
Pledge to cancel your Comcast in support of SOPA - frankydp
http://www.yessopameansnocomcast.com/
======
Anechoic
I think this might be an overreach - the GoDaddy boycott worked because there
are plenty of alternatives. For much of the country (and my hometown) Comcast
may be the only game in town for cable TV and they are almost certainly the
only game in town for high-speed internet. A failure to get a significant
number of folks to sign on can be spun as tacit support for SOPA when it's
really a lack of suitable replacement services.

If you are lucky enough to have access to Verizon FIOS, RCN, or UVerse, (or
have the right terrain features to be able to have satellite TV), I envy you.
I'm stuck with Comcast because I need a cable modem for my business so while I
sympathize with the cause, I won't be be adding my name to the list.

~~~
natesm
The TV studios are all behind SOPA as well, so canceling cable in general
isn't a bad idea. As a side benefit you no longer have to watch TV. :)

Maybe that's a "young person thing" though. My parents watch a decent amount
of TV, the only channel that appeals to me out of the _hundreds_ that they
get[1] is Comedy Central... for one hour a day. After going to college and
being without TV, I really have no stomach for commercial breaks anymore.

[1] not actually sure about this, Comedy Central is 600-something, I guess
they might not all be used though. Still probably hundreds.

~~~
shasta
You shouldn't support The Daily Show or Colbert, either. What those programs
usually do is omit or distort key facts that make their victims seem
hypocritical or otherwise unreasonable and then mock them for it. Much less
funny and I got tired of having to worry about whether my opinion about some
situation was based only on some misunderstanding I'd received from those
shows. Given how sanctimonious Stewart is when it comes to lampooning the
media, I have a hard time not concluding that he's an asshole.

Edit: Sorry guys, you're right. Stewart/Colbert 2012! Morons...

~~~
sukuriant
Well, I'm glad you see the method of comedy news shows; though I'm sorry you
don't see the point of comedy news shows.

Or, maybe I misunderstand you, in which case, happy trolling. Try harder :)

~~~
marshray
I don't understand the comedy shows presenting themselves as news. Watch
Colbert and then watch, say, PBS News Hour. (Actually it's been a year or more
since I've seen either.)

Part of me suspects that Colbert turns off some of the same higher functions
of the brain that O'Reilly does.

~~~
mbreese
Then you're just not getting the joke. They are comedy shows that mock cable
news shows. Stewart and Colbert are very clear that they aren't news. Try
watching Fox News for an hour and compare that to the PBS News Hour... then
you'll get the joke.

~~~
ams6110
As if PBS News Hour is somehow the standard of impartial journalism....

~~~
marshray
I didn't say it was impartial, but that it's categorically different in some
interesting way.

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stellar678
If you're in the Bay Area/California, I'd throw a strong recommendation behind
Sonic.net and their great Fusion DSL service. $40/month for 20mbit DSL, $70
for 40mbit paired DSL. Plus, their support number is directly answered by
human beings who live in the Bay Area.

And of course they're on the correct side of the SOPA insanity.

~~~
catch23
Not necessarily great from my perspective -- seems like phone junction boxes
are typically exposed to outside elements more often than cable boxes. When I
was with sonic, data connection became crap when it rained.

~~~
thaumaturgy
I think it depends on your local area. I live in an area with really old
telecom infrastructure, we have problems like that all the time. Rather than
being in the MPOE, trouble is usually on the poles or in the air -- the bigger
lines with bad insulation filling with water or other major equipment losing
its battle with the weather.

Areas with newer infrastructure don't seem to have as much of a problem with
this.

------
CaptainMorgan
For those of us (me) that do not have alternatives, take care to note that the
petition makes use of a check box to signal that you support the cause, yet
have no service alternatives. It would be helpful for those on the fence and
feeling hopeless to read how this will be implemented in the final draft. Do
we become targets for Comcast or other such companies (monopolies) with no
viable competitors... scrutinized and watched if the petition fails, labeled
as a "un"-valuable customers from here on forward?

If you're like me and more of an optimist, I'm hoping that it will be used in
such a way that reflects positively on us the consumers.

------
Zakharov
What does the slogan mean? I read it as either "supporting SOPA means not
supporting Comcast" or "yes, SOPA will result in Comcast being shut down",
neither of which make any sense.

