Doctorow Tears Up ISP Contract Over Net Neutrality

Burz writes "As a reaction to Virgin Media CEO's promise to violate the concept of net neutrality, Cory Doctorow is declaring his ISP contract void, canceling the service, and calling on other Virgin customers to do the same. He isn't alone. Charlie Stross counts the ways the gang that became Virgin Media is trashing Sir Richard's brand. Myself, I am thinking of stopping my Virgin Mobile service in protest."

Losing your Virginity...

[Anonymous Coward]

feels great!

Obligatory XKCD

[Anonymous Coward]

That's what she said!

Ouch

[Lije Baley]

Yeah, that'll hurt 'em. They'll go down in flames just like Blockbuster did when they drove out all their unprofitable customers.

Re:

[mrsteveman1]

Blockbuster isn't doing so great

Pick another company next time

Re:

[Bill_the_Engineer]

Yea that's why they are buying Circuit City...

Re:

[Anonymous Coward]

Circuit City isn't doing so great either. :)

Re:Ouch

[Goldberg's Pants]

Any financial issues Blockbuster have are most likely down to an evolving marketplace, and not getting rid of worthless customers.

Doctrow is a hack. A pretentious windbag who a certain element of people seem to think represents their beliefs.

I'm sure Virgin are quaking in their boots at this "threat" from someone who if there name was said to 99.999999% of people would say "Who?"

Re:

[neokushan]

Seriously....who the fuck is this Doctrow guy?

Re:

[Nullav]

Doctrow is a hack. A pretentious windbag who a certain element of people seem to think represents their beliefs.

He's not running for office. You're free to pick which ever ideas of his that you agree with and act upon them in whatever way, as you only have to agree with those few ideas rather than the person presenting them.

Regardless of name recognition (and lack thereof), it's one less customer. People should stop paying for services provided by people/groups they don't like when given an option (even if

Re:

[Goldberg's Pants]

I already do stop paying for services I consider a ripoff. For example I no longer have cable TV. The thing is, that 99.99999% are sheep who will continue paying because they're too gutless or apathetic to make a stand. And with Doctrow, he is practically a cult leader, which means yeah, the people who "follow" him do follow EVERYTHING he says.

And the fact is stuff I'VE written has made it onto the front page of Slashdot, so that's not really a high watermark of recognition. It's just that the choir Doctro

Re:

[Watts Martin]

Most Mac owners do, however, know the difference between "populous" and "populace." Helpful tip: when you're trying to blast another group of people for being fools and idiots, make sure the barrel of the gun you're firing is pointed away from your own foot.

Re:

[PopeRatzo]

Yea that's why they are buying Circuit City...

Buying Circuit City, an unprofitable company with a recent huge loss in capitalization, isn't really anything to write home about.

Blockbuster is in fact not doing so well. They are in a business that has already reached its peak.

Re:

[LMacG]

Attempting to buy Circuit City, by selling more of their own stock (dilution) and borrowing a shit-ton of money. Doesn't sound like the type of company that's doing really well . . .

Re:

[mrsteveman1]

Thats PRIVATE SMARTASS DAMMIT

Hopefully, I'll be col. jacknuts by june

Anyone else misread that

[electricbern]

as Doctor who?

Re:

[Skyshadow]

Cory Doctorow is a fairly entertaining near-future SciFi writer, but I find I generally can't enjoy his works for two reasons:

1. His good ideas fizzle out* and don't leave enough to finish the story* in an interesting way*, and
2. He's really bad at writing women*, resulting in uneven characters* and weird story self-hijackings*.

The other writer mentioned here, Charles Stross, writes amusing* Cthulhu-Mythos/Spy-thriller/Geek novels and not-so-good* hard SciFi.

* This is, obviously, just my opinion. No

Options

[CDOS_CDOS run]

Thats nice if there is more than 1 broadband option where you live.

Re:Options

[Spad]

This being the UK, you've got a choice of tens, if not hundreds of different ADSL providers available to you, some using BT, some with LLU setups.

Though to make use of them you would have to cancel all of your Virgin Media services (Internet, TV, Phone) and get a BT line instead.

Re:

[The MAZZTer]

Wow, you British really know how to live! Dedicated internet connections for BitTorrent?

Seriously though, I don't know what a BT line is. >_>

Re:

[Spad]

British Telecom; formerly government owned provider of telecoms services and owner of the majority of the telecoms infrastructure in the UK.

Re:Options

[lysse]

Yeah. That's great, in theory. I just moved into a new house, and BT quoted me the standard £124.99 for an engineer to come and install a phone line, because according to them there is "no record" of a line existing at the house.

