Tyler Hunt

A CNET article on why the FCC should be abolished makes some points that are worth considering. The FCC’s purpose from the very beginning can be questioned once you consider the following:

The FCC rejected long-distance telephone service competition in 1968, banned Americans from buying their own non-Bell telephones in 1956, dragged its feet in the 1970s when considering whether video telephones would be allowed and did not grant modern cellular telephone licenses until 1981—about four decades after Bell Labs invented the technology.

Potentially, “these technologically backward decisions have cost Americans tens of billions of dollars.” The article makes a good case for turning over the airwaves to the free market, and I agree that a lot of good could potentially come from such a move. The digital broadcast flag really irks me, and is currently one of the most pressing reasons I can see for something to be done about the power-hungry government agency.