Date:      Wednesday, December 22, 2010

Subject: Empower XVIII - The Internet

On Tuesday, December 21, 2010 The Washington Post published an essay by Meredith Attwell Baker entitled, "Hands off tomorrow's Internet."

On Tuesday, in a party-line vote, the three Democratic commissioners of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) will adopt net neutrality rules.

The rules will give government, for the first time, a substantive role in how the Internet will be operated and managed, how broadband services will be priced and structured, and potentially how broadband networks will be financed. By replacing market forces and technological solutions with bureaucratic oversight, we may see an Internet future not quite as bright as we need, with less investment, less innovation and more congestion.

Discouragingly, the FCC is intervening to regulate the Internet because it wants to, not because it needs to. Preserving the openness and freedom of the Internet is non-negotiable; it is a bedrock principle shared by all in the Internet economy. No government action is necessary to preserve it. Acting only on speculative concerns about network operators and contrary to a decade of industry practice, the FCC is moving forward aggressively without real evidence of systemic competitive harms to cure, markets to fix or consumers to help.

The problem with this analysis is it's disconnect from reality. The concept of market forces is a fantasy as is the idea that the Internet is open and free. The FCC is intervening because it needs to if we ever hope to achieve "net neutrality." We need to recognize the truth -- that the Internet, as defined, is a product of selfish forces for selfish purposes.

In addition we are defining the Internet as though it is the connection between computers, the "tubes" so to speak. The proper definition should include all the computers connected to those "tubes" -- and everybody knows that those computers are not open and free -- right??

The difficulty with the FCC is it's dependence upon "those people" that continually sabotage the Governments effort to "do the right thing"

To be continued (I hope)

BTW, in hopes of exciting some discussion I am posting this page on the following web sites.
http://ifihadmyway.com
http://nationalcomputerassociation.com
I don't provide for comments -- I do provide an e-mail address!! (Please put a [MYWAY] in your title to get my attention)

Thanks for your time,

Doug Skoglund - skoglund@pdmsb.com

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