When I stare at the BT phone point just below the window, which is visibly and directly connected to the nearest telegraph pole outside, I'm not sure whether to cry, rage, or send BT the contents of the nearby litter tray.

Re:Options

[MadMidnightBomber]

I also used to work for BT and there a couple of points I feel I should make.

1. When moving between buildings in BT Labs, Martlesham Heath (now Adastral Park?) we couldn't keep the same internal phone numbers.

2. That's all.

Re:

[mikael_j]

1.5 miles is about 2.4 km, right? You should have no problem getting DSL at those distances unless the phone lines are of seriously poor quality. Admittedly you won't be getting 24/3 ADSL2+ Annex M but 2/0.8 shouldn't be a problem.

/Mikael

Re:

[compro01]

unless we're using different definitions of "mile", ADSL should reach that far just fine. 1 1/2 miles is 7920 feet. ADSL has a maximum range of 18,000 feet and a full-service range of 9000 feet. so you shoudln't have any problem with that, barring the phone lines being rusty barbed wire or something.

Re:Options

[Naughty Bob]

In the UK, I don't think there's anywhere with only 1 (ADSL broadband, cable's a different deal)option, by virtue of the way in which BT is required to open its network. However, you still have to pay BT a line rental charge in addition to your Virgin (or whomever) account.

Re:Options

[lobiusmoop]

Have a look at this ADSL ratings page [dslzoneuk.net] and check out 'Karoo' - the only ADSL service in Hull allegedly and making optimum use of its monopoly position to be awful.

Do we just become numb?

[abolitiontheory]

I wonder if there will be a day when net neutrality has been usurped, despite all the protests, and we've come to accept as the status quo. And then, all of a sudden, another *unconscionable* development of corporate greed takes place, in which we have the same uproar, and the same eventual defeat. Can anyone think of examples in the past where has taken place? I'm not coming up with anything that passes a basic coherency test, but this has to be some cycle we go through on a regular basis. Do these things ever lead to positive outcomes, or are we just the man in front of the tank?

Re:

[gstoddart]

I wonder if there will be a day when net neutrality has been usurped, despite all the protests, and we've come to accept as the status quo. And then, all of a sudden, another *unconscionable* development of corporate greed takes place, in which we have the same uproar, and the same eventual defeat. Can anyone think of examples in the past where has taken place?

Commercially, not off the top of my head.

But, civil liberties and the like have been eroded the way you describe very heavily over the last bunch of

Re:Do we just become numb?

[retech]

I think that corporations rely on the apathy of the masses. Rallying points were important when people started unions and women got to vote. But once a society gets to a sustainable level of comfort those people will do nothing that risks that comfort.

People stood up to corporate greed when they abolished sweats shops. In fact they just moved the sweat shops to a less noticeable location. Once rediscovered those same ppl who once fought against sweat shops just said: "meh, not my worry" and went home to their 2.5 kids and 2 car garages.

Apathy is a wonderful way to keep the masses controlled. It works far better than any chain or enslavement could have.

Re:Do we just become numb?

[Bieeanda]

This is precisely right. It's also what gives them a huge kick in the ass when they go just a little too far, like Rogers Cable did over here about ten years ago. As what was usual, they added a pile of new channels that nobody really wanted and raised subscription prices accordingly. They also moved a number of popular channels further up the dial, where a vast number of older cable boxes couldn't functionally reach. Their only suggestion was to rent a new cable box, which was just adding insult to injury.

Now, there was an alternative: We could go to the cable company and ask to have the new channels removed. There was no way to do it over the phone, you had to find out where your local cable shop was, drive down there, and hassle the girl behind the counter. Rogers clearly assumed that since we'd swallowed their shit for so long, another mouthful would go down just as smoothly.

Hundreds of thousands of subscribers descended on their outlets, fuming mad, demanding their service be return to its previous state, or canceling cable outright. Rogers got the message, the CRTC got the message, and for once shit actually changed.

Re:Do we just become numb?

[Sentry21]

As what was usual, they added a pile of new channels that nobody really wanted and raised subscription prices accordingly.

While this is technically accurate, it leaves out an important detail - namely that these channels weren't added to available plans, but rather they were added to everyone's bill. Rogers went to all of their customers and gave them all the channels; when people complained after getting their bill, Rogers insisted that they should have called to cancel the channels if they didn't want them.

