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> That's already illegal under existing anti trust law. Comcast and others have already done exactly that and it was the FCC that went after them, not the FTC.
by extra88 9y ago
> That's already illegal under existing anti trust law.
Comcast and others have already done exactly that and it was the FCC that went after them, not the FTC. And how does anti-trust apply when it's the actions of a single company? There's no collusion between businesses to drop packets, one business just does it and other businesses may decide to do it also, they don't have to all agree to do it for it to be effective (from their perspective).
It's true that the question posed in the survey was specifically about content providers paying ISPs for access (or better access) to us, the people ISPs think belong to them. But the article and the overall debate is about far more.
- ikeboy 9y agoIf a company uses a monopoly in one industry to benefit them in another industry that can be an anti trust violation. No collusion is required. The famous Microsoft anti trust case wasn't about collusion, but about using OS dominance to create browser dominance.
- extra88 9y agoThank you for the correction. Monopoly cases are extremely difficult to prove and rarely brought, regardless of which party is in power. With ISPs, if consumers can choose Verizon or Comcast, neither is a monopoly but both could still be acting against competitors (or simply people who didn't pay their extortion) to the detriment of their customers.