net nutrality and 3d printing (thin connection? maybe)

[carter]

I don't know if you pay attention to this topic, but to me it seems that all other news is secondary to it's method of delivery. The FCC just told the big telcom's that the internet should be shaped like broadcast TV of 30 years ago, and so I went to my congress woman's office for the first time in my life.

HMM this turned in to a bit of a rant... please at least read the last paragraph. soryy

Can you imagine the state of 3d printing when Apple teams up with thingieverse to stop you from d/ling a case for your I-crap?

or the maker bot company (i forget their name, but the more I google printing, the eviler they seem) writes some expensive slicer program and decides Verizon needs to slow down all these job destroying free ware websites like KISS and Cura?

not a big deal if you can go to another site... but what if you can only access the 1% unapproved sites at 3Kbps?

Whatever! We'll just start torrenting our uncopywritten models... oops, they unprioritized your torrents, it'll take weeks.

ok, so we start emailing files to each other like we're on a 90's BBS... it's a relatively small community I guess.

oh, wait, you now you need a subscription to google to get prioritized u/l & d/l in your emails.

And if your argument is "the telcom's own the hardware and can do what they want" then I say "they should get their private property that was paid for by the public's subscriptions off our public property."
oh, and if you're in America; hell I'm in Silicone Valley. An hour ago I drove past Google on 101 after driving down carribian to visit Weird Stuff. This is a neighborhood with an intersection called lockheed martin way/Java dr. Despite having gone to elementary school in Saratoga (apple) and living in Los Gatos (Netflix), My internet access speed is 1.5 megabits of a 20 megabit plan. Why? because I refuse to buy comcast after they blocked torrents in 2006 and block municipal network development all over the country. In this wonderful "free market economy" my only. ONLY. alternative option for broadband is a small local company (sonic.net) where the closest hub is 2 miles away, so 20 megabits turns in to 1.5. Of course this isn't as offensive as the fact that America's internet speeds (not sure of the lates #'s) are something like 40th in the world because lack of competition.

Anyway, please read Senator Boxer's letter to the FCC linked below, and if your senator's name isn't on it, you better ask them why. It is pretty easy to google your house/senate leaders and send them an email. take 2 min if you don't count the stupid drop down menu that forces you to categorize your topic.

http://www.boxer.senate.gov/en/press/re ... rality.pdf

and if you want to read more, look up freepress.org

[McSlappy]

It's pretty damn depressing when every news report just shows more of the same: Our 'representatives' are not representing us but companies. They don't give a shit about the citizen, and they have no idea what being a citizen really means.
Partly why I got into this gig I'd like to help citizens make their own amazing stuff free from the constraints of companies and governments.

[carter]

We broke up AT&T once.

And although my brain is 98% geared towards cynicism, You gotta give the folks over 40 a break - This network of tubes that Gore gave us is pretty complicated. I don't think politicians use the net for much more than email. We need to explain to them how dystopic a situation this really is. When they understand that the next answering machine will be delayed 20 years - technologies that fundamentally improve everyone's lives will be blocked by the big 3 - and their constituents can read and meme about how the next flying car isn't available - they'll realize they're on the wrong side of history. wait for 75% of the boomers to stop voting.

Give it 10 years, a demographic shift, and one old-timey politician's career getting SOPAed
But how entrenched can they get before then?

10 points if you guess how that politician will get SOPAed!
My guess is s/he will try to block porn.

[forrie]

It will start with porn...then everything else will follow.

They tried that in Australia under a guise of a kiddie porn filter at all ISP's. Didn't work...we arn't that stupid (yet), but the UK (Police state) seems to be making nice progress. It won't be long before all the other sheep follow.