Is Broadband A Civil Right?FCC meeting heavy on rhetoric, light on usefulness... 03:38PM Tuesday Jul 22 2008 by Karl Bodetags: legal · fccTipped by TK Junk Mail  "No matter who you are, or where you live, or how much money you make ... you will need, and you are entitled to have these tools (broadband) available to you, I think, as a civil right," said FCC commissioner Michael Copps during yesterday's broadband hearing in Pittsburgh. Users around here enjoy fighting over whether broadband is a luxury or necessary utility, but suggesting it's a civil right is a new wrinkle. Yesterday's meeting was a mish-mash of various ideas, with nothing even close to consensus. From CNET: It would take work to be more vague than the event's official title: "Broadband and the Digital Future." So speakers veered haphazardly between spam, pornography, media ownership, database privacy, computer prices, Net neutrality, mobile provider pricing, bandwidth caps, Webcasting official meetings, and piracy on peer-to-peer networks. And that was just in the last hour. The FCC website has the speeches from three of the commissioners ( Tate, Copps, Adelstein), and a video of the event should be posted here in time. The FCC has announced they'll be holding yet another public hearing, this time in Brooklyn on July 30, according to an FCC press release. But why? More rhetoric doesn't accomplish anything, and the current FCC has shown they aren't interested in implementing new policy. The FCC's first two hearings had an actual purpose: addressing transparency in network management and Comcast's packet forgery. That ended with Kevin Martin announcing that Comcast would be wrist-slapped. But now it's getting harder to decipher what the hearings are actually supposed to accomplish. Not that Mark Cuban's thoughts on 3D basketball aren't really, really fascinating, but what's the actual point?
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- Monday Morning Links
- Friday Evening Links
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KrK
Heavy Artillery For The Little Guy
Premium
join:2000-01-17
Tulsa, OK
 ·Cox HSI
 ·AT&T Southwest
| Civil Right? Not yet... Civil right?
Well, I think access to decent Internet connection is certainly very useful, empowering, and convenient.... I'm still not there as in saying "It's a right."
Although I can clearly see how the lack of access to a decent Internet connection at home is a disadvantage, I'm not seeing it as yet so indispensable as to be included in the "Must have, it's a right" category....
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"Regulatory capitalism is when companies invest in lawyers, lobbyists, and politicians, instead of plant, people, and customer service." - former FCC Chairman William Kennard (A real FCC Chairman, unlike the current Corporate Spokesperson in the job!) | |
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PBX Tech
Godsmack on XM48 Squizz
Premium
join:2000-09-20
Norwich, CT
| Re: Civil Right? Not yet... I agree with you. Internet access on any level isnt a right or a necessity. If you have the money, buy a computer and sign up for access somewhere. For instance, driving isnt a right(it can be revoked by the issuing State) or necessity. If you want to drive, you have to buy the car and the gas. Same for the internet.
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I have come to realize that God doesn't want to hear from me anymore. | |
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telcolackey
The Truth? You can't handle the truth
join:2007-04-06
Death Valley, CA
| Re: Civil Right? Not yet... Are the computers needed to access the Internet a civil right? Is Microsoft Windows a civil right?
I can't wait until I don't have to pay for anything anymore and have the government take care of me. This model has worked out so well for other countries in the past.
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"Believe only half of what you see and nothing that you hear." - Dinah Craik | |
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N3OGH
They both suck, we're so screwed
Premium
join:2003-11-11
Philly burbs | Re: Civil Right? Not yet... Ahh, hoping for change we can believe in I see  | |
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The Professor
@comcast.net
 from:
avd706
| said by telcolackey :Is Microsoft Windows a civil right? No. Microsoft Windows is more like a punishment. | |
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FastiBook
join:2003-01-08
Newtown, PA
 ·Verizon FIOS
| I disagree. I think not having true broadband is limiting how much one can accomplish. I can see some folks not wanting it, but it should be available to everyone if they choose to use it. Imagine how much fuel could be saved if people could work from home a few weeks a year, or during severe weather when folks are stuck.... It shouldn't just be the rich who benefit from technology, but everyone.
