You are here Sprint
Submitted by Scott Cleland on Wed, 2007-03-07 10:37
For those looking for hefty substance in understanding the economic impacts of net regulation, I strongly recommend the Phoenix Center's new Policy Paper No. 28, Network Neutrality and Foreclosing Market Exchange: a Transaction Cost Analysis."
-
It is the best serious economic analysis I have seen to date in explaining how government interference in the broadband marketplace would backfire on the consumer in many harmful ways.
-
While NN has been an effective bumper sticker campaign, it is embarassingly devoid of analysis or justification that the legislative language will actually deliver what it's proponents claim it will deliver.
Why the Phoenix paper is so useful in this debate is it substantively explains how net regulation prohibitions on commerce negatively affect consumer prices, benefits and choices.
-
In laymans terms, this policy paper explains that when the law interferes with the free market and tilts the playing field to advantage one side, the online giants, it enables the online giants to shift their costs onto the backs of the consumer, while also prohibiting the market from dynamically responding in ways that would benefit the consumer with innovation or lower prices -- a classic double whammy on consumers.
-
The big take away from this paper is that net regulation of the type in proposed legislation, economically favors the online giants at the expense of consumers.
This paper also helps expose the biggest scam in the Net Neutrality debate, that net regulation benefits consumers.
Submitted by Scott Cleland on Fri, 2007-03-02 19:25
This morning the PrecursorBlog server of NetCompetition.org was hit and shut down for the day by a targeted and malicious denial-of-service attack.
Net neutrality proponents profess to oppose the "blocking, degrading, or impairing" of any Internet content. They also profess to cherish and want to protect the First Amendment of the Internet -- free speech.
I want to believe that Moveon.org's SaveTheInterent and FreePress had nothing to do with this attack.
I respectfully ask them to publicly denounce this malicious act as the antithesis of their vision for a free, open and democratic Internet.
Submitted by Scott Cleland on Fri, 2007-03-02 10:49
Web creator Sir Timothy Berners-Lee predictably testified before the House Telecom Subcommittee yesterday. According to Comm Daily today, he said that "the key to web growth is "separation of layers" between browser and server, requiring engineers and legislators "get out of the way" and let others devleop innovative Web Protocols." (Sir Berners-Lee quotes in italics)
- I wholeheartedly agree legislators should get out of the way, but why engineers?
- Don't engineers innovate and invent?
What troubles me with the net regulation proponent view is this presumption that innovation can only come from software people or code writers not engineers of people involved in networking or infrastructure.
Submitted by Scott Cleland on Thu, 2007-03-01 09:58
Be sure to read my commentary today in the Washington Times "America's Unique Internet Success."
-
It is particularly timely today given that House Telecom Subcommittee Chairman Markey is starting his series of net regulation hearings today by hearing from the inventor of the World Wide Web, a leading supporter of NN.
-
It is also timely because CPAC, the Conservative Political Action Conference starts today in Washington DC; I will be speaking on their Internet panel on Saturday morning.
The purpose of this commentary is to challenge head on Congressional Democrats' attempt to revise Internet history for political purposes and manufacture a "broadband crisis" where none exists.
Submitted by Scott Cleland on Tue, 2007-02-27 10:39
House Telecom Subcommittee Chairman Ed Markey (D-MA) said in the Boston Globe today that Sir Tim Berners-Lee, inventor of the World Wide Web, will testify on "the future of the Internet" on Thursday.
The open question is: will Chairman Markey allow free and open "competition" of views on what is best for "the future of the Internet" in the best of the "open democratic tradition of the Internet?"
Submitted by Scott Cleland on Sun, 2007-02-25 22:55
I had to flag Professor Lessig's curious February 14th post and video lecture on "Internet Policy -- Spectrum Deregulation."
-
Professor Lessig makes the case for NOT selling valuable spectrum to the highest bidder (like the law requires to lessen the budget deficit and reward taxpayers) and argues that our government should "set off large swaths of spectrum for unlicensed use."
