FCC Commissioner Urges, Don't Regulate the Internet

Brett Glass writes "In an op-ed in today's Washington Post, FCC Commissioner Robert McDowell makes a case against government regulation of the Internet, opining that 'engineers, not politicians or bureaucrats, should solve engineering problems.' With state governments pressuring ISPs to pull the plug on Usenet, and a proposal now in play for a censored public Internet, McDowell may have a very good point." McDowell is one of the two FCC commissioners who did not vote with the majority to punish Comcast for their BitTorrent throttling.

Comments

Hmmm

[dreamchaser]

McDowell is one of the two FCC commissioners who did not vote with the majority to punish Comcast for their BitTorrent throttling.

So by 'not regulating' he means that ISP's should be free to throttle whatever they please? Interesting stance.

Re:Hmmm

[ZosX]

That is the gist of what he is saying. The ISPs should be self regulating essentially. This is the beginning of a very slippery slope. What if Comcast decides to ban all torrent traffic? Even with encryption, high usage certainly sends red flags. (perhaps more so) With less oversight this could certainly happen. The service agreement you sign certainly may be subject to change at any moment. The internet is starting to slide into the path of provider approved content. I think a free network is something worth protecting, perhaps even with our very lives. How much is freedom worth to you?

Re:Hmmm

[ZosX]

BTW....is the internet a right or a privilege? Think about it...

Re:Hmmm

[DigDuality]

Hmmm... considering many of people's tax dollars in many nations went to it's invention (be it the US military, Russia's military, CERN, etc.. ) and considering the tremendous amounts in subsidy telecom companies recieve from many nations... it's the people's IMO.

Re:Hmmm

[maxume]

Is food a right? If so, how much food? What kind of food? Think about it...

Re:Hmmm

[d34thm0nk3y]

Let me get this straight. Diebold fixes the election, and all you Americans do is point at them and whine a bit, then Comcast takes away your pron and all of a sudden you're willing to fight to the death?

Without the internet how many people would even know about Diebold?

Re:Hmmm

[noidentity]

Is posting on Slashdot a right? If so, how many chara

Re:Hmmm

[rtb61]

That is ludicrous. Use of the internet is becoming a daily necessity and the lie about multiple wired services is bullshit. Yeah, you are going to have 10 different wires running down the street from 10 different companies providing competitive services, what a lie. Due to the cost of wiring and providing the infrastructure at most you will have three and most often two and sometimes one, that is the reality and perfect for cooperative cartels to exploit.

Which is why it needs to be regulated and controlled so that everyone can access it upon an equal basis, so that people are not discriminated against should they for example voice an opinion that is in opposition to communications provider which one corrupt provider already slipped into their contracts.

What the FCC commissioner is basically calling for is that they should be doing nothing, the perfect job, get paid to control nothing, regulate nothing basically just be a positive publicity spewing mouth piece for an industry they are meant to be overseeing.

Drop the idiotic lie that somehow the government is some alien authority, the government is meant to be an extension of the peoples will. A means by which the people ensure controls are in place so that do not have to fight for respect and the rights every minute of every day. Regulations are forced upon corporations in order to ensure a minimum level of acceptable behaviour is maintained, in order to prevent the corporation to use it fiscal power to destroy individuals with limited capital in court and in order to prevent corporations from arbitrarily denying people access to services.

Re:Hmmm

[Assembler]

It is neither right, nor privilege. It is a network of computers.

I believe you were referring to access to the internet, which is also not a right, nor is it a privilege. Access to the internet is a service.

1st: Taxpayers paid for large parts of the internet's development and infrastructure. Denying them access would be stealing if we're going to seriously consider adopting a free market.

2nd: The startup costs are too high for an ISP right now. The only option in a free market would be to string their own cables on their own telephone poles. Government forcing the current monopolies to lease lines at cost is a good thing. The startup costs (and oligarchic competition) are the real reason why there are regional monopolies.

Also: You think new rights can't be added? More restrictions certainly can. Why is it a one way street? Access to an unrestricted internet today is just as important as free speech was yesterday because it is the modern day equivalent.

Re:Hmmm

[hclewk]

DigDuality: it's the people's
AC: So the people who created it have indefinite right to control it?

Huh?

Me: I like apples.
Guy-who-likes-to-misconstrue-my-words: You're a vegan?

Re:Hmmm

[SlowMovingTarget]

Nice.

