The Interview is coming to Alaska!

Courtesy of Alaska Dispatch:

In the wake of controversy surrounding "The Interview," a comedy about the assassination of North Korea's leader Kim Jong Un starring Seth Rogen and James Franco, the Bear Tooth Theatrepub in Anchorage has announced it will begin screening the film Jan. 2. 

The independent, second-run theater will not publicize show times for the film until Monday evening, according to Rand Thornsley, film buyer for the Bear Tooth. Tickets will go on sale the following day, he said. 

“This was the only opportunity for (Sony Pictures) to have an opening in Anchorage theatrically, so they are allowing the Bear Tooth to run the film within our normal programming,” Thornsley said. 

Thornsley said he confirmed Tuesday evening that “The Interview” would play on the Bear Tooth's single screen. 

He said theater managers expected to arrange “extra security measures” for its showings, though he did not have specifics. 

“Since we don’t have the issue with having a multiplex, we will only be running ‘The Interview’ at one particular time,” Thornsley said. “That makes it a little bit easier. People can make their choice, whether or not they want to see it. It won’t be hurting other films.”

Somehow I doubt that Alaskans will be terribly intimidated by any threats from hackers or North Koreans. 

After all we survived Sarah Palin. What could Kim Jong Un do to us that was worse than that?

By the way the movie might also be coming to Netflix a few days after Christmas and that is most likely how I will end up watching it. 

President Obama's move to protect net neutrality is good for everybody except powerful service providers, so that means the Right Wing is coming after him with torches and pitchforks.

Courtesy of The Washington Post:  

President Obama on Monday called for the government to aggressively regulate Internet service providers such as Verizon and Comcast, treating broadband like a public utility as essential as water, phone service and electricity. 

Such a move would have a dramatic effect on cable and telecom firms that have fought vigorously to keep their highly profitable Internet businesses free of regulation. 

This is Obama's most aggressive statement yet in favor of a free and open Internet and against allowing Internet service providers to charge content companies like Netflix for faster access to their customers. The president's statement, released online Monday while he traveled to Asia, calls for the FCC to adopt the strictest rules possible for ensuring so-called net neutrality, or the principle that all Internet traffic should be treated equally. 

"I believe the FCC should create a new set of rules protecting net neutrality and ensuring that neither the cable company nor the phone company will be able to act as a gatekeeper, restricting what you can do or see online," Obama said in a statement.

Of course for somebody like me, whose entire day is spent on the internet and who has a local service provider trying to bleed me dry, this is incredibly welcome news.

We absolutely need more regulation to protect us from monopolies that have customers in a vice grip, and to protect online businesses from having to pay extra money to stream their content, the cost of which invariably gets passed on to the consumer.

So because this is clearly a great idea for most Americans, conservatives hate it.

Of course most are not quite as batshit crazy about it as Ted Cruz:

"Net Neutrality" is Obamacare for the Internet; the Internet should not operate at the speed of government.
— Senator Ted Cruz (@SenTedCruz) November 10, 2014

I don't even know what the hell that means.

However the folks over at The Oatmeal have made an effort to educate Ted Cruz.

Here of course is the real reason that big telecoms and their political surrogates like Ted Cruz are going to fight this thing, and why it could ultimately be a godsend to folks like you and me: 

Right now, no one is really talking about rates: The main concern is balancing access to the internet with investment by the private sector. The FCC wants to make sure it can prevent internet service providers from discriminating against traffic, and US courts have made pretty clear that the best way to do this is to classify the internet as a “common carrier,” as Obama endorsed today. The FCC has the powers to regulate common carriers across a variety of arenas, including preventing unreasonable discrimination. 

But one other thing that the FCC can do with a common carrier is ensure that its rates are “just and reasonable.” For instance, the FCC doesn’t allow phone companies to charge more than $6.50 for a single line, so that all Americans can afford access. Similar pricing rules are in place at electricity plants. If the internet is regulated under Title II, the government could come up with a similar cap on how much companies can charge for internet access.

Of course currently there is no mention of this in what the President is suggesting, and I understand why, but ultimately I would like to know that such regulations on how much providers can charge customers might be in the offing.

However even without that component to this change the idea is still very sound and would protect companies, and their consumers, from the type of abuse that we know is coming soon. And in some cases is already here.