Well, great news woke me up today. Comcast, AT & T and the FCC finally got it their way.
They went for the kill, and they succeeded. Net neutrality is over.
Initially, there's that adolescent anger toward these big entities, however, if I think about it, I somehow believe we deserve this. I mean, as far as I could understand, it was only the people, the common internet users, that could come together, voice their disapproval, and possibly stop this. There were some petitions, but obviously didn't reach the desired numbers, or were simply ignored. Not really sure.
On the other hand, most of the regular online users - even if they wanted - they couldn't grasp the meaning right away. Initially, it was left on the news outlets and speeches by Ajit Pai to explain the benefits of repealing the NN. And the several experts that tried to show people the other side of things,
a) they did it mostly because it was requested of them (I'd expect it to be a duty for any serious IT professional of any sort, or anyone who understood it better. Use the NN to fight for the NN. And,
B) rarely did some of them do a good job. (There were those highway lanes analogies, and while very descriptive, they portrayed the issue as a very mild threat. ) People thought, well, if someone has a faster car and more money, they should take the faster lane. It's only fair. Also, nobody told the regular users that their lane can be randomly closed and, more likely, redirected to another lane, that will take you to another town. Somewhere you initially didn't want to go.
All grudges and grievances aside, I'm trying to figure out what this means for the decentralized networks. Can/will they be ruined as well, or can/will they fight it somehow?
I haven't put too much thought in this yet, since I'm working at the moment, saw the information and just wanted to see your opinions about this, and to vent a bit :)
Does anyone have any idea what the end of NN will mean for the decentralized communities? I'd be happy if someone shone some light on this.