Interesting difference of opinion (Score 1)

Maybe it's just the two different group of posters, but it's interesting to see the change of opinion in this forum and in the one from Tuesday about Internet self-regulation.

Thurow was lambasted in that forum for suggesting that self regulation was a myth unless there was some force on the sidelines waiting to step in if people didn't play fair. Fair enough.

However, I find it interesting that people seem quite happy with the idea of a government body coming in and forcing the cable companies to let others be more competitive.

I would point out that competitive access to the physical network (ie. consumers with a wide choice of service providers) means that there will be greater freedom on the 'net. Why? Big providers like AOL, Sympatico are reknowned for catering to the most conservative faction in order to appeal to the largest market possible. (Wasn't it AOL who used to censor chat groups by their members? I think it's in Rheingold's book...)

In the fine print of the @Home use policies it says you're not supposed to set up your own server on their network. Of course, many people who know what they're doing ignore them, but if @Home had their way everyone would only be accessing the net and not publishing to it except with @Home servers (and presumably subject to @Home's ideas of what is proper and improper posting).

Take it from the other side though, especially with regards to Canada, a country that still has rather draconian censorship laws. (Border guards have been known to hold 'pornographic' materials for review. The scary thing about censorship of course, is that it always comes down to a few people telling others what's right.)

My rather drawn out point is this: regulation has it's place, but so does the competition of the market. I don't for a second think that either one is our friend (or enemy!), but that they should be played off each other to get the desired outcome. I think posters in this forum would be pretty receptive to that idea, but I think maybe others from the Thurow discussion may have pause for thought.