http://blogs.zdnet.com/…

I affirm, I really was going to drop this Ron Paul rant I pursued in my earlier post.

But some facts in this morning’s post by my highly respected Washington, D.C.-centric colleague Declan McCullagh entitled Ron Paul: The Internet’s Favorite Candidate” made me realize there are some lessons that still need to be taught to all you Libertarian-leaning fans of the Republican Presidential candidate.

1. “Net neutrality, which Internet players and forces support but the carriers do not” : If the ‘Internet players and forces’ wish to have completely open pipes they are welcome to lay them down and compete. The government gives monopolies to the carriers such as the phone and cable companies to connect to the end user who the players want to reach. Net access is not a right. The infrastructure is all privately owned.
2. “Escalating cable subscription fees, which lack of firm regulation ease through” : Cable companies are almost always  government sanctioned monopolies. Allow for competition and the prices will drop. Look at satellite. Look at how dialup competition drove prices down. How prices and services in areas where DSL, FIOS, and Cable compete have gotten better.
3. “Guaranteed access to wireless spectrum, which can only be decided upon and enforced via a strong, pro-consumer FCC acting in service of forthright laws” : How so? If companies failed to work together to slice up the spectrum or create compatible products people would stop purchasing their products. There are plenty of independent standards organizations like the IEEE which companies are members of to work out compatible ways to work with each other.
4. “Regulations and laws to keep VoIP-offering ISPs from blocking your Skype or Vonage?” : Again… you don’t own nor have a right to internet access or the type of service. If a customer’s ISP blocked services they wished to use and the government actually allowed companies to compete in the same physical locations… it wouldn’t be an issue as someone would want that business. If not, tough luck.
5. “What about privacy laws to keep, say, your online commerce records from being intercepted and sold?” : How does the laws stop it from happening now exactly? The customer is perfectly capable of reading the agreement with any online company and using their service as they see fit. If the company breaks the agreement the customer can sue. If it’s gathered from some third party it’s an infringement on the customer’s property rights.
6. “Hate Microsoft? Think they are monopolistic?” : Hate, no. Dislike, definitely. But they surely aren’t a monopoly. Microsoft is under no obligation to do business with Dell if Dell wishes to sell machines which run Linux. Speaking of which Linux distributions and Apple with MacOSX are only two examples of direct competition on the OS field. Their are plenty of other software and hardware products and services Microsoft supplies which other parties provide alternates to.
7. “A key purpose of laws and regulation should be to keep the powerful out of your pockets.” : I’m not sure about you but I’ve never had a corporation come and take my money. I’ve always freely provided them money in exchange for their good and services. If I thought my phone bill, cable bill, Net access bill were too high… I’d cancel my contract. I’m pretty sure you can too. If you want lower prices and better choices perhaps you should help remove the state established monopolies which limit both.
8. “If you just want to drink Rockstar, rock the Wii, write great code…” : Rockstar, an energy drink. Lots of competition. No problems with distribution or prices. The Nintendo Wii, direct competitor to that evil monopolistic Microsoft you mentioned. I believe there is a company called Sony competing in that market too. Code, free and open source software. Perhaps millions of people writing software which competes with all types of commercial software.
9. “Just don’t howl too loudly when your packets are deprioritized, your wireless provider screws you, and your cable rates go up. These decisions are not made by the market, but by companies who are eager to please their investors, their VCs, but not you.” : Don’t howl too loudly? You want to howl as loud as possible. Let everyone know what you think of their product or service. You also end your contract and look for an alternative. If the provider really want to please their investors and VCs they will provide services which the majority of people will want otherwise they fail to generate revenue and fail. The consumers hold the money and therefore the power.

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