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LETS GO METS! | |
| | | | ender7074
join:2006-11-21
Saint Louis, MO
·AT&T Southeast
·Charter Pipeline
edit:
July 22nd, @03:39PM
| Re: Civil Right? Not yet... said by FastiBook :I disagree. I think not having true broadband is limiting how much one can accomplish. I can see some folks not wanting it, but it should be available to everyone if they choose to use it. Imagine how much fuel could be saved if people could work from home a few weeks a year, or during severe weather when folks are stuck.... It shouldn't just be the rich who benefit from technology, but everyone. Mankind has made 99.99999999% of its most important discoveries without broadband. Its not a right or a necessity but a luxury. If you can afford it great. If not and it's important, then time to evaluate your financial situation. | |
| | | | | thevorpal
join:2007-11-16
Endicott, NY
| Re: Civil Right? Not yet... said by ender7074 :Mankind has made 99.99999999% of its most important discoveries without broadband. Its not a right or a necessity but a luxury. If you can afford it great. If not and it's important, then time to evaluate your financial situation. Mankind may have made 99% of the most imporant discoveries without broadband, but without communication 0% would have occured or mattered.
I believe that access to the primary methods of communication in any age is a fundamental right. From gestures and grunts, we moved to a spoken language. Then from a spoken language we invented cuneiform script. The alphabets followed and were followed by signaling techniques, then electromagnetic transmissions. Those EM signals are being improved through compression allowing even more data to be passed. At one time, letters were good enough for anyone, telephones were a luxury. Then, data service was a luxury for only the largest of companies and banks.
As you can see, the future technology is always the luxury, but the prevalent form of communication IS a necessity and access to it is a bona fide civil right.
The question shouldn't be if broadband should be a right or not, but rather, is broadband internet access now the predominant form of communication? Once that answer is 'yes' then the idea that it is a right should be automatic.
If it is not the 'standard' yet, it will be very very shortly. | |
| | | | | | pbarrow
Premium
join:2003-09-16
Montgomery, AL
| Re: Civil Right? Not yet... Nice reply!
Also consider the Middle Ages when the State and the Church tried to limit Books and The Bible to only the State and the Church thus keeping the people and peasants just that - people and peasants.
The world didn't begin to grow until everyone was being educated to read and write.
I suspect that you will find that in education today that the kids who do better are the one that have access to a computer and internet in the home. | |
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insomniac84
join:2002-01-03
Schererville, IN
edit:
July 23rd, @01:25AM
| Re: Civil Right? Not yet... said by pbarrow :I suspect that you will find that in education today that the kids who do better are the one that have access to a computer and internet in the home. Completely correct until that statement. There are some kids the internet can really screw up. I can't imagine that the kid running home to go on the internet is better than the one who plays outside.
