September 28, 2010
Fun with net neutrality
Was asked to comment on net neutrality, so I'll go ahead and do that, I promise this won't turn into a twenty part series on the LOST treaty, but I'll offer some thoughts.
I tend to be leery of net neutrality simply because I'm real squeamish when it comes to allowing government to dictate what private industry can and can't do in conducting their business. The last thing I want is the government overseeing the intarwebz, especially the idjit brigade that runs the FCC. Now, I don't have any issue with ISPs imposing net neutrality on themselves as internal company policy, I think that's commendable, and I'd be supportive of ISPs and services that did that. Google and Verizon have sort of been laying out a compromise of sorts to try and address net neutrality...I think this is a good and healthy thing, if it's something they do internally as part of a trade agreement type deal, not as some screwball Congress/corporate lawmaking venture that turns into a giant bureaucratic clusterfuck that leaves us poorer and less free.
Beyond that, I'm just not seeing signs of ISPs squashing content they don't like on much of a regular basis, if anything, the content on the intarwebs continues to grow rapidly. I also think that as soon as an ISP got too power-hungry or Nannyified, they'd see huge losses in customers, it'd be like a cable provider going, 'uh, hey, yeah, we're gonna take away 2/3rds of your channels because these are channels we don't like...cool?' Not cool, you'd go find another cable provider or look at alternatives. People are used to doing whatever the fuck they want on the intarwebs, and God help the poor bastard that says NO. People were never used to having whatever they wanted available when they wanted with TV and radio, the regulations were largely there from the beginning. It just won't go well for them to get heavy-handed with controlling content, there'd be an instant, vicious backlash. FAIL gets one of two things on the intarwebs, copious amounts of hate or brutal mockery...ask AOL.
I really do like Reason TV's segment on net neutrality, I think it's worth a watch,
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I tend to be leery of net neutrality simply because I'm real squeamish when it comes to allowing government to dictate what private industry can and can't do in conducting their business. The last thing I want is the government overseeing the intarwebz, especially the idjit brigade that runs the FCC. Now, I don't have any issue with ISPs imposing net neutrality on themselves as internal company policy, I think that's commendable, and I'd be supportive of ISPs and services that did that. Google and Verizon have sort of been laying out a compromise of sorts to try and address net neutrality...I think this is a good and healthy thing, if it's something they do internally as part of a trade agreement type deal, not as some screwball Congress/corporate lawmaking venture that turns into a giant bureaucratic clusterfuck that leaves us poorer and less free.
Beyond that, I'm just not seeing signs of ISPs squashing content they don't like on much of a regular basis, if anything, the content on the intarwebs continues to grow rapidly. I also think that as soon as an ISP got too power-hungry or Nannyified, they'd see huge losses in customers, it'd be like a cable provider going, 'uh, hey, yeah, we're gonna take away 2/3rds of your channels because these are channels we don't like...cool?' Not cool, you'd go find another cable provider or look at alternatives. People are used to doing whatever the fuck they want on the intarwebs, and God help the poor bastard that says NO. People were never used to having whatever they wanted available when they wanted with TV and radio, the regulations were largely there from the beginning. It just won't go well for them to get heavy-handed with controlling content, there'd be an instant, vicious backlash. FAIL gets one of two things on the intarwebs, copious amounts of hate or brutal mockery...ask AOL.
I really do like Reason TV's segment on net neutrality, I think it's worth a watch,
Ultimately, I go by this...is it easier to break a corporation's control, or the government's?
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