Unfortunately at the time, this practice wasn't illegal. Thanks to Rogers, it is now. Oh, and they lost so much goodwill in the area that they had to bail out, and swapped their BC holdings with Shaw's Ontario holdings. Now we have Shaw, and things are light years better than Rogers could ever manage.

Re:

[Culture20]

Google buttons and guilds for a bit.

Re:

[Monkeyman334]

Here's one that pisses me off that nobody cares about. When you go to get cell phone service they offer you a cheaper phone if you get a contract. The idea being that your cell phone service fee is subsidizing the cost of the phone, and you're really paying for it over time. But why don't they give a lower service rate for people that buy their own phones? It's a scam to lock out 3rd party phones. Nobody cares about it, and I often have a hard time explaining it to people, but the lack of competition has to

Re:

[TheSpoom]

Which service provider are you talking about that makes their own phones? Locked phones from cell phone manufacturers, maybe...

Re:

[adolf]

Verizon, for one, is known to have special firmware in many of their phones, with various things turned on, off, added, removed, or broken. This doesn't mean they "make their own phones," but it's a more severe issue than carrier lock by itself.

Not numb . . .

[StefanJ]

. . . bitter.

What, you think I'm joking?

We've gone from the Electronic Frontier to a bunch of company towns run by greedy bastards and populated by idjiots who are happy as long as their YouTube videos play OK.

Re:

[Hatta]

We've gone from the Electronic Frontier to a bunch of company towns run by greedy bastards and populated by idjiots who are happy as long as their YouTube videos play OK.

Sounds a lot like the historical Western Frontier.

Re:Do we just become numb?

[jd]

Let's think...

• Skilled workers replaced by machines with child operators (not directly comparable, but the same basic idea that corporations know best, together with very successful corporate propoganda that the disenfrancised were - by definition - ignorant savages and terrorists. Propoganda that has become a part of the common language through the name of one of the campaigners for worker's rights.)
• Higher Education (in Britain, at least) being switched from a State-funded right of all to a luxury paid for by the individual

I was going to give a few other examples, such as the health care industry, but realized that in most cases I could think of, the service or provider has always been corrupt and neither the standard of service or our expectations of it have really changed. It's merely less hidden.

Re:

[QuantumRiff]

As the previous poster mentioned, our civil liberties we have been gladly giving away. However, it is not just the last few years, but for quite some time now. (but it has accelerated greatly). First, it was to protect us from drugs, because everyone that used Pot would turn into a crazed animal that would kill your daughter and rape your golden retriever. Then it was to protect the children. Have a kid claim you hurt them. Your treated as guilty until you prove yourself innocent!

Re:

[bill_kress]

First was not drugs. There is a continual cycle that probably started when the first 5 cavemen got together and started hogging the women.

Mankind has a nature to drift towards ruling and ruled classes, and the divide grows until someone freaks out and--well historically anyway--kills all the rulers.

These days it's not supposed to be so violent or absolute. You have governments that are supposed to control companies and it is supposed to keep the pendulum from swinging so far that it starts to cut off head

Isn't the job of the government to...nevermind...

[waTR]

Perhaps this is not such a bad thing, it may bring more attention to the issue than there is currently. Maybe if some people start to experience and understand what the lack of net-neutrality actually causes, they will be more likely to be more involved in ensuring net-neutrality is enforced.

However, I must admit that if net-neutrality is lost, it may be impossible to re-gain--much like public health-care in the US will be next-to-impossible to get.


What consumers need are more consumer lobby groups. I

Re:

[martin_henry]

Maybe if some people start to experience and understand what the lack of net-neutrality actually causes, they will be more likely to be more involved in ensuring net-neutrality is enforced.

Guess I had better educate myself about why we need net neutrality...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Network_neutrality [wikipedia.org]

Consumers Union

[tepples]

What consumers need are more consumer lobby groups.

People in the United States can join a consumers union. Membership starts at $26 per year, including a subscription to ConsumerReports.org.

Re:Consumers Union

[thePowerOfGrayskull]

So... in addition to voting for politicians who promise to do what I want, I now should pay to become an anonymous member of a large group that promises to do what I want, so that group can in turn bribe the politicians I already voted for?

Pass.

Here's a solution for the legislation-hungry out there: pass some legislation to limit the efforts and effectiveness of professional lobbyist groups. Then maybe you and I would have a chance of getting heard when we wrote to our representatives.

Re:

[geekoid]

Here's a clue, look at what it ahs done in the past. It takes more then voting to make a difference.

I'd love to hear a way to limit 'lobby' groups without limiting everybody else.

