Newsweek: Reboot the FCC

[TheBigA]

Interesting article in Newsweek proposing an elimination of the FCC, replacing it with a different agency:

http://www.newsweek.com/id/176809

My problem with the article is that it's like asking the wolf to redesign the henhouse. Our government is so partisan, so filled with agendas, and so focused on what's best for itself that it simply couldn't handle the responsibility of redesigning the FCC without building in some biases that benefit Congress, and not the public.

 

[Goat Rodeo Cowboy]

Interesting article in Newsweek proposing an elimination of the FCC, replacing it with a different agency:

Thank you for catching this article and calling our attention to it.

I did a bit of research on Lessig and realize that he is ONE LOOSE CANON! I hope he stirs the political with vigor. Which of his ideas we will like and which we will hate remains to be seen.

Most people that I respect in the area of understanding governance are fearful of Constitution Conventions and situations where an entire body of law or an entire mechanism of governance are thrown out to be replace by a totally new "clean piece of paper" laws and regulations. There is something to be said for making change one step at a time.

The current proposal by "The Fair Tax" crowd strikes me as an example of something so revolutionary, so 'right-now' that it is scary. But, the conversation generated is useful.

Going back to Newsweek and Lessig.... he seems to be willing to propose that we put a little bit of communications law anarchy into our system. That should generate more conversation that is useful.

 

[TheBigA]

Going back to Newsweek and Lessig.... he seems to be willing to propose that we put a little bit of communications law anarchy into our system. That should generate more conversation that is useful.

That line of thought may be popular in San Francisco. But it'll go over like a lead balloon in DC, where there are more lawyers per capita than any other city.

My view is that roadblocks create innovation. The minute the internet becomes too expensive or too regulated, that is the minute some 16 year old kid will innovate something that will replace it. The internet, in a way, made the licenses the FCC regulates obsolete. That is the spirit of American innovation, and no federal agency charged with promoting innovation could have made it any better.

 

[kd8hho]

The minute the internet becomes too expensive or too regulated, that is the minute some 16 year old kid will innovate something that will replace it.

or the 16 year old, will create the nastiest virus known to man, and kill the internet