the amiable financier, became a homespun folk hero, without the tools and overalls. 

“Young people grow up without developing the skills to fix things around the house,” says Richard T. Curtin, director of the Thomson Reuters/University of Michigan Surveys of Consumers. “They know about computers, of course, but they don’t know how to build them.”

All of this is quite true. The article, which I recommend, looks at all manner of contributing factors to this phenomenon from the decline of the manufacturing economy, to the disappearance of vocational education.

But one factor the essay doesn't touch on happens to be the subject of a separate story just a few pages over.  How can we expect American consumers to care about acquiring the skills necessary to maintain and repair the electronics they own when the manufacturer expressly discourages them from doing so? 

It isn’t surprising that Apple, the epitome of the closed organization and overlord of the iPhone’s tightly controlled software ecosystem, would design screws that, in effect, serve as locks. And one can see how it would be in Apple’s interest to make it hard for users to extend the life of older models — it’s a way to encourage the purchase of the newest, greatest Apple stuff. 

It's worth mentioning that this sort of thing happens on the software side as well. The new internet being imposed on us by Hollywood and the telecom industry is becoming a much more hands-off instrument than ever before where users are expected to become consumers rather than producers and sharers of content.  This trend has all sorts of interesting consequences but chief among them could be a new kind of learned helplessness with regard to online publishing.  And so Americans could lose yet another powerful tool, a powerful free speech tool, in the same way so many of us have lost the use of our hammers and screwdrivers.

Must read

This is a nice attempt at a unified field theory of internet douchebaggery and the way it feeds our increasingly corporatist politics.

Governments in China, Pakistan, Egypt, and sure, even America have intruded on our legitimate rights online, but that doesn't mean governments are inherently hostile to online activity. It just means we need to work harder to make sure those decisions are responsible and just. We've been trained to think the government is bad online, because it designs shitty websites, whereas tech startups are good, because they design nice websites. But maybe usability isn't actually a marker of moral worth. We used to be against a labor arrangement where the workers (us!) identified more strongly with management (tech companies!) than with each other, but that's what we're encouraged to do online: libertarianism for you, oligopoly for us. We used to think that strong, persistent collective organizations dedicated to protecting our rights were the best way to ensure we weren't trampled on by moneyed interests. Now we think everything will be OK if we flip out on Twitter en masse, or change the background color of our avatar. That's fine for now, but if the internet really is becoming a central part of our lives and a place where we conduct our most important activities, then maybe we should have the same protections there as we do when we're not on our computers.

Every year this becomes a more and more important thing to pay attention to.  And the thing is starting to get more and more out of hand.

Celebrate the independence of your nation by blowing up a small part of it

Or in Verizon's case, celebrate the very notion of "free speech" by perverting it to mean build a bigger censorship machine.

Net Neutrality obsoleted

Remember a few years ago when we reached that "compromise" over net neutrality rules which kept the principle in place for the "wired" internet only?

"Nobody could have predicted" that would be the part of the internet that's going away.

I think fragmenting content delivery according to device is probably a mistake.  When you lose the internet as a universal platform you lose the characteristic that made it a revolutionary medium in the first place.

Obama is being a turd

And if Hillary takes this opportunity to stab him in the back a bit... as is suggested here... he deserves what he gets.

Of course the cloture vote is the real vote on this issue. Senator Obama, who previously stated that he would support a filibuster on telecom immunity was absent today when the time came to make good on that promise. Yes, this is far worse than flip flopping on something as stupid as legislative pay raises. The Democratic nominee for President simply doesn't give a shit about protecting what remains of your Bill of Rights after the current administration is finished shitting all over it.

Note also that Louisiana's Crappy Democratic Senator unsurprisingly sided against your freedom... despite having received some pleasant correspondence from constituents who value her "effectiveness"

Today's Episode of Louisiana's Crappy Democratic Congresspersons

Cazayoux and Melancon vote yay on the horrible un-American domestic spying telecom immunity compromise of any shred of moral principle.

Note that even Dollar Bill had the sense to vote nay on this utterly despicable compromise of principle.

And here is Your Crappy Democratic Nominee endorsing the un-American compromise. I hope he was wearing a flag pin when he did that.

The rest of this post is pretty much just what Athenae said.

Today's Episode of Everybody's Crappy Democratic Congresspersons

Caving on Telecom immunity

Note: Louisiana's Crappy Democratic Senator is already on board with this scheme to further shred the Constitution.

Further Note: Obama loves Crappy Democratic Congresspersons

Finally some good news

FISA bill passes. No telecom immunity. Remember, Bush has said that retroactive immunity for illegal surveillance by telecoms is the highest priority of his remaining days in office.

Unknown Unknowns

The Bush Administration's pursuit of retroactive immunity for telecoms goes beyond just the "known" domestic wiretapping program. How far it goes, is an "unknown unknown".

No Immunity for Unknown Unknowns
Posted by Kurt Opsahl

Today, Director of National Intelligence Mike McConnell admitted that corporate complicity in legally dubious activities far exceeds what's already publicly known:

The Associated Press reports:

Already, [DNI McConnell] says the roughly 40 lawsuits filed against telecom companies nationwide have chilled the private sector's willingness to help the intelligence agencies in ways unrelated to electronic surveillance. Exactly how is classified, and he won't elaborate.

This points to one of the most troubling flaws in the Administration's preferred bill: It offers a broad immunity designed to dismiss all lawsuits filed "in connection with an intelligence activity involving communications." McConnell's revelation shows that the Administration is trying to sweep under the rug not only the pending lawsuits, but also whatever other illegal programs the Adminstration has perpetrated.

This amounts to asking Congress to forgive unknown unknowns — crimes that haven't even been revealed yet. Congress does not know what it does not know about the Administration's other programs, but McConnell has made it clear that the programs are dubious enough to worry the telecoms. Call your Representative today and tell them not to legislate in the dark

Yes, do that. We already know your Democratic Senator from Louisiana doesn't give a crap.

Worst Democrats Ever

Giving up again

Better Democrats

What Athenae said

...Because what he (Dodd) did today was to stop trying to convince me he should have the job, and just start doing the job. He did what leaders do: Get out in front of the thing nobody else even notices is happening, and take it where it ought to have been in the first place. He made an example out of himself. He could have done this thing, where he went on the Sunday shows and talked about how Democrats really ought to be strong leaders and they ought to put aside their own interests and work for their constituents and they really ought to do this, that and the other fucking thing. He could have talked all day long about what Democrats should be doing.

Instead he got up, as a Democrat, and did it.

Meanwhile the "serious" candidates are fine tuning their posing skills as they search for just the right affectation that will communicate their "confidence" to voters.

My Verizon contract is up

Should I renew or tell them to kiss my ass?

Update: Verizon say, "Oopsie!" That didn't take long. Maybe they can still have my money.... and I can continue receiving non-stop photos of r's new puppy.