<story><title>Comcast cuts off customer for going over 250GB of legitimate use</title><url>http://12160.info/profiles/blogs/the-day-comcasts-data-cap</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>megaman821</author><text>Your water and electricity utilities most likely also have caps on how much water or electricity you can use before they cut you off. Except if you go over a few times they won&apos;t ban you from their service for a year. They just want you to curb your use, which is exactly what this guy was willing to do.</text></item><item><author>bradleyland</author><text>The author had me up until the moment he claimed that internet access is a &quot;right&quot;. Ok, so let&apos;s say internet access is a &quot;right&quot;. Rights often come within a framework. You have many rights that are yours for the losing. Your freedom to come and go freely, for example. If you break a law, you lose your freedom by being put in jail.&lt;p&gt;To say something is a &quot;right&quot; is to say that it ought to be available, or that the government should not infringe upon your ability to seek that right unduly. In this case, the author broke the rules of the framework, and thus his right was suspended.&lt;p&gt;What a right to broadband is &lt;i&gt;not&lt;/i&gt;: an irrevocable license to use as much of a shared resource as possible for a fixed price you deem appropriate.&lt;p&gt;Author, if you&apos;re reading, this is why people are saying you sound entitled. You&apos;re conflating &quot;rights&quot; with your own viewpoint that you should have unlimited internet access at a fixed price.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>matwood</author><text>&lt;i&gt;Your water and electricity utilities most likely also have caps on how much water or electricity you can use before they cut you off.&lt;/i&gt;&lt;p&gt;Most utilities cannot just shut you off.  Many states have laws that determine when and how.  The biggest thing about a utility though is that you pay for usage.  If you want to leave your lights on all day, they really don&apos;t care as long as you continue to pay your bill.&lt;p&gt;Personally, I don&apos;t see a problem with metered broadband, and only have a problem with the current pricing structures.  Look at the mobile space to see how messed up it can be.  Companies set prices at a usage level that is just below what a person really needs so they force people into the next tier with the hopes the person will not actually use it. Instead, I would support a flat rate per GB.  I&apos;ve seen numbers like $6/GB thrown around for mobile (it would obviously be a lot lower for line connected broadband, but you get the idea).&lt;p&gt;&lt;i&gt;If&lt;/i&gt; we do end up with broadband treated as a utility in the US, I would bet that it will be metered and charged for usage.  It&apos;s the most fair way to support the system and will naturally prevent people from doing something similar to leaving their lights on all day.</text></comment>
<story><title>Comcast cuts off customer for going over 250GB of legitimate use</title><url>http://12160.info/profiles/blogs/the-day-comcasts-data-cap</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>megaman821</author><text>Your water and electricity utilities most likely also have caps on how much water or electricity you can use before they cut you off. Except if you go over a few times they won&apos;t ban you from their service for a year. They just want you to curb your use, which is exactly what this guy was willing to do.</text></item><item><author>bradleyland</author><text>The author had me up until the moment he claimed that internet access is a &quot;right&quot;. Ok, so let&apos;s say internet access is a &quot;right&quot;. Rights often come within a framework. You have many rights that are yours for the losing. Your freedom to come and go freely, for example. If you break a law, you lose your freedom by being put in jail.&lt;p&gt;To say something is a &quot;right&quot; is to say that it ought to be available, or that the government should not infringe upon your ability to seek that right unduly. In this case, the author broke the rules of the framework, and thus his right was suspended.&lt;p&gt;What a right to broadband is &lt;i&gt;not&lt;/i&gt;: an irrevocable license to use as much of a shared resource as possible for a fixed price you deem appropriate.&lt;p&gt;Author, if you&apos;re reading, this is why people are saying you sound entitled. You&apos;re conflating &quot;rights&quot; with your own viewpoint that you should have unlimited internet access at a fixed price.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>bryanlarsen</author><text>At least in Canada, there are rules governing when the electricity company can cut you off.   To oversimplify, you cannot be cut off during winter.</text></comment>