Quote:
Originally Posted by blueash
Thought experiment:
Think of the internet as an infinite supermarket. All the shelves stretch out at eye level from your left to right. Every possible product in the world is on that eye level shelf in front of you. You imagine "purple scarf" and every possible purple scarf for sale appears in front of you with no advantage to any particular style or price unless you imagine "purple scarf of fun fur under $15" In that case only those scarves appear, in no particular order. You can fine tune your request or look at all the scarves in this infinite eye level shelf.
There is a company however that does not own the single shelf which stretches infinitely at eye level nor the all products being sold, although it may own some. It has no control over the shelf. Instead this company owns two features.
1. It controls the door you need to go through to get inside the store. This is your service provider, Comcast opens the door so you can explore inside the internet. You pay Comcast for your door pass
2. It controls how fast the shelf moves to show you the choices which are still all at eye level and equally visible. This is your speed. You pay Comcast more if you want faster shelves.
This is how the internet works now. You pay a provider for access and speed. Now the providers have an idea. They would like to change the way the shelf works. Some products in the store will no longer be at eye level. Nothing will be removed from the store, but the provider would like to offer your company the opportunity to have your product be right at eye level while your competitors are at knee level, or need a ladder. In other words placement would no longer be neutral. Further as I wish to remove the item from the shelf for my use, some products can be made to be easily removed and others are mysteriously stuck to the shelving requiring much longer for me to get the product into my cart. Again, the provider would be happy to allow you the manufacturer to pay it to use WD40 under your product so it is easy to obtain. Don't pay the provider and the shelf where your product goes is down at shoe level on a really sticky shelf. Of course the provider might even choose to have his own products be the only ones at eye level owning all the great product placement slots for himself. Provider is not saying you can't sell stuff in the store, it is just not going to be easy for the customer to get at it and really hard to get it off the shelf.
As of now, the provider cannot do either of these things. The providers just control the door and the speed. They complain that so many people coming into the store all want the same products which uses a lot of their shelf space. They want make more money of course. So if the provider could just get control of the way the products are presented on the shelf, wouldn't life be better?
This of course is how the supermarket industry works. Manufacturers of cereal and diapers pay the chains for placement War for Retail Shelf Space; Battle for Shelf Placement; Fight for Slotting Fees: It
Right now Comcast controls a door into the internet supermarket. They also control how well my shopping shelf rolls. But they do not control what products are in the store or how they are presented to me. Preserving that is what preserving net neutrality means. It is the way it has always worked in this country. Why is this an issue? Because there presently is no definitive rule preserving it and Comcast and other similar providers are ready to grab control of the shelves. |
Thank you for your insight. Free enterprise only works when there is free enterprise. The internet is a basic utility and, fortunately, other utilities are regulated. I feel fortunate that this action by the regulators.