
The web we may have lost - rbanffy
https://medium.com/@codepo8/the-web-we-may-have-lost-fb958adab463
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zokier
While I'm pro net-neutrality, lets not delude ourselves thinking that this is
some david vs goliath battle about small people vs some nebulous megacorps. It
is not a question _if_ web turns into cable tv, it already has.

"Overall, streaming audio and video now accounts for 71% of primetime traffic
across North American fixed-access broadband networks — and is expected to
increase to 80% by 2020, per Sandvine"

[http://variety.com/2016/digital/news/netflix-bandwidth-
share...](http://variety.com/2016/digital/news/netflix-bandwidth-
share-2016-1201801064/)

Of that 70ish percent, about half is Netflix alone. Throw in the handful of
big players (Alphabet, Amazon, Facebook), and that is essentially what modern
web is for large part of population.

I've been thinking if net neutrality is such a big deal in US because of cable
tv has been relatively more important there than for example in Europe,
combined with the situation that those old cable tv operators have become also
major ISPs.

~~~
betterunix2
"It is not a question if web turns into cable tv, it already has."

Not really. With cable, different providers have different channel packages,
based on negotiated deals with the channel owners. Sometimes people with one
cable service will lose access to a channel they like just because of a
dispute over a contract renewal:

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackout_(broadcasting)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackout_\(broadcasting\))

Thankfully such things do not happen on the web, at least not yet. People are
upset about net neutrality because they fear that will actually happen (and
mistakenly believe that is the worst case -- I am more concerned about the
even worse things ISPs might do, like blocking VPN services, or only allowing
devices that are "compatible" with their service e.g. by requiring people to
install a special app, etc.)

~~~
Spivak
With streaming, different services have different content libraries based on
negotiated deals with copyright holders. Subscribers regularly lose access to
movies and shows they like because of disputes over contracts or because the
copyright holder is moving their content to their own service.

~~~
betterunix2
That is a red herring. If I have Comcast service but the channels I want are
only on Time Warner, I cannot simply switch to Time Warner. Switching between
streaming services is trivial, because all streaming websites are available to
everyone with an Internet connection (one of the things net neutrality is
meant to protect).

