By Warner Todd Huston ——Bio and Archives--October 28, 2010
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In response to a fee dispute between the two companies, Fox on Saturday pulled its programming from the Cablevision system, and blocked Cablevision internet users from accessing Fox programming on-line. Separately, Hulu.com (minority owned by Fox) enforced a similar restriction, hoping to stay “neutral” in the dispute. Despite the fact that “The Simpsons” and “Family Guy” weren’t even on this weekend (pre-empted by some sports-related programming, I guess), the viewing public was incensed, journalists wrote, and Congress expressed alarm. The blackout, at least on cable, persists.Net Neutrality supporters are outraged that Fox has removed its content from the Cablevision system and blocked that service from accessing its programming over the Internet. This, NN supporters claim, is precisely the sort of stuff that they intend to prevent with their policy ideas. But just what are the Net Neutrality folks saying here? Certainly they are saying that Fox should not be allowed to decide who gets its programming. They are saying that Fox should not be allowed to decide with whom they will do business. NN supporters are saying that Fox should not be allowed to make decisions about its own programming and they think that said programming should be free and “open” on the Internet. This is essentially a communist-like, anti-property rights argument. In the past NN supporters have concentrated their fire on Internet providers saying that efforts they might make to structure higher fees for faster connections endangered the Internet. They’ve said that this idea would essentially create a multi-tiered Internet where “the poor” have lesser access to the Internet than “the rich.” Until now NNers have claimed that they really only care about “the last mile” of the Internet, that window by which users access the Internet. But this has been a smoke screen all along. Perhaps if NN supporters had stayed with that populist argument they’d more easily win this policy argument. But with this Fox issue they’ve revealed the intrinsically un-American ideology behind their efforts. Their true goals are to eliminate any capitalism on the Internet. And if I am mistaken, then why have NNers gone with this anti-Fox reasoning? How can they possibly justify applying “last mile” policy prescriptions to a content creator instead of a content provider? Fox is not an ISP. They are the creator and the owner of the content. Yet NNers are going after Fox in this case. This reveals Net Neutrality supporter’s true goals and those goals are clearly anti-property rights oriented. Those goals are absolutely anti-capitalist and anti-American. Their goal is for government to take over the Internet, making of the Internet a capitalist free zone. Of course, if that happens it will certainly kill any future improvements, future innovation, and will drive most content creators off the Internet. And that, good reader, will kill this versatile and amazing tool for all of us.
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Warner Todd Huston’s thoughtful commentary, sometimes irreverent often historically based, is featured on many websites such as Breitbart.com, among many, many others. He has also written for several history magazines, has appeared on numerous TV and radio shows.
He is also the owner and operator of Publius’ Forum.