"Am I The Only Techie Against Net Neutrality?"
From the Forbes article:
"Let’s try a thought experiment–think of an industry that has major problems. Public schools? Health care? How about higher education, student loans, housing, banking, physical infrastructure, immigration, the space program, the military, the police, and the post office? What do all these industries and/or organizations have in common? They are all heavily regulated or controlled by the government. On the other hand we see that where deregulation has occurred, innovation has bloomed, such as with telephony services. Do you think we’d all be walking around with smartphones today if the government still ran the phone system?"
"Let’s try a thought experiment–think of an industry that has major problems. Public schools? Health care? How about higher education, student loans, housing, banking, physical infrastructure, immigration, the space program, the military, the police, and the post office? What do all these industries and/or organizations have in common? They are all heavily regulated or controlled by the government. On the other hand we see that where deregulation has occurred, innovation has bloomed, such as with telephony services. Do you think we’d all be walking around with smartphones today if the government still ran the phone system?"
Government regulations are written by large corporate interests which collude with officials in government. The image of government being full of people on a mission to protect the little guy from predatory corporate behemoths is an illusion fostered by politicians and corporate interests alike. Many, if not most, government regulations are the product of crony capitalism designed to prevent small entrepreneurs from becoming real threats to large corporations. If Net Neutrality comes to pass how can we trust it will not be written in a way that will make it harder for new companies to offer Internet services?
There is no reason on this planet that the OWNERS of the equipment and bandwidth need dictated to by the government.
Let me provide ONE example of how BAD this will become.
PORN!!! Right now the providers can slow down the "porn" sites in favor of university traffic. Here is a FACT. The ISP's OWN the equipment and THEY can decide what avenue provides the best value for THEIR profits.
If some liberal weenie decides they want to just stream Linux "dd" traffic for no reason other than to use it, the providers can do nothing since the government just prevented that.
Plain and simple Verizon, Charter, Comcast, and all the other ISP's who OWN the equipment report to their shareholders, who also happen to be YOUR 401K's. Once the Government intervenes prices will go up for EVERYONE, regulatory compliance expenses will go up, profits will go down and so will YOUR 401K.
Anyone else for some reason to stupid to see how intertwined everything REALLY is and that the Government WILL screw it up even if they think they are providing some good?
Also this gives the Federal Bureaucracy the inroads to give the Government that "OFF" switch they have been clamoring for. So much for free speech and information, and Welcome to the new North Korea and China.