»youtube.com/watch?v=sXlwLTe6OFs&···=related
Even the older more "mature" people in this video seem warped. | |
| | | | | | suncet
join:2001-02-01
Lehi, UT
| said by thevorpal :said by ender7074 :Mankind has made 99.99999999% of its most important discoveries without broadband. Its not a right or a necessity but a luxury. If you can afford it great. If not and it's important, then time to evaluate your financial situation. Mankind may have made 99% of the most imporant discoveries without broadband, but without communication 0% would have occured or mattered. I believe that access to the primary methods of communication in any age is a fundamental right. From gestures and grunts, we moved to a spoken language. Then from a spoken language we invented cuneiform script. The alphabets followed and were followed by signaling techniques, then electromagnetic transmissions. Those EM signals are being improved through compression allowing even more data to be passed. At one time, letters were good enough for anyone, telephones were a luxury. Then, data service was a luxury for only the largest of companies and banks. As you can see, the future technology is always the luxury, but the prevalent form of communication IS a necessity and access to it is a bona fide civil right. The question shouldn't be if broadband should be a right or not, but rather, is broadband internet access now the predominant form of communication? Once that answer is 'yes' then the idea that it is a right should be automatic. If it is not the 'standard' yet, it will be very very shortly. Nice post | |
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BillTager
join:2000-09-20
Charlotte, NC
edit:
July 23rd, @09:57AM
| deleted | |
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griff
@comcast.net
| “There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics.” - Mark Twain
Broadband is to this country today what indoor plumbing and electric lights were not that long ago. Disagree by throwing your cell phone, laptop and/or desktop computer out your window now! | |
| | | | | | | | | decifal
join:2007-03-10
Bon Aqua, TN
| Re: Civil Right? Not yet... No offense,, but I doubt those numbers are accurate.. Rich or not. Unless you count satellite.. Which I do NOT! | |
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Hehe
@ssa.gov
from:
TK Junk Mail
| said by FastiBook :I disagree. I think not having true broadband is limiting how much one can accomplish. I can see some folks not wanting it, but it should be available to everyone if they choose to use it. Imagine how much fuel could be saved if people could work from home a few weeks a year, or during severe weather when folks are stuck.... It shouldn't just be the rich who benefit from technology, but everyone. Ok, so we give you free Internet. I bet you now expect a free PC too? Oh, and you want your electricity reconnected for free too? | |
| | | | RocketChild
join:2003-11-24
Round Rock, TX
edit:
July 22nd, @04:31PM
| I think your right, at some point, we could have a lot more people working from home that do not need to commute in. Sure there are engineers that need to be in the lab. But the technology is there for all those people that work in call centers to stay at home with a paperless office. A lot of computer administration can be done from home. It is good for families and well-being in general.
Of course it will not work for everyone in every industry, but with a solid broadband infrastructure, we could see all those software programmers that have to drive to work stay at home. All those call reps at Sprint work from home (you see it a lot with banks and insurance companies when calling on the weekend).
How much would it really yield in the long run after the investments is the question.
And as for it being a right...well, at the moment, no, but in 20 years, life could be so integrated with technology that we should start thinking about having a right to good internet service as being part of being a member of society. At least by thinking about it as a right now will help us figure in where it will fit in our culture a decade from now when our kids will truly not be able to live without it. | |
| | | | cornelius785
join:2006-10-26
Worcester, MA
| who says people want to work from home? who says employers would allow? i sort of doubt they would enjoy company secrets/projects flying across the internet to systems that potentially insecure. who says that broadband is need for working at home? dialup is more than enough to connect to a license server if that is all that is needed. wasn't broadband supposed to enable this huge work at home movement in the late 1990's or early 2000's? why hasn't it happened? there is also nothing quite like being there in person. | |
| | | | | jjeffeory
join:2002-12-04
USA
| Re: Civil Right? Not yet... said by cornelius785 :who says people want to work from home? who says employers would allow? i sort of doubt they would enjoy company secrets/projects flying across the internet to systems that potentially insecure. who says that broadband is need for working at home? dialup is more than enough to connect to a license server if that is all that is needed. wasn't broadband supposed to enable this huge work at home movement in the late 1990's or early 2000's? why hasn't it happened? there is also nothing quite like being there in person. If you only knew how many company secrets and personal information is flying across the internet to India you'd be shocked!
Broadband is not a right, but it is a utility that should be regulated and not capped or fooled with. | |
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asdfdfdfdfdfdf
@Level3.net
| I don't believe that rights language is the proper way to approach this.
I still believe that a wise just society makes sure that fundamental infrastructure is available to all citizens. It's also better for social stability and the economic success of the society.
"If you want to drive, you have to buy the car and the gas."
What if there were no roads where you live and people were telling you to quit bitching and build your own highway system if you want to travel by car?
And contrary to what many would have people believe, accessible roads, electricity available to everyone, education for all citizens has been a major foundation of the success and power of the american economy. | |
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N3OGH
They both suck, we're so screwed
Premium
join:2003-11-11
Philly burbs
·Verizon Online DSL
| Re: Civil Right? Not yet... said by asdfdfdfdfdfdf :
What if there were no roads where you live and people were telling you to quit bitching and build your own highway system if you want to travel by car? Um, no. I would just BUY A HORSE.
