Reboot the FCC

Another good example of a monopoly would be the broadcasting industry. Only a few major players control the content of what is broadcast via the air waves. When you have one company owning a majority of stations in a market, that is a monopoly wheather you call it a cluster or whatever the catch phrase is for today's radio behemoths. the quality and content of radio programming today is banal and vacuous and leaves the listener with little choice as a majority stations are controled by one entity. For changeto be truly effective then the FCC needs to "Ma-Bell these radio monopolies and bring back free market enterprise to the realm of radio and other electronic and print communications.

Another good example of a monopoly would be the broadcasting industry. Only a few major players control the content of what is broadcast via the air waves. When you have one company owning a majority of stations in a market, that is a monopoly wheather you call it a cluster or whatever the catch phrase is for today's radio behemoths. the quality and content of radio programming today is banal and vacuous and leaves the listener with little choice as a majority stations are controled by one entity. For changeto be truly effective then the FCC needs to "Ma-Bell these radio monopolies and bring back free market enterprise to the realm of radio and other electronic and print communications.

I guess the author forgot the REAL reason why FCC was started.

Forget about the breakdown in all your radio stations.... The demolision of the FCC would ensure the encroachment of interference on our nations emergency communication nets. Police radio, fire, even your cell phones would be limited by the explosion of unregulated radio waves. Not to mention bands that cover amature radio (which provide much needed backup communications during 9/11 and other disasters).

So no, we can't abolish the FCC. But we can limit its jurisdiction to only devices that broadcast a signal.

Our perceptions are being pushed and pulled, changing by the day as our world gets turned up-side-down. What of our ASSUMPTIONS?

http://pacificgatepost.blogspot.com/2008/12/new-and-different-shattering-of.html

???AND WHERE TO NEXT?

Interesting. I find the complete opposite. When I was a kid I could pick up the phone and get a dial tone 99 percent of the time. Now, I've called six times for someone to come add a phone line but I keep getting sent to the wrong queue- I end up at the point where they ask me if I use Mac or Windows when I call DSL support. Huh? I've also had two bill corrections for over $500 (FCC helped with this one) and another outstanding incorrect $300 bill (FCC has yet to help on this one). This professor must be out to lunch. Maybe he should come sit on the phone with me for two hours and call some of these deregulated genius companies. I say forget it, bring back the 80s. At least I could actually use the service then.

The guy who wrote this article is one-sided and bias. He treats "stability" like it's a bad thing. The FCC does more then just regulate air waves. Without the FCC we'd have idiots running their own radio and TV stations and interfering with legitimate channels, Everytime you turned on your microwave your TV and Radio would fuzz out. your computer would interphere with pace makers, etc. Most of the things you take for granted have to pass FCC regulations to insure they don't interphere with the other devices in your lives that you take for granted. Sure, the FCC has some things broken, but De-regulation and chaos is not the answer.

The author assumes the communication Industry will regulate itself?...The current mortgage and financial mess is a prime example of what happens when you leave it up to the respective industries to regulate themselves.

Speaking of "DNA"...

Combining FEMA and almost everything else within sight into the Homeland Security agency has worked so well maybe we should just combine ALL of the government agencies into one BIG empire: we could call it the DNA, for "Do Nothing Agency!"

"We'll stifle the Skypes and YouTubes of the future if we don't demolish the regulators that oversee our digital pipelines."

Didn't seem to stifle them all that much now, why would it in the future?

The government should never have been permitted to grant special license to anyone to be the sole producer of anything... what right does anyone have to own the air through which a radio signal is transmitted, or the water that falls from the sky, or a thought in someone else's head? These special privileges always redound to the benefit of the wealthy and the connected, only. And the pretense that such special licenses and privileges are necessary to innovation ignores experience... it is an argument that also serves only the wealthy elites.

Abolishing the FCC, and more to the point, unnecessary and monopoly protecting regulations that stifle innovation, is a fascinating argument in these extraordinary times. In general, with the meltdown of the economy brought on largely as a result of lax government oversight, and regulations particularly over Wallstreet and the mortgage industries, on the surface a call for less regulation over the technology and communication sectors would seem a mistake. But it's precisely what is needed.

The real enemy of the public good are monopolies that use their power and influence to stifle true competition, and delay or prevent needed change. I agree that government must do a better job of distancing itself from the vested interests of any one constituency (regardless of its financial resources, or political reach), the public good is the charge for which government must fire.

I would be curious to learn what Mr. Lessig feels of the role of the FTC, and its contribution to the rise of monopolies in other industries over the past 30-40 years?