Remember this?

[Krynn72]

Well, its almost guaranteed to happen now.

The FCC just blessed the merger of Comcast, the nation's largest cable and home Internet provider, with NBC Universal. The Justice Department approved the merger, too, leading to the unprecedented consolidation of media and Internet power in the hands of one company.

There's no way to sugarcoat it. Wherever you live, the Comcast-NBC merger is a disaster.

Letting one company control the pipes and the content that flows over those pipes is a formula for abuse. Comcast-NBC could soon hike up rates, take away your favorite channels or even stop you from watching your favorite shows online. Comcast has already targeted Netflix and other companies that compete with its video and Internet offerings.


You might be saying, "I'm not a Comcast customer, so I'm not worried." But Comcast will jack up the prices that other cable and online distributors pay for NBC content, and you'll pay higher prices -- we promise.

You might be saying, "I can just get a new Internet provider if I don't like it." But there's almost no broadband competition. And as TV, radio, phone and other services increasingly become Internet-based, cable will be the only connection that's fast enough to deliver high-quality media and services to most Americans.

You might be saying, "Why should I care about a business deal between two giant companies?" But this merger is certain to be the first domino to fall in a series of mega-media mergers. The FCC's blessing of Comcast-NBC will embolden companies like AT&T or Verizon to try to gobble up content providers like Disney and CBS, creating a new era of media consolidation where even fewer companies control the content you watch and all the ways you watch it.

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/posttech/2011/01/the_federal_communications_com_8.html

Horray for people who don't understand technology making terrible decisions!

 

[Raziaar]

Ughhh

Things are going to get very interesting for Comcast if they decide to start ****ing people with that giant dick nose of theirs sniffing for a profit.

 

[Stigmata]

At this point, I foresee one of two futures for America. Violent revolution, or A Brave New World.

 

[Sheepo]

Culturally, the US is pretty much there. Industrially, it could never happen.

In regards to BNW, of course.

 

[Stigmata]

Who needs industry when you have HAARP and chemtrails? B)

 

[VirusType2]

"Son, when I was your age, we sailed the internet seas exploring vast uncharted waters of information. That was when the internet didn't suck."

I can just see it now.

I feel sick.

 

[15357]

What kind of an evil maniac would try such a thing? This is some Kim Jong-il Hitlerian shit.

*hugs $8-per-month broadband connection*

 

[Mr-Fusion]

The Internet will eventually get the rusty cactus shaped dildo in the ass treatment. Twill be a bloody disgusting thing.

 

[15357]

Wait, are we sure that Comcast will do .... this to America? Have they announced a plan to do so?

Also, don't you guys have anti-monopoly laws?

 

[Krynn72]

Wait, are we sure that Comcast will do .... this to America? Have they announced a plan to do so?

Tiered pricing structures are already in place for many communications providers like AT&T and Cricket, which offer wireless broadband services. Verizon said it would implement similar pricing structures in the coming months.

The FCC's rules would permit the practice on wired networks as well. Both Comcast and Time Warner, two of America's largest wired broadband providers, have already experimented with the practice.

A Texas-based trial run of Time Warner's bandwidth caps saw users paying nearly $30 a month for 768 kilobits-per-second access, with a limit of 5 gigabytes per month and a $1 fee for each gigabyte they went over. One step-up on their pricing tier had users paying nearly $55 for true broadband speeds of 15 megabits-per-second, with a limit of 40 gigabytes per month.

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2010/12/fcc-puts-net-neutrality-dec-agenda/

Also, don't you guys have anti-monopoly laws?

Not without copious amounts of loopholes.

 

[Mr-Fusion]

As is usually the case in America, the americans will rise up with their guns and bullets purchased from kmart and quash any attempt by com cast to subdue their freedom of internets.

