Also, I think there’s an important point here that isn’t being discussed. The internet is a complicated and fascinating dynamic, but the technology underlying the internet has also evolved and changed in fascinating ways. That evolution is highly technical, and it’s also complicated by an arcane mixture of state and private control. Wireless internet, to choose one example, has gorwn through numerous different standards throughout its adoption, and the protocols we use now (or at least, the institutions that specify them) were selected by market forces.

Frankly, I don’t have the faintest clue how NN legislation will affect the adoption of new technologies underneath the internet. Ms. Karras has probably done her research on the issue, but a lot of the legislation’s proponents haven’t, and that scares me. What I do know is that I don’t trust the same Congress that gimped America’s toilets to regulate America’s network protocols.

Bad ISP behavior harms the free flowing awesomeness of the internet, true. But if the solution is to restrict ourselves in other areas, that should ring alarm bells. The worst thing we could do would be to trade our relatively clear and obvious problems for obscure and hidden problems, because the latter are far more easily exploited.

Labor laws aren’t regulation. They allow an even playing field that lets the labor market work as a model of free market efficiency.
Cap-and-trade isn’t regulation. It allows an even playing field that internalizes environmental costs.
…..
…..
…..
…..