Tag: good

Antitrust should police Internet hogs, not the FCC.
By Ryan Long

Antitrust should police Internet hogs, not the FCC.

Recently, the Washington Lawyer ran a great piece called Net Neutrality: Who Should Be Minding Online Traffic?   The article goes back and forth between the extremes of: (1) heavy handed Orwellian like regulation of the Internet by the Federal Communications Commission (“FCC”), and (2) self-regulation and content discrimination by greedy Internet Service Providers (“ISP”). This seems to be a false dichotomy. Even in the absence of heavy handed FCC regulation, which can crush innovation, the Sherman Act (“Act”) is an available tool to punish unlawful Internet hogging or collusion by ISPs.

The Internet is a public good.  It was created by the government.   Before, it was called ARPANET.   It was a tool of the military.    As a result, the Internet is akin to a public park.   At the same time, there are now Internet Service Providers (“ISP”) who provide Internet users with differentiated access to this public good.   Think of the ISPs as competing private tour guides in Central Park.   Some tours will be faster but more pricey than other slower tours.

The net neutrality debate wrongly omits how the Sherman Act can help police the ISP market without the need for heavy handed regulation by the FCC.   To the extent an ISP has market power and tries to keep competing companies out of the market, the essential facilities doctrine would likely apply.   To the extent that there is an oligopoly of price fixing ISPs, then there will be claims under Section 1 of the Act.   If an ISP tries to obtain too much market power through a merger, the government can oppose it.   The problem with too much regulation by the FCC is that it discourages technological innovation by ISPs who compete for customers by providing better service at a lower price.   If the FCC requires such companies to take a one size fits all approach to every customer, competitive innovation will likely suffer.  So, too, will consumers seeking faster rides through the Central Park that is the Internet.

Google can learn from Mr. Jeff Spicoli.
By Ryan Long

Google can learn from Mr. Jeff Spicoli.

“Luckily for us, surfing isn’t an organized sport,” Travis Ferre explains in the May 2011 issue of Surfing Magazine. That is a good thing because it has kept the surfing industry diverse and authentic. Google, which has gotten so bureaucratic that good ideas come to market too slowly, can learn from the surfing industry’s more disorganized and yet innovative ethos.

As Mr. Ferre explains in his article, surfing is not an “Ocean Pacific ad anymore,” since the waves are now full of “tight denim modsters, dreadlocked carvers, trained competitors, soloists who wander alone, flannel-clad grizzly bears that love the cold, sandy groms, ex-cons, teachers, chicks.” There has been press lately that Google has gotten so big and organized that it now takes too long to innovate. A good idea has to be passed through several layers of committees, like in the picture to the left, before the idea comes to market. The problem is, by the time the idea comes to market, a competitor has already beaten Google to the punch. Of course, Google, and others companies like it, are too big to be as disorganized as the surfing industry — or Mr. Jeff Spicoli, the surfer played by Mr. Sean Penn in Fast Times at Ridgemont High. But being too organized can be maladaptive, too. As evidence: Larry Page, one of Google’s founders, has taken the reins from former CEO Eric Schmidt in order to “streamline decision making.” In so doing, Mr. Page wants to bring some cutting edge ethos back to the spirit of the giant company. As such, Google can learn from Mr. Spicoli. Because he didn’t have a committee to govern each step of his behavior, he was the only student to think of having a pizza delivered to class.