 

[Remus]

A Texas-based trial run of Time Warner's bandwidth caps saw users paying nearly $30 a month for 768 kilobits-per-second access, with a limit of 5 gigabytes per month and a $1 fee for each gigabyte they went over. One step-up on their pricing tier had users paying nearly $55 for true broadband speeds of 15 megabits-per-second, with a limit of 40 gigabytes per month.

*hugs $8-per-month broadband connection*

*hugs $9 per month 10Mb/s connection with unlimited, unrestricted traffic.*

 

[Stigmata]

"A Texas-based trial run of Time Warner's bandwidth caps saw users paying nearly $30 a month for 768 kilobits-per-second access, with a limit of 5 gigabytes per month and a $1 fee for each gigabyte they went over."

hahahahahahaha, yeah, this is not going to end well

 

[Escaep]

As is usually the case in America, the americans will rise up with their guns and bullets purchased from kmart and quash any attempt by com cast to subdue their freedom of internets.

We will shoot all the cables and wires.

 

[Remus]

hahahahahahaha, yeah, this is not going to end well

I predict a lot of lead flying in the future.

 

[Shamrock]

At this point, I foresee one of two futures for America. Violent revolution, or A Brave New World.

I think you meant A Whole New World.

 

[Stigmata]

Yeah, but that comes after the revolution

 

[Remus]

It's OK Jebus will save us from the evil corporations.

 

[Krynn72]

Another benefit of the revolution is that it will give me an opportunity to get rid of this guy.

 

[Escaep]

It's OK Jebus will save us from the evil corporations.

I thought the term "jebus' was copyrighted by Stern?

 

[Remus]

I thought the term "jebus' was copyrighted by Stern?

I have no idea what you're talking about. *shifty eyes*

 

[Warped]

I'm trying to think of my life before the internet. its really hard to think how'd I'd have to change everything. but overall i'd probably actually exercise again and feel better about my body. sitting down this long can't be good for anyones health. I always try to stay positive even when its bad

 

[VirusType2]

I'm trying to think of my life before the internet. its really hard to think how'd I'd have to change everything. but overall i'd probably actually exercise again and feel better about my body. sitting down this long can't be good for anyones health. I always try to stay positive even when its bad

You're optimistic about the internet getting ****ed up because you need the exercise?

HAHAHAHAA

 

[DEATHMASTER]

So...how will this affect Verizon internet exactly? The way I see it if they decide to **** with the internet it's more business for Verizon who is, I presume, expanding with its FIOS.

 

[Stigmata]

Unless Verizon customers want to access Comcast-owned content. So then Verizon has to pay licensing fees to allow their customers to access Comcast content. Then Verizon bumps up their prices to compensate. Then Comcast buys more content. Then Verizon starts buying up content producers, and levies access fees against other ISPs. Then one of the companies falls behind in profits, and the network effect drives their customers to the more profitable ISP that owns more content producers. Then the CEO and board of directors of the failing ISP decide to cut their losses and sell. Then the profitable ISP buys them. Then the profitable ISP has a monopoly on both infrastructure and content.

Then, the censorship begins.

 

[Ridge]

We will shoot all the cables and wires.

Too expensive, with the price of ammo going up...easier to just use a fire axe...

 

[VirusType2]

Too expensive, with the price of ammo going up...easier to just use a fire axe...

Just a thought - when is the price of anything and everything not going up? You don't notice things like this when you are young. But the older you get, the more expensive everything has become. My Granddad said he used to pay a nickle for a pack of cigarettes, now they are like $5 or more.

That said, I have been actively protesting this transition to a tier-based, subscription plan internet.

 

[sixteenth]

At least Comcast can't touch Hulu.

"Comcast has an incentive to prevent Hulu from becoming an even more attractive avenue for viewing video programming because Hulu would then exert increased competitive pressure on Comcast's cable business," the department wrote in court filings as part of its proposed settlement with Comcast.

Instead, Comcast will be stripped of its voting rights in Hulu, leaving it a passive investor and no longer entitled to receive "confidential or competitively sensitive information" about the business.

