# Seems To Be A Worthy Cause

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/seems-to-be-a-worthy-cause/354248>\
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion\
**Created:** [April 26, 2006, 4:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/seems-to-be-a-worthy-cause/354248 "2006-04-26T04:17:34Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Fritz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/c57346/32.png) [@Fritz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fritz)\
**Post date:** [April 26, 2006, 4:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/seems-to-be-a-worthy-cause/354248/1 "2006-04-26T04:17:34Z")

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For those of you that regularly visit Snopes, I found the following article:

> **[FACT CHECK: Is Portugal an Example of What Happens Without Net Neutrality?](https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/portugal-net-neutrality/)**
>
> Proponents of keeping the FCC's net neutrality laws (now under reconsideration) cited a Portuguese company's mobile data plan as a harbinger of the future.

> [@](#):
>
> One of the most important current legislative issues involving the Internet is the concept of “network neutrality.” Simply put, network neutrality means that no web site’s traffic has precedence over any other’s on the massive fiber-optic and copper-wire networks that connect millions of computers together on the Internet. Whether a user searches for recipes using Google, reads an article on [snopes.com](http://snopes.com), or looks at a friend’s MySpace profile, all of that data is treated equally and delivered from the originating web site to the user’s web browser with the same priority.
> 
> In recent months, however, some of the telephone and cable companies that control the telecommunications networks over which Internet data flows have floated the idea of creating the electronic equivalent of a paid carpool lane — that is, charging larger or more traffic-intensive Internet businesses and information providers a fee in order to send their traffic via faster and more reliable network pipelines…

Contained in this report is a link that will allow you to sign a petition to Congress expressing disapproval of potential legislation that threatens “network neutrality.”

Considering how this community values internet freedom, I thought that this would be something that is worth bringing to your attention.

Mods, I apologize if this topic is not appropriate or is in the wrong forum.

Best Regards,  
Fritz

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**Author:** ![ftg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ftg/32/2801_2.png) [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)\
**Post date:** [April 26, 2006, 3:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/seems-to-be-a-worthy-cause/354248/2 "2006-04-26T15:03:12Z")

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This is one of those classic issues where tech people like me are astounded by how other people buy into the nonsense that appears in the press about this.

E.g., the head of AT&T complains that Google is using their network for free.

Like hell!

Google pays a huge amount of money for its network bandwith. A web site pays its network provider for its bandwith. That company has arrangements with all the other companies it connects with to share bandwith etc. TINSTAAFL.

AT&T and the other big companies want Google and such to _pay twice_!

Note that there is also the issue that the major companies _hate it_ when their users go to other web services. Comcast wants it’s customers to only use Comcast sites. But all Comcast sites suck so they want to _force_ people into sticking within their network. Hence, the idea of “tiers”. Want to go outside Comcast’s system? Pay Comcast more money.

So money, like usual drives this. “Follow the money.”

This is going to be the classic “killing the goose that laid the golden egg” scenario. Take a wonderful useful thing and ruin it for greedy reasons and no one ends up making any money.