A bit over a year ago, I wrote a column arguing that innovation on the Internet would be best served if the government mostly kept its hands off. I've changed my mind. The behavior of the top telecommunications companies, especially Verizon Communications (VZ) and AT&T (T), has convinced me that more government involvement is needed to keep communications free of corporate interference.
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Until a recent change in the terms of its broadband service—again in response to a public flap—AT&T claimed the right to terminate the connection of customers for "conduct that…tends to damage the name or reputation of AT&T." Verizon retains similar language in its terms of service.
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The hands-off approach hasn't served consumers well. And the Web is far too important to entrust the free flow of information to the shifting whims of a few big companies. Government must step in and tell them to leave our content alone.
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Until a recent change in the terms of its broadband service—again in response to a public flap—AT&T claimed the right to terminate the connection of customers for "conduct that…tends to damage the name or reputation of AT&T." Verizon retains similar language in its terms of service.
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The hands-off approach hasn't served consumers well. And the Web is far too important to entrust the free flow of information to the shifting whims of a few big companies. Government must step in and tell them to leave our content alone.
He is right. Internet bandwidth is a utility like electricity and water. It is too bad our politicians are so poorly informed they don't understand capitalism. Actual capitalists understand that the government is suppose to regulate monopolies to maximize the benefit to society. Instead politicians vote to allow monopolies to tax users for the private gains of the companies (that give huge amounts of cash to those politicians).
Related: Net Neutrality - This is serious - Lobbyists Keep Tax Off Billion Dollar Private Equities Deals - Estate Tax Repeal
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