Re:

[Archangel Michael]

"pass some legislation to limit the efforts and effectiveness of professional lobbyist groups."

My suggestion is quite simple, and elegant, but too many leftists would protest. So, here it is anyway.

Only REGISTERED voters can contribute to political and candidate Campaigns.

This would break all the lobbyists, PACs and other "groups" that are formed to gain an unfair advantage over people who don't want to join a group to be herd (sic / pun intended).

Okay, I might consider CITIZENS instead of Registered Voters

Resolving todays problem cost me £25 :(

[QX-Mat]

I dont have a virgin phone service. A billing "discrepancy" from last year, an offer I bartered for, was fixed last month with Virgin claiming to shoulder the costs. What actually happened is they added the XL phone package to my discounted XL TV + XL Broadband offer. I have been a customer for 18 months, and I bartered for my previous deal of £41.50/pm only to have them add the Phone package without informing me, and charge me £70.

I rang to cancel and let them know I intended to move to sky and and was offered my old £41.50 offer at a no-contract rate of £49pm (I'm not sure where I'll be living in 3 months, so I can't get a contract). Problem fixed, or so I believe. The debt collection team phone me this morning to inform me my direct debit had bounced - and it would do if it was in excess of £50 as the account is for bills only, and is credited with a standing order for the appropriate amount each month.

It transpires (I guessed it instantly), that after billing me £70 and changing it back to the negotiated rate of £49, they discounted next months direct debit by £20, so that the net 2 month charge would be equal to my negotiated rate over 2 months.

But! That doesn't mean I can pay £70 in one month for a problem they have caused, because I subject to cash flow issues. To make things worst, I have been charged by my bank for the defaulting direct debit, wasted £15 on the phone last time I called, and £10 today.

Today was awful! I was called this morning by the debt collection team who would not let me pay £49 or change my direct debit, until I settled the £70 mistake, even tho it was obvious the real amount was £49 based on the remedied discount applied to the next bill. I'm forced to pay for their mistake!?! They told me there was nothing they could do, and that I had to phone them back and fixed the issue. I got through to India twice and was told the same thing, only that the team that called me was the team that dealt with it. In the end I gave up. I asked to be put through to the cancellation team.

The cancellation team were great. The credit was applied to this month, and my outstanding balance returned to what I should pay/can pay. I've praised VM in the past, and will continue to do so in the future - but only their cancellation team, as they're the only ones with the power to resolve your problems.

I am contemplating billing VM for the saga cost me £20 in phone calls (I have a mobile phone, and no one would phone me!), and the bounced direct debit penalty stemming from their inability to resolve the problem when I called them and they called me.

Matt

Re:Resolving todays problem cost me £25 :(

[jmichaelg]

If you lived here in California, you could take Virgin to Small Claims Court. No attorneys, just you, the company rep, a judge and a claim for less than $7,000. I've used the court twice to resolve, in my favor, similar kinds of screwups.

Perhaps you have a similar court in England?

Re:

[QX-Mat]

We do, unfortunately I believe in the power of letters! As my problem is resolved, only I'm down the cost of calls/bank penalty, I'll try a letter first.

Re:

[NormalVisual]

Of course, it can sometimes be a daunting task to actually collect on a judgement. Every so often, the consumer advocate column of our local newspaper runs a story about someone who wins against a store or other company in small claims, only to be unable to get his hands on the money he's owed.

Re:

[Atlantis-Rising]

In many places, the representative of the company is required to be its attorney in a Small Claims Court matter.

Re:

[Wierdy1024]

Has anyone here on /. had any luck in just sending an invoice to these big companies for this sort of thing and have it paid?

I wonder if their accounts dept. just pay this sort of thing for small amounts without checking thoroughly?

Paperless Transactions

[relikx]

I was duped by my ISP into saving the rainforest by switching over to paperless billing so I do all transactions electronically.

I've rethought this and will once again deal with paper so that I can receive the satisfaction of "tearing up" any documents that I deem unsatisfactory.

Re:Paperless Transactions

[Ctrl-Z]

You could just print them out and then tear them up as the need arises. In fact, you could print them out two or three times for additional satisfaction.

Cory who?

[thePowerOfGrayskull]

Why do I care? Am I supposed to be impressed that submitter is "considering stopping [his] Virgin Mobile service in protest"? On my way to work today, I considered pushing a fisherman off the bridge so that I could giggle whilst watching him splash about in the water -- it's a far cry from doing it.

Re:

[jellomizer]

I would say if some major coporate clients droped them because of his speach, would have some weight. But some Bloger... Who cares. IF he could get all the Blogers to do it. Or A large group then it would be worth while. Otherwise he is flagged as liberal nut.

