The FCC’s ‘Blight Touch’ & ‘Muddle Ground’

June 29, 2010 | Filed Under Business, Capitalism, Computers, Economy/Finances, Free Trade, Google, Inernet, Net Neutrality, Scott Cleland, Technology | Comments Off

-By Scott Cleland

Clearly proponents of net neutrality and public-utility regulation of broadband, have learned how to manipulate language and metaphors to mask and move their agenda; what they haven’t learned is that the language and metaphors used to promote policy changes must be true in order to make legitimate, successful, and lasting public policy.

The communications plan for the FCC’s proposed broadband regulation of the Internet is full of fiction, fantasy and misdirection. What’s increasingly obvious is that proponents of preemptive proscriptive broadband regulation think people are stupid, that they don’t know what words mean and that they will gullibly swallow whatever is said without thought or question.
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FCC Broadband “Believe it or Not!”

June 26, 2010 | Filed Under Budget, Business, Capitalism, Computers, Economy/Finances, Google, Inernet, Net Neutrality, Scott Cleland, Taxes, Technology | Comments Off

-By Scott Cleland

With due credit to “Ripley’s Believe it or Not!®,” so much odd and bizarre is happening at the FCC in the “name” of “broadband” that the topic calls for its own collection of: “Believe it or Not!®” oddities.

The FCC insists that its Title II reclassification effort to regulate broadband networks is not “regulating the Internet,” when the law the Supreme Court and the FCC all define the Internet to include broadband networks!

The FCC, certain that the D.C. Circuit Court decision on Comcast vs. the FCC was incorrect, decided not to appeal to the Supreme Court!

The FCC, an administrative agency created, funded, and overseen by Congress, completely ignored a majority of Members of Congress who wrote the FCC opposing FCC reclassification of broadband as a common carrier!

The FCC plans to justify new broadband Title II regulation with some regulatory forbearance by arguing that the market facts simultaneously warrant both more, and less, broadband regulation — at the very same time!

The FCC claims the “soundest legal foundation” for broadband is the opposite of what the DC Circuit Court, Congress, legal experts and industry think is sound!

The FCC justified pursuing its Title II reclassification effort by characterizing it as the “broad consensus” view, but the non-partisan Association of State Legislatures and a bi-partisan majority of Members of Congress opposed the FCC in writing!

The FCC claims it has an open mind in approaching the Notice of Inquiry, but a majority of FCC votes, are on record already supporting new broadband regulation!

The FCC claims ‘immaculate mis-conception’ to explain how “series of tubes,” the FCC appears intent on officially declaring the Internet a series of telephone lines!

Strange but true.

“Believe it or Not!®”
_________________
Scott Cleland is one of nation’s foremost techcom analysts and experts at the nexus of: capital markets, public policy and techcom industry change. He is widely-respected in industry, government, media and capital markets as a forward thinker, free market proponent, and leading authority on the future of communications. Precursor LLC is an industry research and consulting firm, specializing in the techcom sector, whose mission is to help companies anticipate change for competitive advantage. Cleland is also Chairman of NetCompetition.org, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Precursor LLC and an e-forum on Net Neutrality funded by a wide range of broadband telecom, cable and wireless companies. He previously founded The Precursor Group Inc., which Institutional Investor magazine ranked as the #1 “Best Independent” research firm in communications for two years in a row. His latest op eds can be seen at www.precursorblog.com.

FCC & Google’s Extreme Internet Makeover — A Preview

June 24, 2010 | Filed Under Budget, Business, Capitalism, Computers, Economy/Finances, Google, Inernet, Net Neutrality, Scott Cleland, Technology | Comments Off

-By Scott Cleland

At its Thursday meeting, expect the FCC to adopt Google’s PR script to try and better sell the FCC’s upcoming “Extreme Makeover” of Internet regulation.

The centerpiece of the FCC and Google’s “extreme Internet makeover” plan is the creation of an entirely new, Google-inspired, regulatory classification called “Broadband Internet Connectivity Service” or BICS.

