“For a few brief, beautiful moments in the Internet’s history (from the mid-90s to the early 2000s), a majority of Netizens and cyber-policy pundits alike all rallied around the flag of “Hands Off the Net!” From censorship efforts, encryption controls, online taxes, privacy mandates and infrastructure regulations, there was a general consensus as to how much authority government should have over cyber life and our cyber liberties,” Thierer and Szoka write. “Simply put, there was a ‘presumption of liberty’ in all cyber matters.”
Thierer and Szoka write, “Those days are now gone; the presumption of online liberty is giving way to a presumption of regulation. A massive assault on real Internet freedom has been gathering steam for years and has finally come to a head. Ironically, victory for those who carry the banner of “Internet Freedom” would mean nothing less than the death of that freedom.
“We refer to the gradual but certain movement to have the federal government impose ‘neutrality’ regulation for all Internet actors and activities–and in particular, to Monday’s announcement by Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chairman Julius Genachowski that new rules will be floated shortly,” Thierer and Szoka write. “‘But wait,’ you say, ‘You’re mixing things up! All that’s being talked about right now is the application of ‘simple net neutrality,’ regulations for the infrastructure layer of the net.’ You might even claim regulations are not really regulation but pro-freedom principles to keep the net ‘free and open.'”
“Such thinking is terribly short-sighted,” Thierer and Szoka write. “Here is the reality: Because of the steps being taken in Washington right now, real Internet Freedom–for all Internet operators and consumers, and for economic and speech rights alike–is about to start dying a death by a thousand regulatory cuts.”
Full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: In case you missed it: As we said back in August 2006: “We don’t presume to know the best way to get there, but we support the concept of “Net Neutrality” especially as it pertains to preventing the idea of ISP’s blocking or otherwise impeding sites that don’t pay the ISP to ensure equal access. That said, we usually prefer the government to be hands-off wherever possible, Laissez-faire, except in cases where the free market obviously cannot adequately self-regulate (antitrust, for example). Regulations are static and the marketplace is fluid, so such regulation can often have unintended, unforeseen results down the road. We sincerely hope that there are enough forces in place and/or that the balances adjust in such a manner as to keep the ‘Net as neutral as it is today.”
That we have the same Take over three years later should be telling. Government regulations are not a panacea, neither are the lack thereof. It’s all about striking a proper balance where innovation can thrive while abuses are prevented.
I’m confused.
So the government is doing something to keep the telecoms from sticking us in the ass.
And that’s bad, because eventually the government is going to stick me in the ass.
Either way, my ass hurts.
Another conservative view, shocking!
Just wait until an AT and T exec gets annoyed at something you say about their service, and suddenly AT and T customers can’t access your site. This is “freedom” in the sense that the Forbes article sees it: “freedom” to get screwed over by powerful multinational corporations.
You need to look no further than here to discover the motivation behind this rather obtuse article:
http://www.pff.org/about/supporters.html
Well if companys like Att would just give us the stuff we want then there wouldn’t be any problems um ya we want mms with the best phone on the market reallywhat do these CEOs do all day do they not know what we want like 100 Meg download speeds the tech. Is there if 3 world countries have why don’t we what the f get out from behind ur desks and give us what we want really
I applaud MDN for deciding to present us with an alternative view to the currently all pervasive socialist agenda that has gripped our nation.
The America that we have loved oh so dearly, has been taken from us, kidnapped by those who believe that government should force its will upon the little guys. This administration has proven to be the greatest threat and disaster to our nation since the Clinton’s ruthless reign.
Mac users have always been unjustly known to have an affinity towards socialism. I am glad that we have a website here that shows that Mac users DO NOT support regulation and the endless descent into communism.
MDN, I salute you!
AT&&;T
just wait until the Maobamacare “health” czar gets mad about what you do or don’t do for their cause and deny you health care and sick the IRS on you.