Legal side - abuse of a dominant position?!

[QX-Mat]

Article 82 - abuse of a dominant position.

        A82 is directly enforceable in the national courts. VM has a dominant position in the UK broadband market - this is an automatic presumption in the cable market as their share is 100%, and, based on the structure of the UK backbone-network, a reasonable and fair assumption regarding broadband in general.

        they are acting in a manor that can only be said to be taking unfair advantage of their position to the detriment of the broadband market in general - and they are doing this independently of us the consumer: ie: we get this crap and there is absolutely nothing we can do.

        whilst having a dominant market share, and being in a monopolist position is _not_ illegal - abusing this position is. VM are starting a consumer/isp war that the consumers cannot win. they are abusing the technological development of the UK's broadband system by prejudicing our use in a way we cannot avoid. an utterly artificial creation.

        as VM own the cable network, there is no cross elastic supply. the consumer is lacked into contracts which generally fall foul of elastic demand the moment they abuse their position. the good news is that no VM customer is bound to their unfair contracts that stifle the advancement of uk broadband - be it traffic shaping or whatnot.

        vote with your wallets - sign up to another ISP!

The worst part is...

[hyades1]

...those phony-cheerful, "Wow, we're so cool and so are you" voices saying crap like, "Hey, guys, we've just decided you like us sooooo much it would be really cool for us to put our prices up so you can tell all your friends what an important, expensive service you have".

As soon as my time's up, they can take a long, hard suck on my conspicuously non-Virgin friend, Darth Veiner.

Re:

[Jack9]

..those phony-cheerful, "Wow, we're so cool and so are you" voices saying crap like, "Hey, guys, we've just decided you like us sooooo much it would be really cool for us to put our prices up so you can tell all your friends what an important, expensive service you have".

Works for apple. I have a feeling this is what Apple will be turning into. Same message, "Be hip" but without the quality products or service to give it weight.

/owned a mac Apple II until MacOS7 my last powerbooks started failing. Might go

Different idea

[xerxesVII]

How about instead of ranting and talking about boycotts, he and his gang of tech-hippies start some sort of movement where they either flat out block requests from certain ISPs or at least throw up a "Here's our complaint about this ISP and why you should be using them" interstitial? That's the sort of thing that gets people to sit up and take notice.

serves the fucktards right

[unity100]

excuse me, this aint gonna be a smooth, politically correct post. im gonna flat out say what im feeling and thinking, as a customer.

you invent something new, you build an entire telecommunications infrastructure, hell, even a new medium, a way of life (internet) over it, it becomes a big success, and after a while a few FUCKTARDS comes up and and try to scuttle the CORE principle that made that big success for their personal greedy agenda. and furthermore, there comes a total PRICK, so PRICKY that he harbors the courage to SINGLE HANDEDLY trash and abolish those principles (net neutrality) in lieu of ENTIRE internet, internet tradition, all functioning services, companies and agreements up to date, in lieu of the LAW, in lieu of what they promised their customers, and anything.

im not a violent person. im a hippie in concept even. has history as my hobby and whatnot, and like classical music. but even i know that such people, who are that selfish and greedy enough to commit bastardizations like these in lieu of EVERYthing, deserve one single response : a strong, sharp kick in the middle of their face. literally.

Fight Back

[Strilanc]

I think it's about time some major websites made an agreement to block all traffic from any ISP that distinguishes based on website. A deterrent besides "we'll tell our family and friends not to use Virgin" is something we really need. Normal people won't stick with an ISP that can't reach youtube.

[I don't actually know the technical details of how or if this can be done]

Re:Stuff that matters

[Chyeld]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cory_Doctorow [wikipedia.org]

Born in Toronto, Ontario, Canada to Trotskyist teachers, Doctorow was raised in an activist household, working in the nuclear disarmament movement and as a Greenpeace campaigner as a child. He later served on the board of directors for the Grindstone Island Co-operative on Big Rideau Lake in Ontario, helping to run a conference center devoted to peace and social justice education and activist training. He received his high school diploma from SEED School, a free school in Toronto, and dropped out of four universities without attaining a degree.

Doctorow moved to Los Angeles, California in mid-2006 from London, England, where he had worked as European Affairs Coordinator for the Electronic Frontier Foundation for four years, helping to set up the Open Rights Group, before quitting to pursue writing full-time in January 2006. Upon his departure, Doctorow was named a Fellow of the Electronic Frontier Foundation. Doctorow spent the 2006-2007 academic year teaching as a visiting professor at the University of Southern California, despite not holding any academic degree. He then returned to London. He is a frequent public speaker on copyright issues.