The BICS extreme makeover is designed to enable the promotion of integrated “edge” products and services like Google Voice, Google TV and Google’s Chrome/Android operating systems and empower the FCC to implement its National Broadband Plan on its own without additional Congressional authorization or action.

Predictably, the FCC’s Google-oriented-BICS-scheme has three fatal flaws, making it a disaster waiting to happen.
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Americans want online privacy — per new Zogby poll

June 19, 2010 | Filed Under Business, Capitalism, Computers, Democrats/Leftists, Economy/Finances, Google, Government, Government, Corruption, Inernet, Liberals, Net Neutrality, Regulation, Scott Cleland, Taxes, Technology | Comments Off

-By Scott Cleland

American consumers clearly want online privacy, per a national poll conducted over the weekend by Zogby International, that was commissioned by Precursor LLC.

In a nutshell, over 80% of Americans are concerned about the security and privacy of their personal information on the Internet; about 90% of Americans consider some common industry behaviors to be unfair business practices; and about 80% of Americans support a variety of stronger consumer protections of their privacy online.
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Google’s ‘Total Information Awareness’ Power

June 12, 2010 | Filed Under Business, Capitalism, Computers, Economy/Finances, Free Trade, Google, Inernet, Net Neutrality, Scott Cleland, Technology | Comments Off

-By Scott Cleland

A one-page graphic of all the information Google has…

To help you picture both the enormity and unprecedented power of what Google knows about you and the world’s information—public, private and proprietary—I have organized all the world’s information types that Google collects onto a one-page chart/PDF: “Google’s ‘Total Information Awareness’ Power.”

For those who really want to understand Google and its impact on most everyone and most everything, please read and study this one-page chart/PDF, because much valuable work and insight has gone into it.

While the chart is visually packed with information that many may find difficult to unpack or digest, the chart itself is an apt metaphor for both how much information Google has, and also how difficult it is for all of us to get our head around all the information Google routinely collects and uses.

A short refresher on where the term “Total Information Awareness” came from and why it is aptly employed here.
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FCC Exceptionalism and Supremacy?

June 5, 2010 | Filed Under Business, Capitalism, Computers, Economy/Finances, Free Trade, Google, Inernet, Net Neutrality, Scott Cleland, Technology | Comments Off

-By Scott Cleland

Often stepping back to gain perspective, and to try and see the forest for the trees can be highly instructive. However, if one steps back to see the big picture of how this FCC is attempting, unilaterally, to change U.S. Internet policy, the view is surreal.

Increasingly, this FCC is becoming an island. It is insisting on self-asserting its exceptionalism and its supremacy over the Internet and It is ignoring an overwhelming amount of important and contrary input, advice and evidence from Congress, the Courts, DOJ, FTC, past FCCs, industry and the public.

Simply, this FCC increasingly appears to view itself as exceptional and as the supreme authority on and over the Internet, unconstrained by Congress, the courts, law, economics, markets or the public.
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The Electronic Conscience

May 21, 2010 | Filed Under Business, Computers, Google, Inernet, John Armor, Net Neutrality, Technology, YouTube | Comments Off

-By John Armor

What is the impact of the current forms of gathering and transmitting information from person to person? Can people be affected by communications they don’t use, or even know how to use?

There were five of us around a table in church this morning. All of us used the internet at least somewhat. Most of us did not use Twitter, Facebook, or YouTube. Our uses of the photo and video capacities of this generation of cell phones, fell someplace in the middle. But with some thought, the answer was clear. Whether or not we use these means of communication, they do affect us,

I grew up in a small town, Salisbury, Maryland. The town was small enough, and everybody knew everybody else’s children enough, that when you did something wrong, folks would tell on you. Odds are your mother would know about it before you even got home to tell your side of the story.

FTC’s Google-AdMob Antitrust Checklist

May 17, 2010 | Filed Under Business, Capitalism, Computers, Democrats/Leftists, Economy/Finances, Free Trade, Google, Government, Government, Corruption, Inernet, Net Neutrality, Scott Cleland, Technology | Comments Off

-By Scott Cleland

Many are missing the forest for the trees in jumping to the conclusion that the two-week extension in the FTC’s review of Google-AdMob means the FTC is reconsidering the FTC’s staff recommendation to block Google-AdMob as anti-competitive.