...except in the case where they would want to sell it.

Asked whether such conditions are onerous enough to force Comcast to sell its stake in Hulu, David Cohen, an executive vice president, said the company was not currently weighing that option.

http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-ct-comcast-20110119,0,4887463.story?page=2

 

[YROC]

Honestly, **** my life if this (when it) happens.

The internet is currently the only good thing in my life. As it is now. Currently paying $35 a month for totally unrestricted internet access. No limits, caps, etc.

Seriously, i'm stressing over this. I got the same email Krynn did and I just frowned the whole read.

Spoiler

 

[15357]

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2010/12/fcc-puts-net-neutrality-dec-agenda/


Not without copious amounts of loopholes.

Well.... that sucks. I see only one solution.

Get a shotgun.

*hugs $9 per month 10Mb/s connection with unlimited, unrestricted traffic.*

Yeah, mine's unlimited too, and 300Mb/s at that.

 

[The Monkey]

$35?

I pay the equivalent of $10 per month for 100 mb/s unlimited traffic.

 

[Bad^Hat]

On the bright side, it might actually get better for us.

(Kidding, but seriously, our plans blow.)

 

[Ravioli]

Just wondering, will this become a global thing? Or do these companies only have power within the US?

 

[Raziaar]

"A Texas-based trial run of Time Warner's bandwidth caps saw users paying nearly $30 a month for 768 kilobits-per-second access, with a limit of 5 gigabytes per month and a $1 fee for each gigabyte they went over."

hahahahahahaha, yeah, this is not going to end well

What are we living in the ****ing internet stone ages?

 

[ríomhaire]

If we're comparing internets here I have €20 a month slow, inconsistent, prone to stop working for several minutes at a time, capped wireless internet. This isn't (mostly) due to greedy companies. We just have horrendously bad broadband infrastructure. The government is actually paying a company to give wireless broadband to cover the country because no one was doing it. That's the only reason I have broadband at all. Funny enough, my home in the country now has much better speeds than my college accomidation because there's far fewer people using the network as it's in the middle of nowhere (also the signal booster won't work in the city because it says the signal is too strong. If the signal is so strong why is my connection so weak?)

 

[No Limit]

Reading all these low rates around the world is pissing me off. I am with comcast, 16Mb down 2Mb up and I pay $50 a month. The bonus is they constantly cut my internet connection if I download anything for too long which requires me to reset the modem.

Qwest just got some new fiber optic lines where they can get you up to 40Mb down for around the same price, but of course it's not available in my apartment.

 

[Stigmata]

No, I predict people complaining for a while and doing nothing about it, and eventually forgetting it ever happened. Paying for this extra shit will become so common place we'll forget we have a big dick up our ass, and that is exactly what they want.

But people are poor as **** already. For a lot of people, the only thing keeping them "happy" is the essentially limitless influx of media into their homes. I can't imagine that this is the only content delivery platform that will be hamstrung in the coming year, and if available content shrinks and prices skyrocket, people are going to start having to choose between internet and tv, maybe even internet and food. And once you're forced to choose between physical well-being and mental well-being, it won't take much to push a person over the edge.

 

[BabyHeadCrab]

This is terribly old news and largely alarmist rubbish. You know who owns the rest of NCBU: VUG - who own ActiBlizz aka Call of Duty / Guitar Hero / Blizzard and before this buyout the major holder was General Electric, whom would have taken away neutrality immediately had it not been shot down countless times by people time after time by major shareholders and the ceo/coo.

Major shareholders enjoy their non-monetized internets, and so do their families. Read the most up to date journalism on this.

 

[Krynn72]

Yes, this news is so terribly old, i mean, it happened exactly 22 hours ago for christ's sake!

 

[No Limit]

Lol. Rich shareholders for major corporations will do the right thing because it might affect their friends and families. By far the funniest shit I heard all week.