The Founding Fathers created a tension intended to limit the encroachments of government on the governed. They did this because they all had suffered under a government with nearly unlimited authority, expressed most directly in the form of taxes. We seem to have forgotten that. The notion that government somehow has unlimited ability to solve all our problems is silly. Government is people with power over other people. The fewer with lesser, the better, as far as is reasonable. It reminds me of that demotivational poster: "Incompetence: When you earnestly believe that you can compensate for a lack of skill by doubling your efforts, there's no end to what you can't do."

Entitlements are simply back-channel ways to exert additional control over the public. Higher taxes remove money from the capitalist economy, which means that individuals can't do as much as they used to with what they earn. As for the internet, yes, our government paved the way (literally in some cases), but free consumers in the market made it take off. When the government does need to step in, it should do so temporarily, as a correction, not as mommy doling out an allowance in perpetuity.

Our priorities are screwed up when we're worrying about making sure the wino down the street can post his latest video to YouTube. I'm all for putting internet access in schools supported by a local millage, but I'm against the government taking away my money to pay for internet access for the guy down the street. I have better ways of spending that money (contributions to charities, and local schools, as well as foreign aid (food)).

One more quote, while I'm at it:

A society that puts equality--in the sense of equality of outcome--ahead of freedom will end up with neither equality nor freedom. The use of force to achieve equality will destroy freedom, and the force, introduced for good purposes, will end up in the hands of people who use it to promote their own interests.

-- Free to Choose, Milton Friedman and Rose Friedman

The force he refers to, of course, is taxation and redistribution of funds. Let's not hand people in Washington more control over our lives, please.

Unfortunately

[Stickerboy]

If the government doesn't step in, it won't be engineers regulating the internet either. It will be Sales and Marketing managers (or maybe someone higher up the food chain) trying to squeeze every last drop of profit from their paying customers.

Cinas "Golden shield" now copied in USA and Sweden

[viking80]

It looks like USA and Sweden is copying Chinas "Golden shield" to protect its citizens. Sweden with the new FRA law, and US censoring Usenet.

I really hope we can stop this before the politicians try to "protect" me too.

Most muslim states are of course already "protecting" its citizens heavily.

Who's doing what?

[loraksus]

With state governments pressuring ISPs to pull the plug on Usenet

Wrong. Lets get this clear - The recent push to shut down usenet access is being led almost solely by Andrew Cuomo - the Attorney General from NY - some guy who you probably never voted for. In fact, you've probably never even seen his name on a ballot.

Isn't it cool how some douchebag elected in a different state gets to dictate national policy?
Makes you feel all warm and fuzzy.

How remarkably disingenuous

[daemonburrito]

Here is the trade association (read: telecom lobbyist group) that he served as assistant General Counsel and Vice President: http://www.comptel.org/.

From his bio:

McDowell is extensively involved in civic and political affairs. He has served on numerous boards and commissions. He was appointed by Virginia Governor George Allen to the Governor's Advisory Board for a Safe and Drug-Free Virginia, and to the Virginia Board for Contractors, to which he was reappointed by Governor Jim Gilmore. Also he is a veteran of several presidential campaigns, serving as counsel to the Bush-Cheney Florida Recount Team in 2000 and leading advance teams for President and Mrs. Bush in 2004, among many other endeavors.

Libertarians, I know he's speaking your language with this regulation==evil talk, but he does not have your interests at heart.

I totally fail to see how allowing ISPs to inspect and mangle data passing through their system is "pro-competition" or even "anti-regulation". These people want to destroy the internet as we know it.

Re:Net Neutrality: anti-regulation regulation..

[plasmacutter]

Just saying someone is "willfully corrupt" does not make it true. The telcoms have a legitimate right to do whatever they want with their backbones. They payed and continue to pay for them.

no they didnt. They were given heavy taxpayer grants which heavily subsidized their lines, and they also failed to deliver the capacity and market coverage they promised (e.g. rural areas are still dark).

Insisiting the telcos "paid" for those lines is like insisting the transcontinental railroad was privately funded, when in fact it would not exist if the government didnt give away wide tracts of land on either side of the tracks across the entire country.

Re:What type of problem?

[flaming error]

This is not an engineering problem. TCP/IP is pretty robust.

In fact, there is no inherent problem.

But carriers see an opportunity to squeeze more profit out, so they're trying to, and in the process they create a problem for users and content providers.

And governments see stuff they (or those they'd pander to) don't like, so they want to control it, and thus create a problem for users.

This can be solved by limiting carrier meddling to contractual SLA issues, and preventing government from censoring users.

The internet isn't broken; it's carriers and government that need fixing.