Doctorow's daughter with Alice Taylor, Poesy Emmeline Fibonacci Nautilus Taylor Doctorow, was born on 3 February 2008.

Cory's parents have suggested that he is related to author E.L. Doctorow, but E.L. Doctorow himself could not confirm or deny the family connection.

----
Don't know, sounds like someone I'd care about...

Re:Stuff that matters

[CallFinalClass]

Meh. Can't hold a job. Can't get a degree. I may or may not be kidding about this.

Re:

[Idiomatick]

Ok, boingboing guy that used to work for the EFF. Unless his living in toronto makes him particularly important.

that said at the speed of which i got modded down must mean hes done something particularly important....

Re:

[Fear the Clam]

Dude, just look at his glasses. Look at all of the smart people's names he saddled his kid with. Can't you see that he's full of innovation and smart thoughts?

Re:Stuff that matters

[Otter]

Doctorow's daughter with Alice Taylor, Poesy Emmeline Fibonacci Nautilus Taylor Doctorow, was born on 3 February 2008.

Is this a case of Wikipedia vandalism, or does his insatiable attention-whoring extend to ruining his poor daughter's life?

Re:Stuff that matters

[Saberwind]

Unfortunately, it's not vandalism. [boingboing.net] (sorry, posted this under the wrong comment earlier...then Slashdot wouldn't let me post a reply to your comment because the comment ID wasn't found...)

Re:

[jollyreaper]

Doctorow's daughter with Alice Taylor, Poesy Emmeline Fibonacci Nautilus Taylor Doctorow, was born on 3 February 2008.

Is this a case of Wikipedia vandalism, or does his insatiable attention-whoring extend to ruining his poor daughter's life?

If I ever had a daughter, I would name her Princess Angelina Contessa Louisa Francesca Banana Fana Bobesca III but I'm not sure if it's because I like Animaniacs or hate children.

Re:

[geekoid]

"..Greenpeace campaigner as a child. "

That's not a plus. Greenpeace puts peoples lives at stake, and lies to bully large corporation. Green Peace lost any vestige of what it was around 1980.

Re:

[praxis]

I'm confused.

"That's not a plus." Okay, statement of thesis.

"Greenpeace puts peoples lives at stake, and lies to bully large corporation (sic)." Okay, support of thesis. Though it's unsupported as a statement itself, let's take it as it is.

"Green Peace (sic) lost any vestige of what it was around 1980". I read this as "today, Greenpeace is horrible (see previous statement); it was around 1980 that they lost their way and descended into horridness." This is where I am confused, as that was around the ti

Re:

[TobyWong]

Ahh so he was "that guy" at university. Campus-wide reputation for being rebel looking for a cause, always hatching up various plots to occupy the president's office, chaining himself to various things on campus, fighting "the man" wherever possible.

Often times "that guy" has a parent who is tenured faculty who keeps pulling his ass out of fire when he gets arrested by campus police for the 10th time. Invariably goes through multiple uni's without finishing his degree which is quite a feat considering it

Re:

[A nonymous Coward]

Who wants to grow up normal? What sane parent would inflict normality on their children?

Re:Stuff that matters

[Spad]

It's not actually Branson's company, he just (foolishly) licensed the brand to NTL Telewest so they could use it.

Re:

[Idiomatick]

It would still be newsworthy maybe more so. The only thing of value he is giving them is his name, if he publicly denounced the product he'd be taking that all back.....

Re:

[MrSteveSD]

After the unreliable Virgin trains, it has to be his dumbest move. What next? Virgin logos on anti-personnel mines and cluster bomblets?

Perhaps the Bearded Demon himself could redeem himself by coming out and publicly supporting net neutrality.

Re:

[Gilmoure]

I like Infoseek.

Re:Good for you. Dump sir Richard.

[Skyshadow]

These boycotts are always so effective.

That really is the issue here. You're never, ever going to get enough people to dump an individual ISP over this sort of thing to make their brass go, "Whoa! We'd better not do that!". The issue is simply too involved for the 'average' net user to really understand well enough to care about.

Some things require legislative solutions, and this is clearly one of those things. While I'm not saying that users of Virgin Media *shouldn't* change providers, it should be recognized that it's nothing but a symbolic step. If you really want to see this sort of nonsense avoided, contributing to the EFF might be a far better use of money.

