

The Father of Net Neutrality Is Running for Office - cyphersanctus
http://www.wired.com/2014/09/tim_wu/

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jallmann
I didn't realize Tim Wu had gotten into politics. This makes me very happy.

Tim Wu wrote the _The Master Switch_ [1], which explains how US media/telecom
wound up the way it is today -- how the dominant players came about in various
industries (radio, broadcast and cable TV, movies, telephones), and the events
that led to the legislative/regulatory environment we have today. The book
also explains how IP laws (patents, copyright, etc) have shaped history.

 _The Master Switch_ should be required reading before discussing such topics
on Hacker News.

[1] [http://www.amazon.com/The-Master-Switch-Information-
Empires/...](http://www.amazon.com/The-Master-Switch-Information-
Empires/dp/0307390993)

~~~
rayiner
Master Switch is an approachable book and offers some interesting historical
accounts. But it's definitely a book intended for a mass audience that
embodies Wu's particular take on the whole industry. The major weakness of the
book is that, as a sacrifice to the narrative format, it gives insufficient
weight to a major aspect of the whole story: how telecom regulation is shaped
by contemporary trends in economics and the economics of regulation.

I'd recommend your second read after Master Switch to be a proper textbook in
telecom regulation, for a more detached take. My (quite biased--I know one of
the authors) recommendation: [http://www.cap-
press.com/pdf/2322.pdf](http://www.cap-press.com/pdf/2322.pdf).

Your third read should be Khan's "The Economics of Regulation"
[http://www.amazon.com/The-Economics-Regulation-Principles-
In...](http://www.amazon.com/The-Economics-Regulation-Principles-
Institutions/dp/0262610523), which puts the whole field into the larger
context of the economic theories in play and how those theories have been
applied to various regulatory and deregulatory efforts.

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Spooky23
The democratic machinery in New York is pretty frantic with their GOTV
efforts, as this is a realy lame election cycle with hardly anything up for
contest in a meaningful way. In my area the "hot" race is over the judges who
oversee wills, adoption and probate.

The polling for likely voters must look better for Wu, as I've gotten
literally dozens of telephone calls and mailers. If Wu doesn't lose big, it's
pretty humiliating for the governor, who has to date managed to rule with a
fairly iron fist.

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justizin
Unfortunately, when he's had anything to say recently, it has fed my concerns
about uninformed net neutrality legislation, namely that he doesn't seem to
understand the difference between prioritization within the network and
peering.

This legislation has to be designed by people who know what the wiring and
working network configurations of the internet look like, which is a problem
because people see that as the industry self-regulating.

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chmullig
It's really tragic, as a politically interested Columbia student I hadn't
realized who he was, or that he was running, until this afternoon. :(

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rayschmitz
If you are in NYC go vote in the democratic primrary before the polls close at
9pm