~~~
SideburnsOfDoom
It means that in order to support SOPA, you should make a promise to cancel
your Comcast. Because you have a Comcast.

It was almost certainly intended to mean something different.

------
polyfractal
I'd drop Comcast immediately if I could, and not because of SOPA. They have
horrible service and expensive prices. Frequent outages and slow speeds, awful
customer service.

Unfortunately, what are you to do when its the only internet provider in the
area? =(

~~~
idleworx
You can write to your local county internet/cable charter and complain about
the service quality.

------
chjj
The godaddy boycott worked. This won't.

How do I know? Because I wouldn't be prepared to give up comcast, and I hate
SOPA with every ounce of my being. I could never promise something like that.

People aren't prepared to give up their internet access (ironically to save
the internet) when comcast is the only ticket in town in many places.

~~~
Newgy
The cable companies are losing subscribers for the first time in history.
Every headwind matters to them. Just as important, getting the idea out there
that Comcast is against a free and open internet will undermine their
marketing towards those consumers who do have a choice. It matters.

~~~
mr_luc
This, plus PR!

If PR didn't matter to them, then neither would advertising, but they
advertise like crazy in spite of zero differentiation between themselves and
their competitors.

It's like why Internet fundraising is so valuable -- yeah, individual
contributions pale in comparison to corporate money, but it can be enough to
make the difference -- and at the same time it creates the kind of PR and
public awareness that big companies _wish_ they could create, and in fact pay
agencies big bucks to try to accomplish via social media initiatives.

------
dubfan
The only alternative to Comcast where I live is 3G, which would require giving
up online gaming and streaming video. It also is not significantly cheaper
than my current plan with Comcast. This isn't acceptable to me. The local
telephone company (Frontier) doesn't even service my house with DSL, which is
surprising considering they have two large offices within two miles. I'd love
to be idealistic but I can't really justify it.

------
pasbesoin
The "downgrade" option needs to be more prominent. Many people are dependent
upon Comcast for Internet (and perhaps phone), but might consider dropping the
cable TV portion of their service to a lower level if not altogether.

A problem with Comcast is that they lock their pricing into "packages" and
contract periods that can be difficult to escape/avoid. (Another example of
the scumminess of the industry.)

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richardburton
I think this is a great idea but the title for the url could be better. In my
mind I read it as:

    
    
        Pledge to cancel your Comcast *in support of SOPA*
    

I think a better title could have been:

    
    
        Comcast support SOPA. Make your pledge to leave them.
    

Best of luck! I watch from across the pond with awe and admiration.

------
lambda
This is much more difficult than switching registrars. Where I live, there is
a duopoly for broadband internet; Verizon and Comcast. And Comcast is by far
faster and provides more reliable service; Verizon FiOS is supposed to be
reasonably fast, but for some reason, they only offer it in the suburbs, not
in the city.

If there were an alternative that were even remotely competitive, I would go
with it. As it stands, Comcast is the only game in town unless I want to
dramatically cut my connection speed for only a modest reduction in price.

 _edit_ : Actually, I just checked. Even Verizon DSL is not available to me. I
guess I live in a monopoly market. I've tried checking if RCN is available,
but their system always chokes on my address (the street name has "Saint" in
it, which is often abbreviated to "St" in databases, which confuses some
address matching algorithms for obvious reasons).

~~~
pixls
I tried contacting RCN when i moved, in the Philadelphia area they're only in
like west chester, not even anywhere reasonable

------
ddw
Are we sure that Verizon doesn't support SOPA? I'm not seeing them on the list
but I still find it hard to believe.

~~~
praxeologist
Yeah, I find this hard to believe too. My perception is that Verizon is
somewhat less corrupt than Comcast overall though. When I lived in Baltimore
City, Comcast pulled off some maneuvers with the City Council to keep their
monopoly and keep FioS out. I'll be moving soon, so look at Verizon and
smaller vendors if I can.

