02.24.14
Netflix Killed the Free Web With DRM, Now Kills Net Neutrality
Summary: Microsoft’s close partner, Netflix, is quickly turning the Internet into another Big Cable/Telecom-controlled DRM streaming conduit
WHEN Net Neutrality was dying in the US many people wondered why Netflix did almost nothing in response. Well, just like Google, Netflix should not be assumed to be an advocate for Net Neutrality. Both companies, along with Microsoft, promote DRM on the Web. Google pretty much stopped fighting for Net Neutrality several years ago. All Google cared about was itself. If it could make the policies work out for its business model (e.g. not discriminating among users of YouTube), then why should it bother with the interests of the vast majority of the population? The same goes for privacy and the so-called ‘resistance’ NSA faces from Facebook, Google, Microsoft, et al.
According to new reports, Comcast and Netflix sort of collude against Net Neutrality (even though the corporate press will not say it like that). “Comcast,” says the New York Times, “the country’s largest cable and broadband provider, and Netflix, the giant television and movie streaming service, announced an agreement Sunday in which Netflix will pay Comcast for faster and more reliable access to Comcast’s subscribers.”
This is appalling. So Netflix is now actively helping Big Cable/Telecom end Net Neutrality. Suffice to say, the bias from the press of Rupert Murdoch continues shamelessly [1], comparing the situation of Net Neutrality to “Traffic Jam” (right there in the headline) while the Internet’s Net Neutrality is not even mentioned (in the whole article). The corporate press (all of it from New York in this case) is now telling us [2] that Tom Wheeler, the mole inside the FCC, is going to write new rules. Perhaps it’s all about normalising this new status quo. He never really fought for Net Neutrality. The mega-corporations got their way on the Internet (and the Web) yet again. We are losing the battle for free and equal speech. Those in power eliminate it little by little. █
Related/contextual items from the news:
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America’s 10-Year Experiment in Broadband Investment Has Failed
Tom Wheeler, chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, announced Wednesday that there would be new rules written to guarantee net neutrality. It’s a good thing any website can reach any person unimpeded by tolls, and it’s good that Wheeler still wants to make this possible. The Internet service providers will first work to dilute the new rules, of course, and then sue to overturn them. Entire legal departments, lobbying outfits, and public-relations firms live for this moment, the beginning of a now-familiar three-year grind with the FCC.
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Netflix Agrees to Pay Comcast to End Traffic Jam
Deal Ends Standoff Over Streaming, Would Give Netflix Direct Access to Comcast Systems
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