Bullies Winning

By James Gaskin, NetworkWorld.com, 06/09/06

In another example of cronyism and capitalism overwhelming conscience in Congress, lobbyists just defeated net neutrality (my title, not the real headline). Now large carriers can actively discriminate against any traffic they don't like (meaning they don't make enough money from that traffic). The telephone companies hate the Internet because it's the opposite of their network: the Net is a stupid network that carries all traffic without controlling that traffic within the network, leaving that job to smart end devices. The phone companies built a smart network (a huge capital outlay) for stupid end devices (early telephones). Guess what, telcos, the dumb network with smart devices model works best for innovation and customers. But the status quo of lobbyists and greedy politicians wins again.

How will this hurt small businesses? Smaller Internet Service Providers and other companies that live through the Internet will pay more and pass that extra on to customers, until the big companies can choke them out of business entirely. Notice how Internet telephone innovation came from companies like Vonage and Packet8 that don't have networks? Notice how Internet phone service from network owners like AT&T and Comcast and Verizon always cost more, even though they own the network and don't have to pay extra for transmission rights? What do you see in the future? I see less innovation, worse service, and higher costs if this ruling in favor of Bullying Bell Network Spinoffs stands.

It's more work than buying lottery tickets, but two small companies hit the jackpot and were just bought by Cisco. The two small companies (19 and 26 employees) were bought by Cisco to improve their voice products line for small businesses. Why fight the IPO battle if you can sell? And based on Cisco's strong support for Linksys in the two years since they bought them, I'm beginning to believe Cisco does care about small business and will continue to succeed in this market.

Speaking of bullies, read The Software Protection Racket Part 1 and start getting nervous. Go immediately to BSA Defense and start learning how to protect yourself and your company from legalized extortion and business blackmail. I will spend at least two and maybe three more columns on this topic because the BSA has perfected legalized bullying while hiding their tactics as much as possible. Since they are now offering up to $200,000 "rewards" for informants, one angry or greedy employee can effectively kill your small business by calling the BSA hotline. The danger to small businesses is too great to let the BSA continue hiding their tricks. If you've been slammed by a software audit, please let me know immediately (names withheld to protect the innocent forced to plead guilty).

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