" the powers-that-be want to slow it down a bit and rake in some of the dough while the going's good."

What's wrong with that? If you don't, it will end in accelerating inflation and a balance of payments crisis.

For whatever reasons the combination of regulation and competition in the UK has worked to provide effective competition and meaningful accountability. Despite the default network being owned by the former monopoly, regulation has achieved meaningful competitive access (other telecom providers can located their machinery at telephone exchanges for example). And it keeps it separate from the funds of the government, who will otherwise find the temptation to cheese pare irresistible.

Your comparison with roads is interesting. Privatising the freeway network would ensure that payments made for road use actually get to maintain the network. Historically the 19th C turnpikes were indeed maintained in the UK on that basis, but were later nationalised. I suspect that given the state of the potholes in many countries, a private body charged with road maintenance receiving specific payments from users could be a very useful way forward.

I'm pleased for you that it's working well at the moment. However the general pattern of public provision of utility type services is not good; the British sale of 'British Telecom' released a massive improvement in service because the company became free to invest without it adding to the debt of the state. The usual pattern in these situations is that the pot of money generated by your rental payments will get raided by its owner and the service will slowly tail off and the delay in getting repairs done will get longer and longer. As the infrastructure ages, there will be a need to raise the charges - but that would be unpopular with the electorate. So it won't happen - and you will be left with ever declining quality of service, with NO ALTERNATIVE. Now your country MAY be the exception - but the reality of competition in provision of as much as possible means that that sort of squeeze can't happen.

One of the things that amazes UK readers of Slashdot is the way that you've let your internet become monopolised at the point of access. The UK has open access to the historic telecom network, with real competition between ISPs as a result, along with a cable network that is also in competition. The result pressure on ISPs to keep prices down and quality up. I've got the cable option - without cable TV - and they've ramped the speeds up from 10 to 50Mb/s for almost no price increase - and I usually get better than the advertised 50Mb/s...

Whilst the DMCA may or may not be a good thing, it is certainly not a means for the car manufacturers to impose a SAFETY based restriction. That organisations pull that sort of abuse is why the legal system is held in contempt.

That's the problem we have. Given how much of 'accepted science' gets challenged and reworked, we are always faced with a spectrum from the very secure to the totally crackpot. After all, Einstein successfully torpedoed Newton's laws of motion, which were as widely accepted as you get. Somehow we need to have a process for determining whether a scientific claim is sufficient to justify its use for criminal trials. On a good day the court process will do that; on a bad day a poor quality lawyer will be unwilling to challenge it.

One of the frustrations we slashdotters often suffer is the ordinary person who disbelieves a scientific finding; climate change and anti-vaccers are the most visible at present. Yet it is stories like this that give people every justification for their scepticism; we need to be willing to hear their attitude and its reasons!

It's the difference between deliberate lying and passing on a fact that proves to be inaccurate. To the extent that these guys were reflecting the general consensus of their profession, then their comments aren't lying. To the extent that they had their own doubts which they failed to express to juries, they are guilty of perjury. But never underestimate the power of groupthink. The experimental demonstrations of the way in which people succumb to social pressure to say what is not true, when those they are with are actors saying the untruth, are terrifying. http://www.simplypsychology.or...

I'll give you the smart phone; as a luddite who refuses to use one, I tend to forget their significance. Digital cameras - also true. Genome sequencing - not yet THAT significant; whilst helpful for law enforcement, we've yet to see its wider application. LCD monitors - only significant as leading towards smartphones etc. LINUX, Amazon and electric cars - nah - not that significant.

However the central experience of western life - of living in nuclear families in dispersed suburbs, travelling to work in non-agricultural occupations every day whilst children are schooled in institutions - hasn't changed qualitatively for 150 years; more and more conform to this pattern of course, but my point is that we're doing more of this - not changing those forms much.

The last major, world changing thing, was the internet - some 25 years ago. Since then we've just seen it get better and better - but no real breakthroughs

Before that it was jet planes and anti-biotics - mid 50s

Before that motor cars - 1900 or so

Before that railroads - 1830 or so

Now it may be that we are waiting for the next major breakthrough.