Tuesday, February 16, 2010

GOSH, GUYS--YA THINK?

People are actually having open discussions about "net neutrality," --just like here in the Basin for, like, the last three years.  It's a complicated situation and we've already given ground.  The debate is full of sunshine patriots (can you say "Sponsored Links"?) but still worth having.  Welcome aboard, midwest journalism.

5 Comments:

At 1:13 PM, February 16, 2010, Anonymous Anonymous said...

I enjoy the people who think it's a Marxist conspiracy by Barack Obama to suppress their free speech. The first time I read that argument I thought they were joking. They weren't. People can be that gullible.

 
At 4:45 PM, February 16, 2010, Anonymous Anonymous said...

There could be some "fairness doctrine" like rules imposed if Obama had his way, but the main concern seems about providing access to users, without heavy users or advertisers monopolizing and degrading bandwidth.

I have no idea if my $20/month covers costs for ATT to provide dsl ... I would think it would since they didn't run new lines.

But I want it treated more like a phone line .. I can contact whomever I want. NOT like a pay per view service where only those that pay ATT are readily available, and I have to pay (like a long distance call) each time I go to a site.

 
At 7:56 AM, February 18, 2010, Anonymous Anonymous said...

It sounds to me like one of the issues is having the ability to throttle back bandwidth to people who do a great deal of file sharing. Peer to Peer theft of copywrited songs has led to a dramatic downturn in CD sales. One might think no big deal - the record companies and artists can afford it. The truth is the damage runs much deeper than that. As an example, Quincy Park Band for years has been funded to a large degree by the Music Performance Fund, affiliated with the American Federation of Musicians. The Music Performance Trust Fund is a source of funding for free public concerts across the US and for decades has been funded through agreements with the Recording Industry. That funding has nearly totally disappeared primarily due to the great reduction in revenues to the recording industry caused by the great decline in CD sales.

 
At 9:14 AM, February 18, 2010, Blogger UMRBlog said...

0756,

You are certainly correct that pirating is a problem.

But limiting downloads to address that is like closing five of 8 lines on an interstate highway because some bank robber might use it for a getaway route. Overbroad solution.

TYFCB

 
At 1:08 PM, February 18, 2010, Anonymous Anonymous said...

You can listen to most music on youtube ...

Local giving to Quincy Park Band might grow if they offered a "best of" collection with a $25 donation (downloadable, no production or delivery costs). They could even include video of Mr. Sherman at his best, and special solos. Frig magnets are nice, but let's use the web. For no extra charge, special home solo's could be added.

If people pirated the video ... no problem, it would only encourage more to attend, building community involvement.

I see that as one example of why the internet should not be overloaded by political or commercial interests. Some cities have young crowds at park concerts, here it is mostly gray.

And many gray haired could continue to enjoy the park band experience after they are immobile, if it was webcast live to their home or nursing home.

Technology is great.

 

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