Re: Newsweek: Lawrence Lessig: Reboot the FCC

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

Begin forwarded message:

From: dewayne () warpspeed com (Dewayne Hendricks)
Date: December 28, 2008 10:45:33 PM EST
To: Dewayne-Net Technology List <xyzzy () warpspeed com>
Subject: [Dewayne-Net] Re: Newsweek: Lawrence Lessig: Reboot the FCC

[Note:  This comment comes from reader Brett Glass.  DLH]

From: Brett Glass <brett () lariat net>
Date: December 28, 2008 1:59:25 PM PST
To: "Dewayne Hendricks" <dewayne () warpspeed com>
Subject: Lawrence Lessig: Reboot the FCC

Larry Lessig writes:

> President Obama should get Congress to shut down the FCC and similar  
> vestigial regulators, which put stability and special interests  
> above the public good. In their place, Congress should create  
> something we could call the Innovation Environment Protection Agency  
> (iEPA), charged with a simple founding mission: "minimal  
> intervention to maximize innovation." The iEPA's core purpose would  
> be to protect innovation from its two historical enemies excessive  
> government favors, and excessive private monopoly power.

But later in the same essay, Lessig advocates "network neutrality"  
regulation, which would prevent innovation (such as the innovative  
traffic management techniques which my own ISP uses to maintain  
quality of service while keeping prices reasonable) and force small,  
independent, and wireless ISPs out of business. This, in turn, would  
give telcos and cable companies monopoly or duopoly power in the  
broadband sphere.

One can only wonder at such an obvious contradiction. Mr. Lessig seems  
to be saying, "Don't regulate... unless I feel strongly about an issue  
and want you to. Or unless regulation is favored by one of the large  
corporate donors to my 'Center for the Internet and Society' at  
Stanford, such as Google." (*)

--Brett Glass

(*) Google has provided a great deal of support to Lessig's center at  
Stanford, including at least one lump sum donation of $2M.RSS Feed: <http://www.warpspeed.com/wordpress 
>




-------------------------------------------
Archives: https://www.listbox.com/member/archive/247/=now
RSS Feed: https://www.listbox.com/member/archive/rss/247/
Powered by Listbox: http://www.listbox.com