

The Case Against Net Neutrality - ryandvm
http://www.thelessonapplied.com/2010/08/11/the-case-against-net-neutrality/

======
cr0atian
Do not agree at all with this, while I do think that nothing majorly wrong is
going to come with is and I don't think we are going to be oppressed by our
ISPs I do not think that trusting large companies to self-regulate when they
have no real competition is a good idea. Verizon, AT&T (and Sprint) don't have
any competition, and I can see that AT&T is also happy with this deal.

~~~
ryandvm
The larger point is that people are trying to legislate a solution to a
problem that _we don't even have_. The few times that the potential for
network abuse has even dared to raise its head, it was quickly defeated by
public outcry and market pressure. Network neutrality proponents love to
prophesy about the gloomy scenarios that will play out unless we have network
neutrality codified - except we don't have it now and it turns out it's not
really a problem.

That said, I completely understand the point of the network neutrality
advocates. Wouldn't it be nice if we could just write some laws and make sure
we don't have to worry about our ISPs shafting us? Sure, but it never works
out that way. Industries have a long history of squirming out of the grip of
their regulatory bodies until they're using (and writing) the regulations
themselves. _That_ is a problem that we have now.

Look at how agribusiness controls the USDA. Or big pharma controls health care
legislation. Or Wall Street's influence on economic policy. What do you think
will happen when Verizon, Google, AT&T, etc. are pumping millions into Capitol
Hill and their ex VPs are heading up various FCC committees...

And that doesn't even touch on the inevitable unintended consequences. Perhaps
the darkest side of network neutrality legislation.

