So the recent struggles about network neutrality have led me to recognize something I hadn't quite seen before. And that something in turn makes more puzzling the debates that have been raised around network neutrality.
The something to recognize is that in a fundamental sense, fair use (FU) and network neutrality (NN) are the same thing. They are both state enforced limits on the property rights of others. In both cases, the limits are slight --the vast range of uses granted a copyright holder are only slightly restricted by FU; the vast range of uses allowed a network owner are only slightly restricted by NN. And in both cases, the line defining the limits is uncertain. But in both cases, those who support each say that the limits imposed on the property right are necessary for some important social end (admittedly, different in each case), and that the costs of enforcing those limits are outweighed by the benefits of protecting that social end.
So from this perspective, it is easy to understand those who reject FU and NN (who are they?). And it is easy to understand those who embrace FU and NN. What gets difficult is understanding those who embrace one while rejecting the other --at least when that rejection is articulated in terms of "government regulation".
Don't forget Nader
Guess you better add Nader to that condemnation since he is buddy-buddy with John McCain...who helped his effort to get on the Florida ballot in 2004. So let's hear you condemn Nader as well.
Personally, I look at broader trends and to me anyone who equates Al Gore, Bill Foster, Russ Feingold, Jerry McNerney, Barack Obama and Barbara Boxer with George Bush, John McCain, Mark Foley and Dick Cheney is just plain not rational in my book.