Google chief executive Eric Schmidt favors net neutrality, but only to a point: While the tech player wants to make sure that telecommunications giants don’t steer Internet traffic in a way that would favor some devices or services over others, he also believes that it would be a terrible idea for the government to involve itself as a regulator of the broader Internet.
The impulse is to say, “What a schmuck!” But once they’ve screwed up the internet, that will be one more once-free aspect of American life that will be enslaved forevermore.
Here’s a little rule of thumb to head off objections: If an allegedly-valuable social objective cannot be effected without force, it’s crime.
Mark Madsen says:
At what point will the government start to regulate all online content as well? Is that even possible?
October 24, 2009 — 10:39 am
Greg Swann says:
> At what point will the government start to regulate all online content as well? Is that even possible?
“You know, Mr. Madsen, when some people need surgery, they get it right away. Other people, not so much…”
How much power do you have to give the government before they don’t even have to bother to tell you to shut the f*ck up?
October 24, 2009 — 12:09 pm
Chris Johnson says:
First they came for the…
October 24, 2009 — 1:11 pm
Robert Worthington says:
greg, there is a bill currently trying to get passed which will regulate blogs! The government is way out of control. This is Chicago style mafia all the way.
October 25, 2009 — 8:44 am
Thomas Johnson says:
The Rotarian Socialists are in for an epiphany once they learn the Chicago Way.
October 25, 2009 — 11:13 am
Al Lorenz says:
Mr. Schmidt must not have been watching to what happened to the CEOs of GM, Chrysler, BOA and other beneficiaries of the government trough.
He favors regulating of competitors only to a point, as long as he gets to choose the point. Of course, he won’t get to choose the point. A bunch of madmen politicians get to choose the point, and change it at will. Of course, those pay caps applying to his business might change his tone.
October 26, 2009 — 8:23 pm
James Boyer says:
When it comes to blogs the Internet, what have you, the government should just step off. When it comes to monopoly power, then it is time for the government to step in, but not until that point.
October 28, 2009 — 8:41 am