-
Professor Lessig very curiously tries to use "hot dog rights" as an analogy to make his cerebral point:
-
"Imagine the government nationalized the hotdog market, and then sold to the highest bidder the “right to sell hotdogs� at in a particular place for a particular period of time. These rights — the right to sell hotdogs — could be structured to be a kind of property. The market would thus allocate them to the highest valued use. And the initial sale would raise lots of money for the federal treasury. Are you in favor of that? And if not, then why are you in favor of spectrum auctions?"
-
Excuse me Professor Lessig. I have my hand up in the back with a puzzled look on my face. I am in favor of analogies that make some sense.
-
What do "hot dogs" have to do wth spectrum?
-
Are hot dogs able to be used to communicate, to broadcast, or to access the Internet?
-
Would businesses pay billions for the right to sell hot dogs when they could sell other food?
-
Could you not sell other food or services, if you did not have the national rights to sell hot dogs?
-
Would Congress and a regulatory body care to sell rights to sell hot dogs?
-
Can you put catsup, mustard, chili, cheese or onions on spectrum?
I'm sorry but I have been racking my brain to "imagine the government nationalized the hot dog market" like Professor Lessig asked me to. I could only think of Chavez in Venezuela. As hard as I tried, I couldn't seem to "get" the Professor's "hot dog" analogy.
Submitted by Scott Cleland on Sun, 2007-02-25 22:06
Submitted by Scott Cleland on Thu, 2007-02-22 19:06
While at first glance it may not be obvious how the public policy debate over "net neutrality" affects the advertising sector -- it does -- and big time.
Let me explain "net neutrality" in the context of advertiser interests.
-
In simple terms, net neutrality is the politics of convergence.
-
As "convergence" makes the tech and communications sectors collide, and creates more direct competition between the sectors than ever before, the big question is: will this new techcom sector be sorted out by:
-
In "brand" terms, the main opposing "brand" players in this public policy fight are:
-
The online giants like: Google, Yahoo, Ebay, Amazon, and IAC -- that want net neutrality regulation of broadband companies; versus
-
The broadband companies like: AT&T, Verizon, Comcast, Time Warner, Sprint, which obviously don't want to be regulated.
So why should advertisers care who wins? There are three big reasons why that cut right to the advertising sector's bottom-line and future.
First, companies that advertise very little want to regulate some of the advertising sector's absolutely best corporate clients.
Submitted by Scott Cleland on Thu, 2007-02-22 10:42
eBay-Skype's recent petition to the FCC to impose a form of wireless net neutrality on the competitive wireless carriers is radical, outrageous and incredibly self serving.
- Skype is petitioning the FCC to mandate 1968 Carterfone rules for wireless proposed in Professor Tim Wu's vacuous FTC white paper on the topic. Simply, eBay-Skype doesn't want cell-phones and cell service to be sold together as a bundle.
Why is this a radical, out-of-the-mainstream idea?
Submitted by Scott Cleland on Tue, 2007-02-20 17:44
The common theme of net neutrality supporters is that there is not enough competition or competitive forces to prevent discrimination.
They assert a broadband duopoly even though the evidence and data don't support their assertions. This is one of the main reasons net neutrality has had so little success in forums where substance, evidence and proof matter.
Last week at the FTC workshop, Amazon and eBay took this competitive discussion to a whole new level of la la land.
-
Both Paul Misener of Amazon and Tod Cohen of eBay agreed on their second day panel that competition won't solve this potential problem.
-
Wow. Now we really know what we are up against.
-
Supposed capitalists, Amazon and eBay don't believe in or trust free markets any more!
-
They are saying that Congress should pass a law regardless of how much broadband competition there is or will be.
-
This is classic industrial policy think, which is defeat your future competitors in Washington, while they are still in the crib.
-
It is also more predatory than anything any broadband provider has done.
-
Under their logic all duopolies should be regulated preemptively before they do the things that all businesses have deep lurking in their hearts -- make profits...
-
Then the government should rugulate the Intel-AMD chip duopoly, the Microsoft operating system monopoly, the Cisco-Juniper router duopoly, the Google-Yahoo search duopoly, the Giant Foods- Safeway grocery duopoly and while they are at it they could preemptively regulate the eBay-Amazon retail ecommerce duopoly!
Amazon and eBay are no longer for free markets, but for Big Government industrial policy and European style socialism with them as the designated online national champions.
Pages
|