The Net Neutrality Lobby Is Like a Frog

WSJ On-Line ^ | 1/17/2014 | Holman W. Jenkins, Jr.

[Pontiac]

What the net-neut obsessives refuse to recognize is that anticompetitive intent isn't worth worrying about if an anticompetitive result isn't possible.

If AT&T were "double-dipping," or charging sender and recipient for the same data, as some allege, its rivals would quickly copy its innovation and compete away any excess revenues.

If AT&T were to degrade websites that don't pay up, its rivals would pounce and steal AT&T's dissatisfied customers.

[KTM rider]

I am not as concerened about the marketing aspects, I fear the selective editing as a means to control information

My biggest fear out of this ruling is that the internet will become like TV, with a network providing programming.

With the new ruling the ISP will be able to decide they do not want to run Freerepublic.com,and Drudgereport.com, access denied, but they will run democratunderground.com and dailyKoss.com.(for example)

you can try to say then Freerepublic will just find another ISP, not likely when the statist monopoly owns the infrastructure.

#1 socialist goal is absolute control of information, then #2 the absolute control of production and distribution of wealth, #3 the absolute control of life and death (obamacare)

[dayglored]

I have a copper phone line, hence the DSL. It runs underground, 2000 feet up my hill along/under my driveway.

No cable, doesn't come close enough to allow me to fund the extra last-mile run required to get it to my residence.

No power lines, I'm off-grid.

No wireless, I'm out among the hills, no line of sight for beam antennae and 20 miles from the nearest wireless towers.

Satellite has huge and unpredictable latency (delay), making real-time voice (god forbid video) impossible. That's a considerable part of my internet usage, for work.

No, there's no hidden ISP that I'm not aware of.

Yes, there are cell towers, and I have a data plan with Verizon for my iPad, 1GB/month for $20, but the iPad doesn't do what a computer does for my work. I have the data plan for emergency email/skype for when the DSL goes down.

Now, you might argue that I've made my choices, by choosing to live in a rural area, away from urban services. But there may well come a time with the high number of connectivity options available in the cities doesn't look so good, when the cities collapse, and take the suburbs with them. Not saying it will happen, only that the landscape might change.

I live out here by choice, and chose it long before "preppers" and "SHTF" were common memes. I moved here because this is God's Country, and I'd rather be closer to Him and Nature, and have only one ISP, than have a bunch of ISPs but find it harder to hear God's voice among the city traffic.