~~~
comcastic
I work for Comcast and I can tell you that yes, Comcast has lost what they
consider to be a 'few' subscribers in the big scheme of things. Not sure if
you know it or not, but they have already 'bought' NBC/Universal, and they
have already partnered with Dish and Direct TV. Comcast is the primary cable
and internet provider in most markets. However, they've already positioned
themselves to take over or purchase any competitors when the time is right
with all these partnerships. Even Verizon is not safe. They have recently
'partnered' with their cellphone/wireless division too. Wonder why?

In the end, they are all the same and the majority of the people that this
will put a hinderance on are the non higher-up employees and the end users.
However, if this is something you are passionate about, go for it. It's your
right to boycott and not utilize the services of anyone or any place you do
not agree with. Unlike the federal government that tries to force you to
utilize a service or embrace a policy or standard...sorry rant for a different
day.

------
anonymoushn
I live in the bay and I can't buy anything else. I'm not just going to give up
having internet service at home.

~~~
house9
"live in the bay" - do you mean the San Francisco Bay Area? Sonic.net and ATT
are possible alternatives if so

~~~
ScottBurson
Switching to AT&T for _this_ reason doesn't make any sense at all. Although I
don't see them on the list of SOPA supporters, their history of sharing data
with the NSA shows that they're clearly not on our side. As bad as Comcast is,
I would never use AT&T.

------
rdl
If you can't cancel Comcast, send a complaint to them (call, fax, write,
email) as a current customer. Figure out how much you've spent over your
lifetime with them, and include that figure in your mail. Ideally get your
message sent to someone in the line of business but not in the support
organization, and maybe it's worth sending letters to lots of random people
within their upper management.

I think 10k people sending letters to individual comcast execs about this
issue would have more impact than 10k cancellations, and at far lower cost to
the individuals. (I live far from the CO, so Sonic.net Fusion doesn't work
well at my residence; webpass is not available, so the only option with good
bandwidth is Comcast Business).

------
tdfx
Does anyone have any decent Comcast alternatives for South Florida (Palm Beach
area)? I'd love to flip off Comcast over this but I'm not sure where else to
put my money. I will be needing internet access, after all.

------
sneak
Can we all just slow our collective roll a bit here?

1) This won't work, w/r/t Comcast.

2) This won't stop SOPA even if it could work. Comcast doesn't get to choose
whether or not it passes.

3) SOPA isn't the end of the world. If indeed it passes, it will just
accelerate the actual technical fix to the problem, which is excessive US
government centralized control over the Internet. I actually support SOPA
because its passage would cause the long-term solution to come about a lot
faster than it would otherwise.

It's good to say "fuck you" to big media companies, indeed. But stop using
SOPA as an excuse.

------
nagoo
Are there any competitors that openly oppose SOPA?

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LocalPCGuy
Lots of negativity here about this. I agree that it is much harder due to the
monopoly that Comcast has in many areas of the country, but most people have
the ability to at least downgrade their TV service. I've actually been
planning to do that anyways, this just nudges me over the line to actually
take some action on it.

------
aquanext
And switch with what? The bastards have us by the balls. I'm in favor of the
idea, but I don't see a viable alternative.

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PLejeck
I would love to do this, but sadly I have no other (good) choice. We've
basically got AT&T, Clearwire, or Comcast. Comcast is fast and expensive, AT&T
is okay but cheap (and their tech support sucks), and Clearwire is just shit,
plain and simple.

If I had any other options, I would switch.

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meanJim
Do make sure the company you switch to isn't supporting SOPA either, cause
that would be embarrassing.

~~~
sukuriant
Actually, it wouldn't matter _that_ much. Comcast is a big enough wig that
attacking them would be good, even if others in the area supported SOPA.

------
guest
Good to see the Marine reserves standing up for freedom like this.
<http://www.killfoot.com/> being the mailing list host and all.

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joblessjunkie
So instead of paying for my television programs, I should pirate them?

Are there _any_ media sellers who do not support SOPA?

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electic
Sadly, even NameCheap supports the morality clause which is so vague it might
be considered worse than SOPA.

