Net Neutrality is Theft

Imagine that you built a company like FedEx, and once you became successful, the federal government decided that it needed to adopt rules to ensure that you were not going to favor one type of customer over another. All your pricing policies, your marketing strategy to increase efficiency by establishing special relationships to big firms would be out the window. Your relationships with airlines and trucking companies would be scrutinized. Your customers would probably like this, if it favored them, and those it did not favor would go somewhere else. Suddenly, your pricing policies, customer service and operations would be the subject of political debates. You would be forced to bow down to politicians to stay in business. Your business would never be the same.

This is what the FCC is proposing with "Net neutrality". You can read about it here.

This is a Big Deal. Mr. Genachowski has it right in one respect, he says: "there is no question that the openness of the Internet is the secret sauce to its success". These rules will end that openness because once the FCC runs the networks, the impartial efficiency of the market will be replaced with the micromanagement of politics.

The easiest way to understand the new rules, and what drives them is that the FCC will try to prohibit the carriers (Comcast, Verizon, etc) from charging extra for better service. It would be like trying to prohibit FedEx from charging extra if your package is too heavy, but this is what they want to do.

The internet is one of the few places on earth that is still free. It is a vehicle for protest and political speech throughout the world. The growth of the internet is owed to investors who innovate and make money selling service. Put the FCC - the US Federal Government - in charge of the operations of these networks in the name of "fairness" and kiss these investors and this freedom goodbye.

We must fight this. Keep those cards and letters coming.