Hillary now is saying that our Afghanistan command doesn’t know what they’re talking about in requesting 40,000 more troops. I wonder where Hillary earned her military expertise??? Sounds like a surrender – retreat is in the works. Maobama and friends have taken over for the French in surrenderese.
@ Sic semper tyrannis
Yeah, I remember the ruthless reign of the Clintons. The endless beatings, the years spent in refugee camps, watching my friends die of dysentery and malaria, boiling shoes for dinner. Those were tough times for America.
Thank god I lived long enough to vote for Bush!
@sic semper tyrannis,
sorry, but yer all sorts of paranoid nuts.
For every ounce of government we gain, we lose an ounce of our freedom. There isn’t a more simple explanation.
Sic semper tyrannis, you remind me of this guy.
@@wannabe
@hillary
-you are nuts as well.
Not to mention, off topic.
Go to Fox.com & holler your a$$e$ off.
It’s not so much death as it is eternal imprisonment with vultures devouring your liver every time you click.
Yes, twodales hits it on the head. Funny how they don’t mention that in their opinion piece. Also funny how they warn in every paragraph that the government is going to take away our internet freedoms, yet in no paragraph do they ever provide any concrete examples.
Where’s George Carlin when you need him?!?!
Aren’t the telecos behind the “Hands Off The Internet” astroturf campaign?
MidWest Mac and Moog are in the running for best posts on this thread! Get your votes in now, folks! The polls close in 10 minutes!
@mormegil,
bummer, gone,
it’s up to us now…..
There is no such thing as a free market. Corporations do not regulate themselves or each other (although they occasionally collude). When people say “free market” I think “Lord of the Flies.” Anarchy in which might makes right and the bullies rule. An unregulated market quickly becomes dominated by the largest corporations that do all they can to prevent competition. In the case of the internet, this includes ISPs filtering out or slowing down their competitor’s services and websites. History demonstrates time after time that unregulated businesses abuse the market, employees, consumers, and the environment.
A healthy market with competition requires regulations that are enforced. The game requires a referee to make sure everyone competes fairly. Who is going to come up with and enforce these regulations? Who is going to be our referee? We the People, through the organization we have formed together for just such a job: the government.
In the case of the communications industry and the internet in particular, the whole system exists in the first place because of the government. And I’m not just talking about the legislation and funding Al Gore championed through the Congress (which is what he was referring to when he said he “created” the internet). We the people allow these companies to use the commons, those things that belong to all of us collectively as a society: the rights of way to run their cables, the air and radio waves for sending wireless signals, the spots in orbit for their satellites, etc.
So of course the government can and should step in when anti-competetive practices start to emerge in this arena. It’s their job.
“For every ounce of government we gain, we lose an ounce of our freedom.”
Oh yeah, like with Homeland Security.
“I applaud MDN for deciding to present us with an alternative view to the currently all pervasive socialist agenda that has gripped our nation.”
You mean all the “OH NOES THE SKY IS FALLING COMMUNISM!!! ELEVENTY” hysteria?
Uh yeah, turn off Fox News.
My (possibly) uninformed take has been that some kind of legislation was being used as a threat to get the telecos & cable companies to stop behaving in such a shady manner on the net neutrality front.
The problem is, those companies seem to be calling that bluff, not believing that the threat of legislation will amount to anything. And so the legislation has to move forward to prove that the threat is legitimate.
So, as MidWest Mac noted, we’re either going to get shafted by Big Business, or shafted by Big Government. All we need now is for Big Labor to somehow shaft us along the way too, and we’ll have the complete set.
For all freedoms, we have to have a set of rules which guarantee those freedoms. Freedom without rules is nothing but anarchy. It’s a question of finding the right rules to guarantee the right kind of freedom we need.
I’m not sure I trust either Big Business or Big Government to do things properly, but if Big Business doesn’t stop behaving like a bunch of morons about this there won’t be much choice but to hope Big Government at least makes things less worse.
@ Cubert,
I can’t pick one over the other – they both cracked me up.