Netflix is paying off Comcast for direct traffic access

[Rart]

Seeing as the articles section of the site has been pretty sketchy recently and this news is pretty important, I'd thought I'd post this here.

Netflix is paying off Comcast for direct traffic access.

In addition, earlier it was revealed that Verizon seeks payment for carrying Netflix Traffic.

ISPs already make absurd amounts of money with essentially no motivation for innovation and every motivation to remain stagnant due to regional monopolies, resulting in one of the lowest average internet speeds of any developed nation. Now they want to double dip and charge companies extra money to send traffic down a network that we paid for.

Not only that, these measures violate the entire idea of net neutrality and is extremely anti competitive. What's to stop Comcast from throttling any service that's competes with their offerings? How are new and upcoming companies supposed to compete with behemoths that have the means of paying off Comcast for peering?

And if Comcast manages to merge with Time Warner they become even more influential in the industry. The (by far) dominant provider of internet and TV in the country, and owns NBC to boot. They will hold an absurd amount of negotiating power within every facet of the entertainment and technology industry.

When exactly will the US Government/FCC/DOJ finally realize that this is a place where the "free market" doesn't work and that they need to step in? When are ISPs going to finally be classified as common carriers?

[piercerseth]

Fuck the FCC, they had their shot in 2002 and blew it. Check out Tom Wheeler's cv for a laugh. All puppets for the NCTA and lobbyist money.

AT&T and Verizon were allowed to run amok eating up their baby bell siblings, this and the TWC merger is just more business as usual.

[Rart]

http://www.theverge.com/2014/2/24/54...to-pay-them-as

"If you see someone come in with a lot of load on the internet, [with] video, you've got to get that in an efficient place. So making the connection far out on the network is a good thing, and frankly, paying for it," said McAdams. "To me this shows you don't necessarily need a lot of regulation in a dynamic market here. By doing these commercial deals we'll get good investments and good returns for both parties."

[megabyteme]

I can only hope Netflix is luring the sharks in to swarm, then when the public sees the greed of being without regulation, something will be done for net neutrality. We can HOPE anyway...

And, it is apparent Verizon believes paying extortion is GOOD business. Time to break out the guillotines, IMO.

[Travo1]

This is the begging of the end imo. Everyone is going to get hammered by these ISP's, and then the prices of everything will go up.