Re:

[Anonymous Coward]

If you can't convince enough customers to switch providers, perhaps that is a sign that the issue is not as dire as you think.

I'm always annoyed when people jump straight to the legislative "solution". Get the word out, start web sites, educate people. If the populace is ignorant about the problem then remove their ignorance.

These companies love making money above everything else. There are still enough choices left that you can make them realize that the way to make money is to be a good citizen. If they a

Re:

[Skyshadow]

Public apathy does not mean that an issue isn't worth fighting for. Fortunately, we're set up as a republic for just such an emergency.

Re:Good for you. Dump sir Richard.

[nysus]

Think for a moment how incredibly inefficient what you are proposing is. Every single time a company does something stupid that's detrimental to the rest of us we have to organize a boycott and start educating everyone else? No thanks.

We have government to make this process easier. It makes laws and it enforces them. We elect people run it for us. It collects taxes to finance itself. Perfect? Hell no. But government is certainly a of a lot better and reliable than having everybody trying to police everybody else. I don't know about you, but I prefer living in an advanced modern society instead of a cave.

So, now, go out and educate your law maker as to why they need to pass a net neutrality law and we won't have to revisit this issue again.

Re:

[erroneus]

People don't understand issues such as these. When you tell people to go to a web site and they automatically put "www" in front of whatever you tell them, these are not the sort of people that will understand you or the need.

Things people will understand include their inability to record a football game because of a copy control flag in their digital TV signal. They understand what is directly standing in the way of their wishes. They won't understand why youtube is slow and why "ipaidvirgin-video.com"

Re:What a joke.

[maxume]

I doubt you have a contract with Boing Boing agreeing that they will not censor reader comments, and I doubt that you are paying them all that much.

Re:

[gEvil (beta)]

Since you're making the argument, I seriously doubt that Cory's Virgin Mobile contract states that they will give him "unfettered" internet access.

Re:

[Toonol]

That's the most legitimate reason to censor blog comments. Why, was there some rude comment you really wanted to post?

I've never read his blog, by the way.

Re:

[msimm]

So you support the loss of network-wide net neutrality if you disagree with the actions of an individual who might oppose it or do you think both instances are of the same scale? Because otherwise the post reads like childish bitching.

Re:

[metlin]

Doctorow is a whiny self-promoting dick.

Couldn't agree more.

I've been following BB long before it became famous - Doctorow is a mediocre writer, and someone who tries to be an activist to try and garner attention.

Have you tried posting anything on BB that he considers inappropriate?

Now, BB is a great blog - but that alone does not make much of what Doctorow does worth much. Unfortunately, he's got his own following of like-minded Trotskyist nutjobs.

Re:

[smolloy]

That 4chan link is 404

Re:

[doconnor]

It may be deep down people hate capitalism. They would never admit it because they are always told capitalism is the best and all the problems with other systems.

When something new comes along, their first instinct is not that how much you get should be based on how much money you have. That's why people don't like real money trading in online games and want internet site to be equally accessible, no matter how much money they have.

Re:But what is he _really_ doing?

[Anonymous Coward]

Err, no. Tiered pricing isn't like renting a better storefront. It's like having to pay the owners of the roads outside the houses of your customers so that they won't slow down your customers' cars whenever they try to drive to your store.

I can understand paying my ISP for a better connection for my server. But isn't it a bit perverse to have to then pay random other ISPs so that my customers are able to see the benefit of that better connection?

Re:But what is he _really_ doing?

[eldorel]

Allow me to continue with your storefront analogy.
You pay rent on your storefront, and I have to ride the bus to get there. We both pay depending on what we want.
You want more people in your store at a time, you pay more rent.
I want to be able to get there faster, I hire a taxi instead.

Where the problem lies is that now the bus/taxi companies want to charge you, the store owner, for the bus/taxi to stop at your shop.
If you don't pay, your customers will have to walk the last 1/2 mile, despite the fact that your shop is on the main road, and all traffic goes right past you.

In fact, it's not a far stretch to imagine the taxi driver suggesting alternate destinations.

Me: Take me to the local grocery store.
Driver: You're going shopping? Why don't I drop you at Walmart, It's 20 minutes faster.
Me: No it isn't, walmart is in the next town.
Driver: Yeah, But we have a contract with them, we drive everyone there first.


This isn't capitalism anymore, it's extortion.

Re:But what is he _really_ doing?