Google is cleverly trying to misdirect the focus off Google being the actual #2 in-app mobile advertiser, which is buying the actual #1 AdMob market leader, by talking up the potential competitive advertising threat of a distant #3 player Quattro being bought by non-advertising company Apple.

To see the big picture and understand the likely outcome here that the FTC will block Google-AdMob, its helpful to run through the FTC’s likely Google-AdMob checklist decision process.
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FCC Understating Systemic Risks of “Third Way” — Why It’s a Disaster Waiting to Happen

May 11, 2010 | Filed Under Business, Capitalism, Computers, Congress, Economy/Finances, Free Trade, Google, Government, Corruption, Inernet, Net Neutrality, Scott Cleland, Technology | Comments Off

-By Scott Cleland

The FCC is vastly understating the systemic risk involved in the FCC’s radical “third way” regulatory surgery to the Internet, the communications sector and the economy.

The FCC’s proposed “third way” is an elaborate public relations facade that disguises huge problems and fatal conceptual/practical flaws that will become painfully obvious over time.

The FCC’s proposal is long on politics and soothing rhetoric, but short on real world practicality or legitimacy; it predictably will ultimately collapse under its own weight, complexity and hubris — unfortunately leaving exceptional carnage in its wake.

Simply, this proposal is too inherently contradictory and mind-numbingly complex, and too big not to fail.
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The Multi-Billion Dollar Impact of FCC Title II Broadband — for Google & Entire Internet Ecosystem

May 7, 2010 | Filed Under Computers, Congress, Google, Government, Government, Corruption, Inernet, Liberals, Net Neutrality, Scott Cleland, Technology | Comments Off

-By Scott Cleland

Investors understandably have focused first on whether or not the FCC will upend the broadband Internet sector by deeming broadband a Title II common carrier service for the first time, and second whether or not the FCC actually has the legal/constitutional authority to do so.

However, as a result of that political and legal focus, what has been almost completely ignored is the potential multi-billion dollar impact of such an FCC decision, which by definition, would make all currently unregulated and un-metered Internet traffic bits, regulated and metered “telecommunications” tele-bits for the first time.

Simply, deeming broadband Title II legally could compel bit metering and bit payments in the U.S. for the first time.
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Chart: How Google-AdMob Creates a Bottleneck; How New DOJ/FTC Merger Guidelines Affect the Deal

May 4, 2010 | Filed Under Business, Capitalism, Computers, Democrats/Leftists, Economy/Finances, Free Trade, Google, Government, Government, Corruption, Inernet, Net Neutrality, Scott Cleland, Technology | Comments Off

-By Scott Cleland

Given the FTC is very likely to disapprove Google’s acquisition of AdMob soon, I have prepared a one-page chart that illustrates the core reason the deal is anti-competitive: it would create a substantial bottleneck for advertisers and publishers entering the in-application mobile advertising market.

To help people get up to speed on the deal and the likely FTC disapproval coming up, I have also pulled together a 30-page Google-AdMob backgrounder, which includes a one-page summary, charts, the top 10 reasons the deal is anti-competitive, why Google is a monopoly, how Google has abused its monopoly and why Google’s main antitrust defenses, like “competition is one click away,” are specious.

Google’s Liability Decade: Why Google’s Leadership Ducks Investors

April 30, 2010 | Filed Under Business, Capitalism, Computers, Economy/Finances, Free Trade, Google, Inernet, Net Neutrality, Scott Cleland, Technology | Comments Off

-By Scott Cleland

The abrupt change, that Google’s CEO Eric Schmidt will no longer be accountable to shareholders on Google’s earnings calls, should prompt investors to ask why?

