Some truth about Comcast - WikiLeaks style

Thu Dec 16 23:14:51 UTC 2010

On Thu, Dec 16, 2010 at 12:13:21PM -0800, Matthew Petach wrote:

> You may find that simply fewer content providers decide it's worth it to play
> in that space, under those conditions, which results in fewer choices for the
> consumer, and something closer to a monopoly on the available content
> to be consumed.
> 
> People *were* happy with only having three national TV networks to choose
> from for their major content in the US, right?
> 
> bar.com doesn't have to drive foo.com out of business; they just have to
> outlast them in the war of attrition driven by the monopoly holder, until
> bar.com decides it's no longer worth providing that content anymore.
> 
> end game--one monopoly access provider, and one giant content source--and
> a huge barrier to entry keeping anyone else from providing an alternative view
> of the world.

Sometimes expressed as "It is not enough that you win; all others must fail."

Treating this as a zero-sum game is not good for the end users, however
good it may be for the winning enterprise. 

-- 
Mike Andrews, W5EGO
mikea at mikea.ath.cx
Tired old sysadmin 