Writing Assignment #2 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Writing Assignment #2 - Essay Example The debate over possible government breakups of Internet companies began with a recently published book that also chronicles how monopolies in the information industry are almost always caused by government meddling. The book is "The Master Switch" by Tim Wu, a Columbia law professor who coined the term "network neutrality." Setting aside for a moment Mr. Wus call for more aggressive regulation of the Web, he is right that over the past century what he calls "information empires" have hijacked what start out as open systems, almost always with government regulation at fault. "Every few decades," Mr. Wu writes, "a new communications technology appears, bright with promise and possibility." There is innovation but also chaos, as new business models disrupt old ones. The result often is that "the markets invisible hand waves in some great mogul" who promises a more orderly structure for the industry. "Usually enlisting the federal government, this kind of mogul is special for he defines a new type of industry, integrated and centralized." Consider these examples: Telephone. In 1913, the American Telephone & Telegraph Co. asked the federal government to regulate it, in the hopes of creating a monopoly on long-distance service that would let it over time crush local independent providers. With the slogan of "One system, one policy, universal service," AT&T got government-set rates that ensured it strong rates of return for decades while limiting competitors. As Mr. Wu says, "Imagine Microsoft in the 1990s asking the states and the Clinton Justice Department to determine the price of installing Windows or Google today requesting federal guidelines for its search engine." AT&T wasnt broken up until 1984. Radio. In the 1920s, radio was an open medium of unrestricted, competitive communications. Church groups, universities and hobbyists launched radio stations catering to hundreds of different communities of interest. But by the late 1920s,