Hands off tomorrow's Internet

[Valin]

Washington Post:

Meredith Attwell Baker
December 21, 2010

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.

(Snip)

[Sabre86]

At b*tch slap is coming and the FCC will not know what hit it.

 

The only question is whether it will be Congress or the Court which delivers it first.

[Pepper]

Valin!

 

By replacing market forces and technological solutions with bureaucratic oversight

 

 

 

(Gee, that has worked out well so far.....)^sarcasm