He's Still Making Sense

I have supported the underdog a lot in my life. (See most of my football posts.) In the current run for the presidency, I have lots of questions, but one candidate is vocally addressing them in simple, straightforward terms. The most recent example is his stance on Net Neutrality - a concept that I'd assume is a mystery to a majority of our senators but is fairly important to how businesses will work into the future. Here's some more information on that (via Boing Boing).

Speaking from within the telecom industry, the consolidation has become a little scary. My company had 21 telecom customers five years ago which have now morphed into only three. AT&T is almost back to the monopoly that had to be broken up years ago and Verizon has become a giant as well. There's Sprint/Nextel, then who? Now, if these three (significant lobbies) work it their way, they'll impose and control a spigot on the internet, thereby making it nearly impossible for small businesses to get off the ground. It's already happening to internet radio, but it's the RIAA (a conglomerate of recording industry bigwigs) trying to eliminate the smaller guy in this case.

Based on e-mails I've sent and received, I think the only spot where I don't see eye to eye with Obama is regarding the RIAA, in fact. His approach to the internet radio question I asked veered into a discussion of intellectual property. I have no quarrel there. My contention is that the intellectual property wants to be discovered as do its progenitors. Allowing a group of companies to control it doesn't protect the property itself, it protects the profit the companies see from the property.

I'd argue the same is the case for Net Neutrality; although the property in this case is an open, equal platform not exploited by corporations.