Google claimed that they wanted to put more focus on Google’s strong financials, but they did not disclose any more than Google’s usual barest minimum of information to investors. The most obvious reason for this abrupt change is the literal explosion of real franchise liabilities and risk overhangs to Google that reared their ugly heads this past quarter. Had CEO Schmidt been available to answer investor questions, Google’s exploding liabilities could have dominated the Q&A and the investment narrative coming out of the earnings call.

What has changed, and what Google has been not been open about, is the very serious ripening of three different types of going-forward franchise risks (antitrust, privacy/security and intellectual property) that cumulatively herald a de facto change in Google eras: from the roaring “Growth Decade” of 2000-2009, to the more unpredictable “Liability Decade” of 2010- 2019.
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Why FCC’s broadband public option is a lose-lose gamble

April 27, 2010 | Filed Under Business, Capitalism, Computers, Economy/Finances, Free Trade, Inernet, Net Neutrality, Scott Cleland, Technology | Comments Off

-By Scott Cleland

The FCC would be making a longshot, bet-the-farm gamble, if it decided to mandate the broadband public option, i.e., deeming broadband to be a common-carrier-regulated service and regulating the Internet essentially for the first time.

It would be a classic lose-lose gamble because the FCC is very likely to lose in court — accomplishing nothing, but damaging the hard-built trust, cooperation and commitment necessary for public-private partnerships to be able to get broadband to all Americans fastest. Also everyone else would lose from the irreparable damage to private broadband investment, innovation, growth, jobs and America’s broadband ranking in the world.

I. Lose in Court:

It is a given that the FCC would be sued; and it is very likely that the Appeals Court and/or the Supreme Court would overturn any FCC unilateral assertion of authority to deem broadband a common carrier service. It is also likely that the court would stay such an FCC action from going into effect because of the likelihood of the petitioners winning on appeal and because of the easy case that it would cause irreparable harm.
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FCC deeming broadband to be regulated opens Pandora’s Box

April 16, 2010 | Filed Under Business, Capitalism, Computers, Economy/Finances, Google, Inernet, Net Neutrality, Scott Cleland, Taxes, Technology | Comments Off

-By Scott Cleland

Proponents of the FCC asserting new “deeming authority,” to “deem” broadband to be a regulated phone service and thus subject to the FCC’s existing Title II telephone authority, have not even begun to answer the most fundamental questions of what such a foundational change would mean.

Premature characterizations that this nouvelle, regulatory “deeming” would somehow be easy, clean or containable, simply have not thought through the potential chaos, havoc and uncertainty that such a radical, foundational and over-reaching regulatory “deeming” would wreak on:

Legal/policy precedent, clarity and stability;
Business investment and innovation — assumptions, incentives, models and practices;
Economic growth, private investment and job creation;
Industry financial stability, contracts and debt covenants; and
Trust, cooperation and respect the FCC needs to fulfill its mission and its National Broadband Plan.

Harms of a Potential New FCC De-Competition Policy — Reply Comments to FCC Open Internet NPRM

April 11, 2010 | Filed Under Business, Free Trade, Google, Inernet, Net Neutrality, Scott Cleland, Technology | Comments Off

-By Scott Cleland

The FCC’s proposed Open Internet Regulations and/or the oft-rumored potential re-classification of broadband as a Title II telephone service effectively would create a new FCC “de-competition policy.” (For the one-page PDF submitted to the FCC click here.)

A new FCC “de-competition policy” would:

Supplant market-based competition policy with outdated common carrier regulation policy;
Shift the FCC’s primary purpose from promoting competition to promoting openness;
Replace the core mechanism for advancing consumer welfare from a voluntary, bottom-up, market-based competition system to a coerced, top-down, centralized, FCC regulation system; and
Remove users from being in charge of the Internet to the FCC asserting control over the Internet.

GBC: Google Broadcasting Co. — World Unicaster

March 24, 2010 | Filed Under Budget, Business, Capitalism, Computers, Economy/Finances, Google, Inernet, Net Neutrality, Scott Cleland, Taxes, Technology, YouTube | Comments Off

-By Scott Cleland

First there was one-to-many broadcasting, then many-to-many Internet narrowcasting… now it appears we are moving next to a one-to-many GoogleNet unicasting future where every company and individual may simply become a subordinate channel on the Googleopoly advertising network, and where content largely would be found only via Google’s mono-search guide.

