[Random-bits] Reed Hundt's last word in Wired's Nader/Hundt debate

[James Love]

This Reed Hundt's last word in Wired's Nader/Hundt debate.  It includes
his continued attack on the open access issue (which he continues to
refer to as if it is mostly about Disney), and a wide range of other
defenses for the Administration's policies.  Jamie

http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,39296,00.html

         Hundt: Love the Net? Vote Al 
         by Reed Hundt 

         3:00 a.m. Oct. 14, 2000 PDT 


"Of course, the fact that the multiple protocols that create the Web
experience are shared is one of the key reasons for the widespread
adoption of the Net. And yet it is also true that the code that
constitutes MS-DOS has also had widespread adoption. 

  [snip]

"You raise the open-access issue, again embracing the Disney argument
that because a cable company unlawfully and briefly did not carry a
broadcast TV show, it therefore follows that a new regime of regulating
Internet access should be invented and applied, presumably to any and
all bandwidth companies. I might call this overreaction -- or an
excessive attachment to Regis Philbin. 

"But if we really wanted the most number of people in the United States
to have a crack at being a millionaire -- i.e., if we want to maximize
value creation -- it would not be by expanding to the Internet space the
clear obligation of cable companies to carry broadcast. Rather, we would
promote competition and investment in alternative bandwidth providers. 

"We should always prefer robust competition over monopoly-encouraging
regulation. Because that is what the open-access debate is really about
beneath the surface: letting cable monopolists perpetuate monopolies in
return for granting access to a powerful few, such as the estimable and
effective Disney. I assure you that if the cable companies could obtain
monopoly status in return for granting open access, they would do so.
That is what they did in the 1984 Cable Act, which in turn led to
record increases in cable prices, which in turn led to the mandate for
me, at the FCC, to check those price increases, which I did, until the
Republican Congress stripped us of that authority in 1996. 

  [snip]

"As to privacy issues, I have said before and say again that a new
paradigm for privacy protection should be the subject of federal
legislation. There can be no doubt that a Democratic White House and
Democratic Congress can make this happen, and that a Republican
Congress will pervert those goals. 

   [snip]

"But is it a lot or a little for Al Gore to have taken the essential
initiative to create: 1) the largest new national program for K-12
education in the last 20 years; 2) the fastest-spreading innovation in
education since chalk; 3) a platform for new training, curriculum,
charter schools, individualized testing, new business models, online
community creation, tutoring, and addressing disabilities; and 4)
obtaining the greatest amount of participation from local school
districts ever (nearly 90 percent)? To me, it is a lot. It certainly
took a lot of effort --- not a bit of which came from Mr. Nader, I add
with regret. 

   [snip]

"Mr. Nader also states with insouciance that "putting existing
government information on the Internet should be the easy part. Really,
almost no business thinks so.



-- 
James Love, Consumer Project on Technology
v. 1.202.387.8030, fax 1.202.234.5176
love@cptech.org, http://www.cptech.org