Or an all terrain vehicle....
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Petty people are disproportionably corrupted by petty power… | |
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asdfdfdfdfdfdf
@Level3.net
| Re: Civil Right? Not yet... "I would just BUY A HORSE"
You expect us to believe this? You would ride a horse to work every day and take a horse to the grocery store? Where are you going to keep it while you are at work or the store?
You think any business, store, etc. is going to let you tie your horse up outside the door and let it shit on the sidewalk?
Where are you going to keep it at home given that many residential areas would probably not allow you to keep farm animals on your property? This is against the law in many places.
And an all terrain vehicle? This isn't the 18th century where people often walked or rode over other people's fields. This is the 21st century, legal strictures are much more rigid than they used to be. You don't have any license to take all terrain vehicles over other people's land. So how do you get from your home to work without trespassing?
You have given a clever answer but it comes back to infrastructure and having the social structures in place to support particular behaviors. When horses were the mode of transport there were norms in place to support the use of them and a whole social ecosystem built up to facilitate their use in daily life. In other words there was infrastructure, however primitive it may seem by our standards. | |
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Placebo
Premium
join:2005-12-14
Huntley, IL | Re: Civil Right? Not yet... Yes, the infrastructure is important, but I shouldn't expect FIOS and city water and sewer if I move to the middle of the Mojave desert.
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"Just living the nightmare" - John Daly | |
| | | | | | | cornelius785
join:2006-10-26
Worcester, MA | Re: Civil Right? Not yet... I'd also like to add that you don't have to look all that hard for places in which water or sewers aren't provided. as with anything else, if you know how to look, you'll find it. | |
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N3OGH
They both suck, we're so screwed
Premium
join:2003-11-11
Philly burbs | BTW, I live 20 miles from center city Philadelphia and I still have well water and a septic tank....
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Petty people are disproportionably corrupted by petty power… | |
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FastiBook
join:2003-01-08
Newtown, PA
·Verizon FIOS
edit:
July 23rd, @01:22AM
| Re: Civil Right? Not yet... I know of many areas that have well water, a septic tank, and horrible connection speeds just a few miles away from me. I just happen to live 5 miles from a major wire center for the entire internet, and live in an area where cables are underground, not exposed up on giant toothpicks waiting for the next ice storm or drunk driver to topple it.
It should be a right in the sense that what one person HAS ACCESS to another should as well. We might all sit here with our multi-megabit per second connections saying it should or shouldn't be a right, when the people who this whole thread of comments is about doesn't even know this site exists because they HAVE NO INTERNET OR COMPUTER. When i say work from home, guess what, there are a plethora of secure point to point applications (one of which my very own mother uses) that companies can use to let their employees telecommute. Everything is connected, and sometimes in ways we don't realize. Imagine funding for free wimax for an area, and police get to use it to monitor wireless CCTV cameras to monitor civilian activity (not in the 1984 sense, but in a "someone might be watching so lets behave" kinda way), including traffic patterns, crimes, accidents, and heck even weather conditions! The possibilities are only limited by the imagination.
I've never wrote huge long posts on here before, but i see what not having things most others have does to a city or neighborhood. You want to talk about 54 million homes having broadband? Try driving through parts of camden, nj, parts of newark, nj, parts of philadelphia, hell, parts of manhattan, any county/town has its less fortunate citizens, and the more we can do for them, the better off everyone will be. Hell, you might just get a good feeling out of it too.
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LETS GO METS! | |
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N3OGH
They both suck, we're so screwed
Premium
join:2003-11-11
Philly burbs
·Verizon Online DSL
| Re: Civil Right? Not yet... said by FastiBook : Try driving through parts of camden, nj, parts of newark, nj, parts of philadelphia, hell, parts of manhattan, any county/town has its less fortunate citizens, and the more we can do for them, the better off everyone will be. Hell, you might just get a good feeling out of it too. OK, first off, I make my living doing for others. Due to the fact that I chose a career in public service, I don't make a lot, or have a lot to start with. I work two jobs just to keep up with the property taxes I have to pay every year to the school district that I have no kids in. I haven't even had a cost of living raise in 3 years for crying out loud. Often times I come home from work and have to strip to my skivies in the driveway to make sure the roaches that made it into my pants in the course of my shift don't end up in my groceries.
