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FCC Reclassifies DSL, Drops Common Carrier Rules
Neil Wehneman writes "Via Media Law Prof Blog, it is reported that the FCC has reclassified broadband service as an "information service" instead of "telecommunications". This, among other things, gives the Baby Bells the same gift the cable companies got with Brand X : the right to stop opening their lines to competitors."
Libertarian capitalism, like communism, looks good on paper but fails utterly in reality.
I'll save all the 14-year-old armchair Libertarians, whose parents pay for their internet access, some effort by saying "Shut Up, Hippy".
Freedom: "I won't!"
Nice troll, dude. I can't resist.
...it was because IE came bundled with the OS, wheras netscape did not. Again you defend predatory, anti-competitive, monopolistc practices.
"it would be like the government forcing McDonald's to Serve food from Burger King, or Vice Versa."
Firstly, you're wrong because your analogy is specious. It wouldn't be like forcing McDonalds to SELL BK product, the CLEC's do a good job of selling the product. It would be more like, if burger ovens were incredibly expensive, and McDonalds owned 99% of them, forcing McDonalds to MAKE burgers for BK, which BK would then resell.
Secondly, you're wrong because Micky D's and the King are much more evenly matched as competitors than baby Bells and CLEC's are. Because it's not as prohibitively expensive to buy burger ovens as it is to lay copper wire over an entire city, county, state or nation.
Thirdly, I hope you realize you just used "McDonalds" and "unconstitutional" in the same thought. That alone should give you some pause - but you're obviously a zealot, so it probably won't.
"open up your own telephone company by laying your own cable down to compete, you have every right to do so."
It takes more than a "right" to start a business. It takes investment capital. In the case of telco's, every CLEC out there owning their own infrastructure would be three things. 1) Fiscally impossible. 2) Incredibly wasteful. 3) Incredibly ugly - can you imagine every telephone pole made 100 feet high, carrying cables for every single telco in the country? Is that a street you'd want to drive down or live on? Especially since all these wires are all using only 1% of their capacity?
Do you realize that you're defending predatory, monopolistic, anti-competitive, anti-free market status quo?
Let's continue for a moment down the analogistic path. When American (and foreign) space missions have flown, and have carried into space scientific experiments and equipment, they weren't all from the same person or company. Do you think that every single scientist who needed experimental results from space should have built and flown their own shuttle? Would you have the scientific community be kept from the knowledge that helps you and me lead better lives rather than have all the experiments piggyback up on the same shuttle? Would you have every astronomer build their own Hubble telescopes rather than use the one that exists, and share it?
At one end of the scale, you have fast food franchises. When you open one, investment costs are relatively low. Accordingly, there's millions of these places, and they all compete. At the other end of the scale, you have going into outer space, or laying copper to every house in the nation.
"when Netscape was losing their market share to Microsoft over Internet Explorer"
"taking market share away from Microsoft"
What planet do you live on? Here on Earth, IE has 86.56% of browser market share, as opposed to Firefox's MIGHTY EIGHT PERCENT!! This in spite of the fact that IE is the WORST BROWSER EVER WRITTEN! This in spite of the fact that Netscape had over 50% market share until 1997! Gee, how on Earth did that happen? Woo hoo, let's hear it for predatory monopolies!
"Revscat, that is what happens when the Free Market decides"
Only an utter zealot (or a troll posting anonymously) would treat the phrase "free market" as a proper noun to be capitalized.
Look, Einstein, this is how it works. Regulation, like everything else in life, operates within a spectrum. On the far end, you have over-regulation. I honestly can't think of any recent examples of this, but I'm sure it exists somewhere, probably in Europe. In the middle, you have regulation at it's most appropriate level, where business and consumers are equally represented. These are called CHECKS AND BALANCES, maybe you've heard of them. At the other end, you have UNDER-regulation. Yes, Virginia, there is such a thing as under-regulation. It
They will never stop until somebody makes the