Liberal Party of Canada Comes Out In Support of Net Neutrality 142
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Soulskill
from the free-tubes-eh dept.
from the free-tubes-eh dept.
bryxal writes "The Liberal Party of Canada, currently leading in most polls, has announced yesterday that it supports Net Neutrality, saying, 'Internet management should be neutral and not be permitted for anti-competitive behaviour, nor should it target certain websites, users, providers or legitimate software applications. We must protect the openness and freedom of the internet, and maintain competition to spur innovation, improve service levels and reduce costs to users.'"
Re:Now... (Score:1, Insightful)
Now, if Ignatieff could take back the 34 years he spent outside Canada, his self-admitted snobbery, and his comment that he was American, he might stand a chance.
What's with the Liberals anyway? For their last leader, Stephane Dion, they looked around and said "who can we find with less of a personality than Harper?"
Screw it, I'm in Alberta. It doesn't matter whom I vote for, the Conservatives will win here.
The liberals are the opposition party. (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:You don't care until your Skype is blocked.. (Score:2, Insightful)
Skype in Canada doesn't provide you with a phone number (i.e.what they used to call 'Skype In'). We have the highest cell phone rates in the world or very close to it (some cell companies want you to pay long distance rates even if you are the one receiving the call!!!... granted some have stopped this practice but still...). The land area is so big, and the population density so small, you will find yourself talking long distance at least several times a week, just for personal business. In other words, long distance is a 'need to have' not a 'nice to have'. Oh and I forgot to mention, the cost for a plan that automatically includes long distance for the whole country is prohibitively high for a personal phone... i.e. generally, only those who have their companies pay for it will have that plan. The bottom line is that if there is one country in the world that is prime picking for a company that can offer extremely low long distance rates, it is Canada. But you NEED to have a telephone number so that people without Skype can dial you up. Too bad Skype is missing out. Too bad for Canadians. :(
I have voted for the conservative for at least the last ten years. The liberals who used to be the middle of the road party have drifted much too far to the left. When they used to sit in the centre, sometimes they even drifted to the right a little bit, especially in terms of finances. They were the ones who balanced the budget federally, and started paying it down in a big way (it's why Canada is the country best off of the G8 and whose banks are still making profits). However they have gone so far left it is scary.
I'm hoping the Ignatieff (Canada's federal Liberal Party leader) moves the party back to the middle. If so, coupled with net neutrality, I'll definitely move back to the liberal camp. At least until it is passes parliament and gets Royal Assent. Heck, they only need to move a little towards centre. Once it is passed, I can always vote conservative again. :)
Re:Legitimate Software Applications (Score:5, Insightful)
I wonder who gets to decide what a "Legitimate Software Application" is?
I was going to post the same thing. Sorry my mod points are on cooldown. Well said.
Corollary questions: Who decides how to distinguish between the data stream of a legitimate app and the data stream of an illegitimate app? What if they use an identical data stream? What level of false positive blocking is OK? False negative passing?
Corporate networks can filter at the protocol and packet level because they are independent networks whose need for security exceeds their need for liberty. Society-level networks require the opposite priority order to maximize societal profit. Tell your politician.
Re:Now... (Score:4, Insightful)
We do not need another election - 4 in 5 years? Give me a break!
Re:Now... (Score:2, Insightful)
"Now, if Ignatieff could take back the 34 years he spent outside Canada, his self-admitted snobbery, and his comment that he was American, he might stand a chance."
If living in Britain has taught me anything, it's that you shouldn't be afraid of foreigners and politics, even if he clearly isn't actually a foreigner despite his comments.
I say this because Europe has done a better job of governing Britain than Britain's own government has this last few years. We've had to depend on the European Court of Human rights to overturn some decisions passed by our ruling government that the vast majority of the population was against because the government wouldn't do it for us.
The more I see of the world, the more I realise patriotism is more often than not overrated. Judge people on their ability to actually do the job, not where they come from - if they're no good at the job then fair enough, but if they're damn good at their job, who cares about the rest of it?
FWIW I'll almost certainly be moving to Canada within a few years as my long time girlfriend is Canadian. You have a lovely country and I promise I wont try and stand for PM ;)