Mind you, I'm not waa waa waaing, I'm simply pointing out the fact that I'm not sitting in some corner office making a six figure salary looking down on the "little" people. Those little people happen to be how I make a living.
So please don't take it personally if I take umbrage with the seemingly righteously indigent tone of your comments.
I'm not saying that broadband technology is not a valuable resource to the community. I'm just saying it does not, and will not ever reach par with the rights guaranteed by the Constitution.
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Petty people are disproportionably corrupted by petty power… | |
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N3OGH
They both suck, we're so screwed
Premium
join:2003-11-11
Philly burbs
·Verizon Online DSL
moderated:
July 23rd, @07:23PM
| Without roads, there would be no grocery store to run off to, or business to visit.
Those roads are paid for by people who USE THEM through fuel taxes. If no one made the money to buy fuel to use them, there would be no need for them, and I would be riding my horse to the local farm to buy milk and eggs.
The very foundations of modern society you cite ( social structures, modes of transport, social ecosystem) exist only due to the commerce they perpetuate. Without them, we're all 150 years in the past shitting in outhouses and reading by candlelight.
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Petty people are disproportionably corrupted by petty power… | |
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asdfdfdfdfdfdf
@Level3.net
moderated:
July 23rd, @07:24PM
| Re: Civil Right? Not yet... I don't see how what you are saying invalidates or conflicts with what I have said.
"Without roads, there would be no grocery store to run off to,"
"The very foundations of modern society you cite ( social structures, modes of transport, social ecosystem) exist only due to the commerce they perpetuate"
Isn't this an admittance of the central importance of infrastructure to economic development. Isn't this evidence that these things should not just be seen as luxuries? And the question wasn't about whether there would be roads around businesses but about the consequences if roads were not accessible to you. I think it only reinforces the understanding that if people have no reasonable access to this infrastructure that they are going to be left behind and socially and economically marginalized. This undermines social cohesion and isn't wise policy.
On the question of private wells and septic systems: These are fairly cost effective ways of substituting privately owned infrastructure for public infrastructure. There are laws and standards in place for the building of these things and there is a well established business environment where one can fairly easily get these necessities built at relatively low cost by many different competing businesses. Private wells and septic systems cost money but they don't drastically alter the cost of constructing a home. I have no quarrel with any of this. In fact, I would much prefer decentralized ownership of infrastructure to concentrated control by either government or corporations. Mesh networking, for example, has some early promise, though it isn't to the point, socially or technically, that it can substitute for incumbent wireline communications.
I don't think it changes the debate. There is no comparable private infrastructure, at present, that can substitute in the case of global communications. We hear, now and again, about a cable company offering to run a line to someones home for 10's of thousands of dollars, but there really is no well established way of getting even this done. In most instances these companies wouldn't do such a thing even if the homeowner offered to shoulder the cost (and of course after shouldering the cost the homeowner still wouldn't own the infrastructure for that line, the company would). | |
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avd706
Premium
join:2003-02-06
Great Neck, NY
| A free press is a civil right, it doesn't mean that the government has to give you a printing press.
But impediment of access to a press is a violation of your civil right and any impediment to internet access can likewise be construed as a civil right. | |
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funchords
Robb
Premium,MVM
join:2001-03-11
Hillsboro, OR
·Verizon Online DSL
 ·Skype
·Comcast
| Internet is becoming a necessity these days to conduct business, basic research, apply for jobs, review medical benefits, and etc..
I don't know if I'm on board that a human right to free and individual Internet access is here.
I think that "Internet For Everyone" ought to be thought of in the same way as "Transit Access for Everyone" does. It doesn't mean a free ride, necessarily.
