The invisible hand of the free market has been pretty much debunked again and again. Without good regulation limiting corporations, monopolies form, and consumers get screwed.
Tell me exactly how it "helps the little guy" when ISPs get to throttle internet speed to something like Netflix or HBO? How does that help me out at all? Suddenly I'll have to start paying a higher price on my internet bill because I want to stream Netflix, or get slower speeds for it? Compared to getting good speeds on the company that paid the ISP's to have the privileged lane.
Yeah that's straight retarded. No thanks.
Here is what was banned:
Because the record overwhelmingly supports adopting rules and demonstrates that three
specific practices invariably harm the open Internet—Blocking, Throttling, and Paid Prioritization—this
Order bans each of them, applying the same rules to both fixed and mobile broadband Internet access
service.
No Blocking. Consumers who subscribe to a retail broadband Internet access service
must get what they have paid for—access to all (lawful) destinations on the Internet. This essential and
well-accepted principle has long been a tenet of Commission policy, stretching back to its landmark
decision in Carterfone, which protected a customer’s right to connect a telephone to the monopoly
telephone network.
16 Thus, this Order adopts a straightforward ban:
A person engaged in the provision of broadband Internet access service, insofar as such
person is so engaged, shall not block lawful content, applications, services, or nonharmful
devices, subject to reasonable network management.
16. No Throttling. The 2010 open Internet rule against blocking contained an ancillary
prohibition against the degradation of lawful content, applications, services, and devices, on the ground
that such degradation would be tantamount to blocking. This Order creates a separate rule to guard
against degradation targeted at specific uses of a customer’s broadband connection:
A person engaged in the provision of broadband Internet access service, insofar as such person is
so engaged, shall not impair or degrade lawful Internet traffic on the basis of Internet content,
application, or service, or use of a non-harmful device, subject to reasonable network
management.
17. The ban on throttling is necessary both to fulfill the reasonable expectations of a
customer who signs up for a broadband service that promises access to all of the lawful Internet, and to
avoid gamesmanship designed to avoid the no-blocking rule by, for example, rendering an application
effectively, but not technically, unusable. It prohibits the degrading of Internet traffic based on source,
destination, or content.17 It also specifically prohibits conduct that singles out content competing with a
broadband provider’s business model.
18. No Paid Prioritization. Paid prioritization occurs when a broadband provider accepts
payment (monetary or otherwise) to manage its network in a way that benefits particular content,
applications, services, or devices. To protect against “fast lanes,” this Order adopts a rule that establishes
that:
A person engaged in the provision of broadband Internet access service, insofar as such
person is so engaged, shall not engage in paid prioritization.
“Paid prioritization” refers to the management of a broadband provider’s network to
directly or indirectly favor some traffic over other traffic, including through use of
techniques such as traffic shaping, prioritization, resource reservation, or other forms of
preferential traffic management, either (a) in exchange for consideration (monetary or
otherwise) from a third party, or (b) to benefit an affiliated entity.
https://apps.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attac ... A1_Rcd.pdf