[Todd Knarr]

Except that what Virgin wants isn't tiered pricing. I look at net neutrality analogously to UPS delivery. UPS doesn't care who you are, or who you're shipping to, or what (modulo hazardous materials) you're shipping. They care about basically two things and two things only: how big/heavy your package is, and how far you're shipping it. If you and I both go in to the same UPS office to ship the same package to two recipients in the same city, UPS will charge us both the same price. Sure I'll pay more if I pick overnight shipping and you pick standard ground, but if I pick the same shipping as you I won't get nicked for more.

What Virgin wants, though, isn't anything analogous. Suppose the situation is that I'm buying mail-order, and as the customer I've paid the shipping charge for overnight delivery. What Virgin wants is to go to the merchant and go "We know your customer paid for overnight shipping. But if you, Mr. Merchant, don't cross our palm with some extra money on top of that, we won't deliver the package overnight. Oh, and don't think you can just stop offering overnight shipping, because if you ship standard we'll slow that down too unless you pay us.". This is known as "a kickback", and in every other field it gets you in legal trouble. For my money, I'm not willing to do business with someone who's demanding kickbacks.

Most of us geeks would have no problem with Virgin charging their customers tiered pricing based on how much those customers used. We'd probably take our business somewhere that offered a better deal, but Virgin would at least be being honest. Virgin, though, seems to want to extort kickbacks from people who aren't it's customers so that they don't have to charge their customers based on usage. Sorry, but no.

Re:Who is Cory Doctorow?

[ASBands]

He wears a red cape and blogs from a high-altitude balloon. [xkcd.com]

Re:

[Bill, Shooter of Bul]

Yeah, I'll admit. That was the first time I heard about him. And that's still the only thing I had heard about him, until this story.

My loss, I'm sure, but I can only be influenced by so many bloggers. The list is finite, and tearing up a contract isn't going to do it for me. Maybe if he told me to burn my pants. He might want to try that one.

Re:

[Plaid Phantom]

He's a (fairly) well-known blogger and Science Fiction author who has been a big proponent of Creative Commons and Copyright reform. He was the first to release a novel under CC, according to Wikipedia [wikipedia.org].

Re:Who is Cory Doctorow?

[Dr. Cody]

As an American who hasn't been extremely well-exposed to English pop culture, I cannot say with certainty what the term "wanker" means, but there's a feeling deep inside of me that Cory Doctorow is exactly the person the term was created to describe. He and several more or less pretentious bloggers run the Boing Boing blog, each with their own running obsession--Disney, Tibet, kitsch, Internet memes, etc. This is a spot-on parody of him. [ldopa.net]

Why is Cory Doctorow so famous among geeks?

[spun]

Look, I don't want to piss you off or anything, and I'm sure Cory is smart, but... what exactly has he done to prove it? I'm really not trying to be facetious.

He dropped out of four universities. He's a blogger. He writes science fiction about as well as Alan Dean Foster. Which is to say, mediocre science fiction. He started Boing Boing. He occasionally writes non fiction articles.

Am I missing something? Cure for cancer, grand unified theory, anything?

I'm sure Cory is both nice and smart, but his importance to a certain set of geeks seems blown way out of proportion to his actual accomplishments.

Re:

[j_166]

"Am I missing something? Cure for cancer, grand unified theory, anything?"

How about horrendous Disney fanfic?

I'm not kidding.

Re:Why is Cory Doctorow so famous among geeks?

[Mikey-San]

He started Boing Boing.

Doctorow didn't even start Boing Boing, Mark Frauenfelder and Carla Sinclair did. He wasn't even on board when it went from a 'zine to a web site.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boing_Boing#History [wikipedia.org]

Since you brought it up, I'll be specific

[spun]

First, I like Alan Dean Foster. I was actually being charitable to Cory comparing him to Foster. Foster is a talented word smith with a good sense of pacing and dramatic tension. But he writes fairly pedestrian space opera.

Cory writes about some fairly interesting ideas, but they aren't really that original. And he doesn't know how to flesh them out into an interesting plot. It's almost as if they aren't really his ideas, and he didn't listen that carefully when they were being explained to him. His sense of pacing is a bit off, and his characterizations are flat. Especially women, who come off as caricatures.

I haven't had anything published, but I've read over two thousand speculative fiction books and stories. I've discussed the genre quite extensively. I'm objective enough to recognize a good author even if I don't like their style or subject. I think Cory is a halfway decent author, and I can actually finish his books without throwing them across the room in disgust. If there's no new Bear, Benford, Banks, Baxter, Egan, Gaiman, Gibson, Hamilton, Mieville, Pratchett, Robinson, Rucker, Simmons, or Vinge around, I might consider reading something he wrote.