Sign on a Trimet Bus - Portland Oregon
You can get by if a) you have your own access to the Internet, b) you know someone who has access to the Internet who can do things for you, or c) you have public libraries with Internet access.
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Robb Topolski -= funchords.com =- Hillsboro, Oregon
Comcast: We never did anything wrong, and we'll never do it again...
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marigolds
Gainfully employed, finally
Premium,MVM
join:2002-05-13
Saint Louis, MO
| said by PBX Tech :For instance, driving isnt a right(it can be revoked by the issuing State) or necessity. If you want to drive, you have to buy the car and the gas. Same for the internet. But transportation is a right. A transit company has to jump through enormous hoops to deny access to a person on any basis other than price (and the pricing must be uniform).
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ISCABBS - the oldest and largest BBS on the Internet
telnet://bbs.iscabbs.com
Professional Geographer
Geographic Information Science researcher | |
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See 9 replies to this post | |
| SHABAZZ
join:2008-07-13
Seattle, WA
| Broadband isn’t a civil right. Nor should it be classified as a must have utility. ISPs shouldn’t be forced to pay to run fiber, coax or twisted pair to “Mortimer” who lives in west bubble f***, population 3. But I do think all states should have some type of broadband policy in place. If a state has small towns and cities that are under served and the community does not have the funds to build out the network or an ISP won’t because of the profit margins, the state budget should pay for or help pay for one to be built. | |
| | | pbarrow
Premium
join:2003-09-16
Montgomery, AL
| Re: Civil Right? Not yet... I hope one day it will be a Public Service set up and controlled by each community and not by the ISP's, even if it's Limited Broadband, such as is OTA TV and Radio.
So all you need is a PC and Wireless card to access it for free just like Radio and OTA TV
We wouldn't ahve much of a nation or world today if it wasn't for Radio and TV. | |
| | | | openbox9
join:2004-01-26
Navarre, FL | Re: Civil Right? Not yet... A majority of radio and OTA TV broadcasts aren't provided by communities, they're provided by corporation out to make money by selling products. No/Low cost ISPs have attempted similar models in the past and failed miserably. | |
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TK Junk Mail
Go ahead, make my day
Premium
join:2002-03-03
Margate City, NJ
clubs:
·Comcast
| Re: No, But is is the Growth of the Economy at Stake said by supergirl : If ISPs want to be a part, they might start investing rather than bitching about caps and capacity.  FCC Commissioner Tate quoted how much is being invested. And it is plenty:
»hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/a···99A1.pdf
Notably, Internet providers continue to invest billions of dollars to upgrade and expand their networks. Spending on broadband networks was $15 billion in 2007 and is expected to dramatically rise to $23 billion by 2010.
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My BLOG .. .. Internet News .. .. My Web Page
Ask yourself one question: 'Do I feel lucky?' Well, do ya punk? | |
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funchords
Robb
Premium,MVM
join:2001-03-11
Hillsboro, OR | Re: No, But is is the Growth of the Economy at Stake I believe the first number. The second number is fantasy and doesn't take into effect Butter's Law of Photonics (Moore's Law for Networks). | |
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TK Junk Mail
Go ahead, make my day
Premium
join:2002-03-03
Margate City, NJ
clubs:
·Comcast
| Re: No, But is is the Growth of the Economy at Stake said by funchords :I believe the first number. The second number is fantasy and doesn't take into effect Butter's Law of Photonics (Moore's Law for Networks). I think the 2nd number takes in to account all the growth expected in 3G, 4G, & Wimax rollouts coming in the next 3 years. All that new wireless spectrum from the auctions has to be exploited after all the money they spent on it.
