Blow Up Your FCC (American Pipedream)

Jesse Walker | December 29, 2008

Lawrence Lessig, a prominent liberal legal scholar, wants to eliminate the Federal Communications Commission and replace it with a new "Innovation Environment Protection Agency." While I wouldn't bet on this actually happening, it could have more relevance than the average law prof's thought experiment, since Lessig has advised Obama in the past.

The proposal has been criticized by Harold Feld for being too deregulatory and by Adam Theirer for being not deregulatory enough. For my own thoughts on life without an FCC, go here and here. Or spend that Amazon gift certificate you got for Kwanzaa on this aging book.

Comments

|12.29.08 @ 12:11PM|#

Eliminate the FCC and replace it with nothing.

Oh, right. Government agencies are never eliminated.

My bad.

|12.29.08 @ 12:19PM|#

This is appropriate here.

|12.29.08 @ 12:50PM|#

Larry Lessig would downsize/replace the FCC because he thinks radio and television to be obsolete. But as one of the biggest proponents of net neutrality, don't expect him to be advocating less government interference in your communication media.

Combine Larry with Barack and expect the internet backbones to be nationalized (ie. bailed out) and price controls on internet providers.

|12.29.08 @ 1:27PM|#

"""Combine Larry with Barack and expect the internet backbones to be nationalized (ie. bailed out) and price controls on internet providers."""

I wouldn't be surprised. There may be a day when an Internet connection is as necessary as a phone line. So if you can't afford one, the government will subsidize it. To some degree is this allegdly being done via the Universal Service Fund, so says the FCC. I'm curious as to where those fund really go.

I wouldn't mind the FCC so much if they stuck to their original job.

Jeff P|12.29.08 @ 1:38PM|#

Well lets not get rid of the FCC until they screw up the digital turnover. There's far too much potential for comedy there.

Colonel_Angus|12.29.08 @ 2:21PM|#

I am in favor of eliminating the content regulating (censoring) part of the FCC. I'm not sure how radio communications are supposed to operate satisfactorily without some control over which technologies use the limited frequencies without interference. As far as scheisse playing on ABC, I couldn't give a shit.

|12.29.08 @ 3:27PM|#

I'm not sure how radio communications are supposed to operate satisfactorily without some control over which technologies use the limited frequencies without interference.

You own your piece of the spectrum.* You sue anyone who trespasses on it. Willful trespass is a criminal act.

*Chain of title goes back to the national government, which auctioned it off in the Great Obama Asset Auction of 2010, conducted to finance the Health Care Equalization Administration.