To better understand this troubling ongoing transformation, connect the dots below:

Google TV:

NYT: “Google and partners take aim at the TV;” “The move is an effort by Google and Intel to extend their dominance of computing into television, an arena where they have little sway.”
WSJ

FTC now very likely to oppose Google-AdMob

March 16, 2010 | Filed Under Budget, Business, Computers, Democrats/Leftists, Google, Government, Government, Corruption, Inernet, Liberals, Net Neutrality, Scott Cleland, Technology | 1 Comment

-By Scott Cleland

The FTC is now very likely to file an injunction in Federal Court to block Google’s proposed acquisition of AdMob, if Google does not walk away from the deal, given that Bloomberg reports that the FTC is “seeking sworn declarations from Google Inc. competitors and advertisers.”

Why such signed declarations are particularly indicative of the likely outcome is that the FTC has moved largely from an investigative phase to largely a prosecution phase.

Given reports of signed declarations, a preliminary decision has been made by the FTC investigative staff (with the assent of, or direction from, the FTC Chairman), that the deal would “substantially lessen competition.” In other words, the FTC staff believe the deal would be a violation of antitrust law.

Remember, neither the FTC nor competitors/advertisers take lightly the signing of legal declarations about what would be said under oath in a court of law under the penalty of perjury.
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Lies, Damned Lies, and Expert Testimony

March 11, 2010 | Filed Under Anti-Americanism, Barack Obama, Budget, Business, Computers, Democrats/Leftists, Free Trade, Government, Corruption, History, Inernet, John Armor, Liberals, Media, Media Bias, Net Neutrality, Taxes, Technology | Comments Off

-By John Armor

Before we get rolling, a pet peeve. Entirely too many reporters are too lazy to check their quotes. Time and again, they will say in their lede that “some wag referred to lies, damned lies, and statistics.” No, no, no. That was not “some wag;” that was the greatest of all American humorists, Mark Twain.

Twain’s Autobiography attributes the quote to the quick-witted British Prime Minister, Benjamin Disreali. But Disraeli’s biographers can find no trace of it. Apparently, Twain attributed it to someone else who was conveniently dead, to fend off attacks for using that shameful word, “damned,”

I’ve modified the Twain quote to apply to recent hearings before the Federal Communications Commission. I’ve testified before a handful of federal hearings. I’ve attended dozens of such hearings. And I’ve never heard more lying, by more people, not even from sitting through an entire day of traffic court and hearing the infinite reasons why each particular motorist was not guilty.
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Google-AdMob: An FTC Antitrust Enforcement Watershed — Lessons from Google-DoubleClick & EU

March 9, 2010 | Filed Under Budget, Business, Capitalism, Computers, Democrats/Leftists, Free Trade, Google, Government, Corruption, Inernet, Liberals, Net Neutrality, Scott Cleland, Technology | Comments Off

-By Scott Cleland

Will the FTC strictly enforce antitrust laws in its review of Google’s AdMob acquisition? Google-Admob is a watershed decision for the FTC given that Google recently blew off the DOJ’s serious antitrust objections to the pending Google Book Settlement; The EU opened a preliminary investigation of antitrust complaints against Google from companies in the UK, France and Germany; and The DOJ had to play backstop to the FTC and block the Google-Yahoo Ad Agreement, less than a year after the FTC incorrectly assumed in their 4-1 approval of the Google-DoubleClick deal that Yahoo and others would provide sufficient competition to Google and Google acquiring DoubleClick would not “substantially lessen competition” or tip Google to a monopoly.

A recent New York Post article: “FTC inclined to approve Google’s acquisition of AdMob” states the deal “may just squeak by federal regulators.”

