[opendtv] Re: This is why the government should never control the internet - The Washington Post
- From: "Manfredi, Albert E" <albert.e.manfredi@xxxxxxxxxx>
- To: "opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx" <opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Sun, 3 Sep 2017 23:47:01 +0000
Craig Birkmaier wrote:
This sums it up:
"In short, the Internet is the greatest deregulatory success story of all time
- a simple fact that vexes those seeking new and unnecessary rules."
As Craig well knows by now, what he managed to dredge up from three years ago
is a canard, as they say. Nothing could be further from the truth.
The Internet was neutral in its origins, because that's what the educational
institutions and the government needed. The general public was not aware of it
(and Craig didn't even know it existed, for a good 20 years).
When the public was first exposed to the Internet, there was no "culture of
neutrality" that this public knew about. There was no "Internet culture" of any
kind, related to commercial usage of the Internet. It could have gone either
way, and in fact, walled "Internet" gardens did spring up. Anyone awake in
those early days would know how many people thought AOL was "the Internet," for
example. How can anyone who thought AOL was "the Internet" have possibly had a
clue about a "net neutrality culture?" That's bogus. There was no such culture.
So, this is another one of Craig's fabrications, to rewrite history to fit his
prejudices. Any possibility of a "neutral Internet culture," for the public,
*only* came as a result of their access to it, via strictly neutral Title II
telephone lines. The only reason why AOL couldn't perpetuate their vision of an
"Internet" is that people had dozens of options for access, over neutral
telephone lines. Had the public been exposed to the Internet via their cable
systems, as even Craig acknowledged in a moment of clarity, it would not have
been neutral at all. It would have been AOL models.
Now, if Craig could quit with his circular arguments, winding all the way back
to 2014, maybe he'd finally understand what's at stake here.
Bert
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