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[2] and [3], I think may have been written after I posted, or maybe I'm just blind. Either way... I'm definitely uncertain about what bad politicians would do

by tsuraan 17y ago

[2] and [3], I think may have been written after I posted, or maybe I'm just blind. Either way... I'm definitely uncertain about what bad politicians would do with control over the net's structure. I do know exactly what the CEOs of major ISPs will do though: they will maximize short-term profit. I've seen a lot of short-term profit maximization in my (rather short) life, and I haven't seen any of it turn out well. We used to have companies that had long-term goals, fundamental research divisions, the ability to see past next quarter's profits. I'm not sure where those companies are now, but if they're gone, it seems that the government is the only entity left that can have a long-term goal. Of course, long-term for our (US) government tends to be the election cycle, which is 2, 4, or 6 years. Not good, but perhaps not as bad as it could be. It's also easier to change the government than it is to change a huge company, although neither of those things is an easy thing to do. I'm not sure that net neutrality is quite as sweeping as you see it either. If congress is getting into peering agreements, protocol design, things like that, then we're definitely all doomed. If they're just slapping down anti-competitive measures like charging companies for access to ISP subscribers, then I can definitely get behind that. It's a matter of degrees, I guess.

tc 17y ago
the CEOs of major ISPs will...maximize short-term profit I think you may be unfairly maligning a bunch of folks who do actually care about their customers, but in any case, the correct answer is to enable competition, not to add regulation. As for how sweeping it is, knowledgeable people in the industry feel like this is going to impair their ability to make reasonable network design choices, and in some cases force them to lay physically separate networks to do an identical job. Once it is established that Washington has that level of control (effectively making a public resource out of private networks), it seems reasonable judging from historical precedence that they will expand their jurisdiction (the special interests will smell blood). (On a meta-note, I wrote 2&3 before seeing your response. We were likely writing in parallel.)

by tsuraan 17y ago

tc 17y ago

the CEOs of major ISPs will...maximize short-term profit I think you may be unfairly maligning a bunch of folks who do actually care about their customers, but in any case, the correct answer is to enable competition, not to add regulation. As for how sweeping it is, knowledgeable people in the industry feel like this is going to impair their ability to make reasonable network design choices, and in some cases force them to lay physically separate networks to do an identical job. Once it is established that Washington has that level of control (effectively making a public resource out of private networks), it seems reasonable judging from historical precedence that they will expand their jurisdiction (the special interests will smell blood). (On a meta-note, I wrote 2&3 before seeing your response. We were likely writing in parallel.)