It’s pretty obvious the article’s source came from the Google camp and not the FTC, given the political nature of the source’s views: the FTC “will likely not rule until Obama nominees” are confirmed by the Senate, strongly implying that the:

Administration’s close political ties with Google would trump any career staff law enforcement findings of fact or the law and the lone FTC vote against the 4-1 Google-DoubleClick deal approval, Commissioner Jones-Harbor, will no longer be at the FTC.

Why is this Google spin on the FTC’s inclination likely false?
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Foundem FCC Filing Documents Google Search Network Discrimination; Window into EU-Google Antitrust Case

March 2, 2010 | Filed Under Budget, Capitalism, Computers, Free Trade, Google, Government, Corruption, Inernet, Liberals, Net Neutrality, Scott Cleland, Technology | Comments Off

-By Scott Cleland

Foundem, a UK vertical search competitor to Google, documents serial anticompetitive discrimination on Google’s search network, in a data-driven filing to the FCC in the FCC’s Open Internet regulation proceeding.

It is logical that the data-driven analysis in Foundem’s public FCC filing is an integral part of Foundem’s antitrust case against Google, which Foundem recently submitted to the EU, but which has not been released yet.

Therefore, Foundem’s FCC filing may be the best publicly available window into what the EU investigation of Google’s anticompetitive practices entails.

In essence, the Foundem filing accuses Google of monopolistic self-dealing and bundling.
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How much should Google be subsidized?

February 22, 2010 | Filed Under Budget, Business, Computers, Economy/Finances, Free Trade, Google, Inernet, Net Neutrality, Scott Cleland, Taxes, Technology | Comments Off

-By Scott Cleland

Pending FCC policy proposals in the National Broadband Plan and the Open Internet regulation proceeding would vastly expand the implicit multi-billion dollar subsidies Google already enjoys, as by far the largest user of Internet bandwidth and the smallest contributor to the Internet’s cost relative to its use.

Interestingly, the FCC’s largely Google-driven policy proposals effectively would:

Promote Google’s gold-plated, 1 Gigabit broadband vision for the National Broadband Plan at a time of trillion dollar Federal budget deficits;
Recommend a substantial expansion of public subisidies for broadband that would commercially benefit Google most without requiring Google to contribute its fair share to universal broadband service; and
Regulate the Internet for the first time in a way that would result in heavily subsidizing Google’s out-of-control bandwidth usage.

I. Does Google need more subsidies?

Google is one of the most-profitable, fastest-growing, cash-rich companies in the world, with over $10b in annual free cash flow, 17% revenue growth and ~$25b in cash on hand.
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FCC: Forced Access Uneconomics & Selective Math?

February 19, 2010 | Filed Under Budget, Business, Computers, Free Trade, Google, Inernet, Net Neutrality, Scott Cleland, Technology | Comments Off

-By Scott Cleland

The FCC just signaled it is considering requiring forced access and more special access as part of its soon to be released National Broadband Plan.

Colin Crowell, a top aide to FCC Chairman Genachowski told Bloomberg that mandating that competitors lease their facilities to other competitors “has a lot of appeal as part of a national strategy” in order to help small businesses grow and aid job creation.
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FCC Reclassification is Eminent Domain, but with No Just Compensation or Authority

February 7, 2010 | Filed Under Budget, Computers, Democrats/Leftists, Free Trade, Google, Inernet, Net Neutrality, Scott Cleland, Technology | Comments Off

-By Scott Cleland

At core the FCC’s contemplation of reclassifying, or effectively treating, unregulated broadband info services as regulated telecom services, would be tantamount to the FCC declaring “eminent domain” over private broadband providers, i.e. justifying a government takings of private property for public uses, but doing so “without just compensation” or any statutory authority.

The U.S. Constitution’s Fifth Amendment requires: “nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation.”

A gaping missing element in all the FCC’s discussions of all the new “public uses” it envisions for broadband in its pending National Broadband Plan and its proposed preemptive Open Internet regulations is any consideration at all of the potential hundreds of billions of dollars of un-budgeted liability to the U.S. Treasury that could result from the takings of private network property without just compensation — at a time of skyrocketing trillion dollar Federal budget deficits and rapidly mounting public debt.

