[opendtv] Re: Comcast is Clueless, too
- From: "John Willkie" <johnwillkie@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Fri, 2 Nov 2007 23:34:21 -0700
Richard;
It's one thing to play the victim card when you are small and insignificant.
(I tend to favor the English rule, where the losing party pays the
attorney's fees and court costs of the prevailing party.)
It's a different thing to 1) victimize your customers (www.ComcastMustDie);
2) interpose between peer-to-peer users as the opposite party to discourage
file transfers (another of Comcast's recent terrors, and one which will
probably cause the net neutrality debate to actually have something to talk
about) and 3) sue your regulator for abuse of discretion.
"Abuse of discretion" suits have a lower chance of winning than I claimed.
It is mere whining; this is, at the minimum, a delaying tactic.
In the meantime, Comcast will find out that the FCC will find another reason
to ding them for a few million dollars.
I'm not sure if I'm a very well educated person, at least in the modern
context. I do know what happens when you mess with your regulator's
perogatives, and there is just so much that the FCC can do to them within
their discretion.
Just a simple example: you file a routine application, and it takes 15 years
for it to be approved. You can't even appeal such a situation until the
agency has made a final determination. But, this is just the first step,
since all your applications can get lost, original files get misfiled, and
somehow your appointments to see staff or commission members are deleted,
and then the "problem" seems to extend from the client to all of the same
law firm's clients.
I spent most of the 1980's in the FCC's Public Reference Room(s). I didn't
make the above scenario up; I watched it happen, in real time, in several
cases. The one that was most public was Ted Turner's. He ended up moving
his business to Charlie Ferris, the former FCC commissioner, in no small
part because the freeze affected many clients of several of his previous law
firms. This was openly discussed among us paralegals and researcher types
in the reference room.
The FCC just sat on his petition to overturn cable must carry. On the fifth
attempt in court to appeal the FCC's inaction on his petition -- after 10
years -- the court finally ruled that the FCC inaction was an abuse of
discretion. And, ultimately, he won that case.
Comcast's move isn't a "bet the enterprise" type of an action against the
Commission, but they are clearly moving in that direction. They will be on
Capitol Hill shortly, I suspect, on their masquerading as both sides in
peer-to-peer communications, which will probably result in legislation, and
at least as pertains to them, they will deserve it.
Verizon FIOS and AT&T U-verse will eat their lunch on the landline side, and
DirecTv and Echostar on the satellite side. Beating the regulators and the
customers, and their employees (what few they have left) and their
subcontractors is an unsustainable model.
John Willkie
-----Mensaje original-----
De: opendtv-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:opendtv-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] En
nombre de Richard C. Ramsden
Enviado el: Friday, November 02, 2007 9:37 PM
Para: opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Asunto: [opendtv] Re: Comcast is Clueless, too
The special interest groups sue the FCC and everyone else they can think
of suing over things like Comcast using caching routers to improve
browsing response time. That BS costs. Comcast is just applying the
same. If the judicial system will invite the stupidest minor complaint,
they deserve to be abused.
John, you are very well educated person. Maybe you've been lucky not to
be educated in this area.
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