Friday, December 15, 2017

Cartoon of the day


[“Net Neutrality,” by Ellis Rosen. The New Yorker, December 15, 2017.]

comments: 4

Fresca said...

Chilling.
I feel we may have lived through the golden age of the Internet, sort of like the early days of radio before it was licensed.

Geo-B said...

I did like this one.

Anonymous said...

It is an interesting editorial and as such an exaggeration, as is so much political wrangling in these days. From Wikipedia's rather even-handed entry, "Several civil rights groups, such as the National Urban League, Jesse Jackson's Rainbow/PUSH, and League of United Latin American Citizens, also oppose Title II net neutrality regulations,[185] who said that the call to regulate broadband Internet service as a utility would harm minority communities by stifling investment in underserved areas." The issue, as seen from Europe, is one of looming taxation of internet service providers and their customers which regulation allows and "lite" regulation seems to frustrate. It is interesting that Fresca writes above of a "golden age" linked to early radio before licensing, because that is the inverse of Ellis Rosen's humor. Before licensing radio, competition was freely seen and the majors did not like that. Net neutrality might seem to make all free, but by creating the public utility category for all ISP groups, regulations come "freely" in time. Among them the ability to tax providers and users alike. The discussion seems more like a moving target than a one-time issue, and words are as always used to obfuscate. Consider the Defense Department which used to be called a War Department, and since the word change has managed to conduct wars in Korea, Vietnam and Cambodia, Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, cross border "mistakes" as in Pakistan and more. I think personally that both "net neutrality" and is purported opposite are problematic. It just depends on which set of problems one opts to confront. For our ISP, we have changed twice based on more competitors on the field, and that seems mostly because government has not -- like radio -- determined after that "golden age" how many stations may be licensed. Looking to more innovation, investment and competition seems a better approach than regulating, when one considers Norway just abandoned FM radio, while the EU is considering even greater fines on Google and others, none of which is very "neutral." Best wishes.

Michael Leddy said...

I like it too. A cartoon, I believe, is permitted to exaggerate.