The FCC appears to be operating under the sweeping and heroic presumption that any prospective FCC regulatory action it may take here is essentially cost-free to the U.S. taxpayer and will be completely shouldered by broadband shareholders; in other words, the Fifth Amendment appears to be irrelevant to FCC decisionmaking.
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GoogleMonitor.com Launches Today

January 31, 2010 | Filed Under Budget, Free Trade, Google, Inernet, Liberals, Net Neutrality, Policy, Scott Cleland, Technology | Comments Off

-By Scott Cleland

Will spotlight Google’s lack of transparency and accountability

WASHINGTON – A new web site designed to make Google more transparent and accountable launched today. GoogleMonitor.com is a crowd-sourcing site which will keep watch on the Web’s top watcher of everyone.

“Google is the most powerful company in the world, dominates the Web’s business model for information discovery and monetization, and watches most everything that happens on the Web,” Scott Cleland of Precursor LLC and GoogleMonitor.com’s publisher said. “Given all that un-checked power, Google has a dangerous dearth of transparency and accountability.”
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DOJ Rejects Broadband Market Failure Thesis

January 10, 2010 | Filed Under Budget, Business, Capitalism, Congress, Economy/Finances, Free Trade, Freedom, Google, Government, Corruption, Inernet, Jobs, Liberals, Net Neutrality, Scott Cleland, Socialism, Society/Culture, Taxes, Technology | Comments Off

-By Scott Cleland

In a filing to the FCC on the National Broadband Plan, the DOJ Antitrust Division, the U.S Government’s leading expert in assessing the state of competition in communications markets, implicitly rejected net neutrality proponents’ core thesis of broadband market failure.

This DOJ filing, which represents the most recent U.S. Government expert assessment of broadband competition, could make it extremely difficult for the FCC to legitimately conclude in the coming months the factual opposite — broadband market failure.

Without a sound factual finding of broadband market failure, it also could be extremely difficult for the FCC to legally justify preemptively mandating common-carrier-like regulations on un-regulated broadband information service providers in the FCC’s pending open Internet proceeding.

Let’s review the DOJ’s core broadband competitive conclusions, which are relevant to the alleged broadband market failure thesis and the FCC’s open Internet proceeding.
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Google’s Open Double Standard: Fact-Checking Google’s Treatise on “The meaning of open”

December 27, 2009 | Filed Under Budget, Business, Capitalism, Computers, Democrats/Leftists, Economy/Finances, Google, Government, Corruption, Inernet, Liberals, Net Neutrality, Scott Cleland, Technology | Comments Off

-By Scott Cleland

Google posted its treatise on “The meaning of open” designed to redefine the word “open” in Google’s image. It is an important read because it is a bay window view into the altruistic way that Google yearns for the world to perceive it.

Like most all of Google’s PR, however, Google’s Treatise on “The meaning of open” may be “the truth” as Google sees it, but it is certainly not “the whole truth and nothing but the truth.”

I. Google’s Open Double Standard

Simply, Google is for “open” wherever it does not have a monopoly or dominant market position, however where it does, as in AdWords, AdSense and search advertising syndication, it is closed, to ensure that its dominance remains impregnable to competitors.
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Critical Gaps in FCC’s Proposed Open Internet Regulations

December 3, 2009 | Filed Under Budget, Business, Capitalism, Computers, Democrats/Leftists, Free Trade, Google, Government, Corruption, Inernet, Liberals, Net Neutrality, Scott Cleland, Society/Culture, Technology | Comments Off

-By Scott Cleland

Like the FCC’s National Broadband Plan task force identified seven critical gaps in the path to the future of universal broadband, the FCC should resolve six identified “critical gaps” in the FCC’s proposed open Internet regulations before moving forward to regulate the Internet for the first time — by dictating Internet access pricing, terms and conditions or dictating what services which businesses can and cannot offer on the Internet.

Here are six critical gaps in the FCC’s proposed open Internet regulations:

Credibility Gap: The FCC isn’t “preserving,” but changing the Internet by regulating it for the first time.
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Is FCC Declaring ‘Open Season’ on Internet Freedom?

