The Case Against Wireless Net Neutrality and Kindle

John P. Mello Jr. from PC World examines the topic of innovation versus regulation of wireless services and technologies, armed with quotes from Peter Suderman, an associate editor with Reason Magazine in Los Angeles. Just a little disclosure on Reason Magazine; the publication is anti-government regulation, or more succinctly, has a strong Libertarian lean. Editors from the magazine are frequent guests on such Fox Business shows as Stossel and Freedom Watch (both sporting strong Libertarian views).

So how would net neutrality rules hurt a device like the Kindle? Well, according to Suderman, Kindle moves a specific kind of proprietary data to its platform wirelessly and rules that govern the prioritization of wireless data might somehow affect it.

"It's a business model that relies, in fact, on discrimination," he said this morning on On Point, a talk show on National Public Radio station WBUR in Boston. "You can only get certain things through your Kindle.

"In theory," he continued, "a very, very strict version of Net Neutrality, taken to its extreme, could, in fact, outlaw, or at least make it very difficult, to operate a business service like the Kindle."

Federal Communications Commission Julius Genachowski has vowed to make regulatory decisions on a case-by-case basis so something like this wouldn't happen - assuming you beleive him.

"They want to do that in order that they don't make really boneheaded moves like accidently outlawing the Kindle," Suderman added.

But Suderman doesn't have confidence that the government, or rather bureaucrats in Washington are capable of doing anything right. While there's certainly a case to be made against government bureaucracy, Suderman's assertions are bold.

"What that does is put the [FCC] in the middle of the development of new business models, the development of great new technologies like the Kindle that rely on things that are different," Suderman asserted.

"Net neutrality has served the Internet very well as a principle," he added, "but I'm less confident, I'm less sure, that it's something that needs to be regulated by federal authorities."

Source: PC World