Make It, Take It

If we want to save the Net, we have to understand why the feds want to hand it over to its enemies.

By Doc Searls

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At the same time that media concentration restrictions are being removed, such that 3 companies will own everything, so too are neutrality restrictions for the network being eliminated, so that those same three companies — who will also control broadband access — are totally free to architect broadband however they wish. "The Internet: that is to be the savior is a dying breed. The end-to-end architecture that gave us its power will. in effect, be inverted. And so the games networks play to benefit their own will bleed to this space too.

And then Dr. Pangloss says, “but what about spectrum. Won’t unlicensed spectrum guarantee our freedom?” And it is true: Here at least there was some hope from this FCC. But the latest from DC is that a tiny chunk of new unlicensed spectrum will be released. And then after that, no more. Spectrum too will be sold — to the same companies, no doubt.

So then, Dr. Pangloss: When the content layer, the logical layer, and the physical layer are all effectively owned by a handful of companies, free of any requirements of neutrality or openness, what will you ask then? -

- MediaCon: But Where's the Internet? by Lawrence Lessig

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In street basketball there's a rule called "make it, take it". If you score a basket, you get to keep the ball. 3-on-3 basketball works the same way. So does volleyball and other sports that favor achievement over fairness.

Relaxing media ownership rules is all about make it, take it. Clear Channel and Viacom have made it. They're successful. They are products of a marketplace at work, we say. Why not remove more regulatory obstacles, to let the market work even better?

For the moment let's set aside a central issue here: The fact that we're not talking about an open marketplace, but rather a very closed one that the government continues to regulate, because of the highly scarce nature of spectrum allocation (translation: there are only a few dozen local channels available in any region of the country, and there hasn't been room for any more for a very long time). If you want to skip that that part of this essay, just click here.

Instead, let's look at why conservatives love big media, and big anything. It's a simple thing: Because they love winners. Literally. They like to reward strength and achievement. They hate rewarding weakness for the same reason a parent hates giving rewards to kids for poor grades. This, more than anything else, is what makes them so radically different from liberals. It's why words like "fairness" are fingernails on the chalkboards of their minds. It's code-talk for punishing the strong and rewarding the weak. It violates the darwinian ethics of make it, take it.

It reminds me of the street basketball rule called "make it, take it". If you score a basket, you get to keep posession. It differs from regular organized baskeball by favoring scoring over fairness. Organized volleyball is the same way.

The fact that spectrum, as we currently understand and regulate it, is highly finite. There's only so much to go around. In any regiion of the country, there are only a few dozen licensed radio and TV channels, and the number isn't going up.