November 22, 2009 | Filed Under Barack Obama, Budget, Business, Cable, Computers, Congress, Democrats/Leftists, Economy/Finances, Google, Government, Corruption, House of Representatives, Inernet, Jobs, Liberals, Net Neutrality, Scott Cleland, Socialism, Taxes, Technology, The Law | Comments Off

-By Scott Cleland

The FCC, in proposing to change the definition of an “open Internet” from competition-driven to government-driven is setting a very dangerous precedent, that it is acceptable for countries to preemptively regulate the Internet for what might happen in the future, even if they lack the legitimacy of constitutional or legal authority to do so, or even if there is the thinnest of justification or evidence to support it.

How can we ever hope to influence China, Iran and other undemocratic regimes to provide more Internet access and freedom to their citizens and businesses when our FCC is proposing a radical take back of existing Internet freedoms without legitimate authority or justification?

The grave mistake the FCC is making in the broader international context is claiming that private companies are the primary threat to Internet freedom and free speech, and not governments. History and common sense tell us only Governments have the effective coercive power to dictate real censorship.

The FCC is effectively declaring “open season” on well-established Internet freedoms.
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Why Google Is Not Neutral

November 13, 2009 | Filed Under Anti-Americanism, Business, Cable, Capitalism, Computers, Congress, Economy/Finances, Entertainment, Free Trade, Google, Government, Corruption, Inernet, Liberals, Net Neutrality, Scott Cleland, Society/Culture, Taxes, Technology | 2 Comments

-By Scott Cleland

After discussing whether Google should buy The New York Times, Google decided against it because it “would damage its ‘neutral’ identity,” per Ken Auletta’s just-published book “Googled: The End of The World as We know It.”

Google has long claimed to be neutral. Their corporate philosophy statement claims: “We never manipulate rankings to put our partners higher in our search results and no one can buy better PageRank. Our users trust our objectivity and no short-term gain could ever justify breaching that trust.”

As the world-leading corporate proponent of an industrial policy to mandate net neutrality for all its potential broadband competitors in cloud computing, and as the beneficiary of “The Google Loophole” in the FCC’s proposed open Internet regulations (para 104), it is fair to stress test whether Google’s claim of a “neutral’ identity is true or just cleverly-executed PR.

Is Google Neutral?
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How FCC Regulation Would Change the Internet

November 6, 2009 | Filed Under 1st Amendment, Business, Capitalism, Computers, Congress, Democrats/Leftists, Economy/Finances, Free Trade, Freedom, Google, Government, Corruption, Inernet, Liberals, Media Bias, Net Neutrality, Scott Cleland, Society/Culture, Taxes, Technology | Comments Off

-By Scott Cleland

The FCC’s claims that their proposed net neutrality regulations would just “preserve” the open Internet are simply not true. The facts clearly state that the FCC’s proposed regulations would: Be a big change in FCC Internet policy; Implement big Internet policy changes without Congressional authorization; and Change the Internet in big ways. (The one-page PDF version of this post is here)

The FCC’s proposed net neutrality regs are a big change in FCC Internet policy; they would:

Replace the FCC’s voluntary net neutrality guidelines with mandated net neutrality regulations;
Selectively apply net neutrality regulations to only broadband and not to applications/content providers like the current principles do;
Add two completely new net neutrality principles that are not found in law or congressional policy:
Mandate the strictest non-discrimination requirement in the last 75 years;
Mandate public disclosure of detailed proprietary network management techniques for the first time;
Expand application of net neutrality to wireless and satellite broadband for the very first time;
Expand consumers access to content entitlement by adding entitlement to send/distribute content as well;
Redefine entitlement to competition in the current fourth principle, to favor resale competition over facilities-based competition;
Subject broadband companies to a new “Mother-may-I” FCC approval process for offering new managed services and for experimenting with new business models; and
Subordinate private standard-setting bodies, like the IETF, to new FCC omni-technical oversight/approval.