--
My BLOG .. .. Internet News .. .. My Web Page
Ask yourself one question: 'Do I feel lucky?' Well, do ya punk? | |
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funchords
Robb
Premium,MVM
join:2001-03-11
Hillsboro, OR | Re: No, But is is the Growth of the Economy at Stake I don't know what to make of Commissioner Tate. I like her, but she seems pretty misplaced. Like she should be a lobbyist instead of the one being lobbied. But I do like her and respect her quite a lot. | |
| Lazlow
join:2006-08-07
Saint Louis, MO
| Interesting It will certainly be interesting to see which way the ISPs jump on this. If everyone must have internet then there will be government money involved so the ISPs will want their share of that. However if government money is involved there will be more oversight. If it were a civil right I would imagine that most forms of limiting a connection (DPI, caps, etc) would be banned. | |
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TK Junk Mail
Go ahead, make my day
Premium
join:2002-03-03
Margate City, NJ
clubs:
·Comcast
|  Add "broadband stamps" to food stamps & free healthcare?
quote:
"No matter who you are, or where you live, or how much money you make ... you will need, and you are entitled to have these tools (broadband) available to you, I think, as a civil right," said FCC commissioner Michael Copps
Copps is just proposing 1 more addition to the welfare state - free food; free health care; free schooling(even for illegal aliens); electricity you can't turn off when it is too hot or too cold; guaranteed heat without paying; etc.; etc.
Hey, if you can't pay for broadband then the taxpayers will foot the bill. Only problem is that the freeloaders will eventually outnumber the workers. And that is the problem when the government becomes beholden to voters who don't pull their own weight and pay for their own necessities. You get a government of handouts until the piggybank runs dry. And we aren't all that far from that actually happening.
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My BLOG .. .. Internet News .. .. My Web Page
Ask yourself one question: 'Do I feel lucky?' Well, do ya punk? | |
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See 19 replies to this post | |
n2jtx
join:2001-01-13
Glen Head, NY
·Optimum Online
| Yet Another Social Program? So I guess we will have to have a special broadband tax for those who can afford to have Internet at home so that those who spend their money on cell phones and cable TV can have reduced cost or free Internet because it is a Civil Right. Give me a break. If you want to use the Internet and cannot afford it at home, go to the public library (if you know where that is).
I hate that word; "Entitled"
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I support the right to keep and arm bears. | |
| | ender7074
join:2006-11-21
Saint Louis, MO
·AT&T Southeast
·Charter Pipeline
| Re: Yet Another Social Program? I'd like to think I'm entitled to not have to pay for broadband for people that don't have it. No one is paying for my bills except me. Why do I have to accept responsibility for someone else? Pay for your own damn broadband if you want it so much. | |
| voipdabbler
join:2006-04-27
Kalispell, MT
edit:
July 22nd, @03:13PM
| Exercise to justify their existence. Let's face it, the FCC of a lame duck administration nearing the end of it's final term doesn't have much clout. They've got to look like they're keeping busy, but don't expect anything to come of these exercises in futility. It's just a way to justify the salaries of staff and the commissioners. They can point to it when OMB and their congressional oversight committees ask questions during the next fiscal year's budget process. ("See we were busy, we do need this many staffers.") | |
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N3OGH
They both suck, we're so screwed
Premium
join:2003-11-11
Philly burbs
·Verizon Online DSL
| Civil right? No freakin' way People just love to toss the word "right" around. I have a right to this, a right to that. You're violating my civil rights by tasering my nuts, ow ow ow STOP (sorry, had a flashback to my last shift).
But, I digress, and in all seriousness. Something like high speed internet is not a civil right. To even introduce the notion spits on the legacy of people like Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King Jr who made legitimate stands for genuine civil rights.
Civil rights:
Due process under law
Equal protection under law
freedom from cruel and unusual punishment
The right to posses a gun
Freedom of speech
Freedom of religion
Freedom from tyrannical government
the right not to incriminate ones self
Freedom from unreasonable search and seizure
Rights can not be taken from you, except via due process of a court of law, and even then some civil rights can not be taken from you period...
Privileges:
The privilege to drive
The privilege to hold professional license
The privilege to carry a concealed deadly weapon
Privileges can be taken from you, if you violate the rules that facilitate them (EG, you get a DUI and they revoke your driver's license)
Utilities:
Electricity
Indoor pl |
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