

L. Gordon Crovitz: From Internet to Obamanet - zaroth
http://www.wsj.com/articles/l-gordon-crovitz-from-internet-to-obamanet-1424644324

======
tzs
Some choice quotes from the article:

    
    
       The permissionless Internet, which allows anyone
       to introduce a website, app or device without
       government review, ends this week.
    

He seems to elaborate on this further down:

    
    
       The Supreme Court has ruled that if the FCC applies
       Title II to the Internet, all uses of telecommunications
       will have to pass the “just and reasonable” test.
       Bureaucrats can review the fairness of Google’s search
       results, Facebook’s news feeds and news sites’ links to
       one another and to advertisers.
    

No cite is given to that Supreme Court ruling, so I don't know what Supreme
Court ruling he's completely misunderstanding (or more likely purposefully
misrepresenting).

Most of the claims in the article can be completely blown out of the water by
simply looking at wireless voice, which is regulated the same way the proposal
will regulate ISPs. If the things the article is claiming _must_ followed from
Title II were true, then we would have seen them in wireless voice. We do not.

    
    
       Utility regulation was designed to maintain the status
       quo, and it succeeds. This is why the railroads, Ma Bell
       and the local water monopoly were never known for
       innovation.
    

Ma Bell was never known for innovation? Seriously? Has the WSJ never heard of
the transistor? The solar cell? The laser? Unix? Information theory? Modern
cryptography? Radio astronomy?

