Quote:
Originally Posted by Steve Jordan
The U.S. government has not really "controlled" broadcasting. Their efforts have been largely to prevent individuals from taking over too much of the public spectrum, to avoid a monopoly over broadcasting. Beyond that, they have taken little action regarding what was broadcast.
In fact, the only downside to the present system is that they haven't done a good enough job at it, allowing major corporations to buy up more and more affiliates in TV and radio, and thereby lessening the variety of programming (and limiting who has a say over what is deemed appropriate). Look at the serious loss of variety in radio, nationwide, thanks to the vast ownership of the bulk of the affiliate radio stations by only 3 corporations.
If anything, I'd like to see the government step in and try to encourage a unifying e-book format and delivery system, on the grounds that such a measure would enable more of the population to get access to more information at a lower cost. But that's another discussion...
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The oligopoly of private spectrum ownership is due in large part to government regulation. The government holds a large portion of the spectrum for itself (claiming it needs it for the military) and most of it goes unused. So in the private market, airwaves appear to be a more scarce resource than they actually are. Unfortunate.
If the government were to actually establish a "unifying e-book format and delivery system," this would make things even more expensive. Someone would own the format and someone would own the delivery system and everyone who wished to use it would have to pay for the monopolistic service. If you advocate nationalizing such a service, then you start down the road of a regulated economy. Ask the Soviet Union how that worked out for them. Government regulation would do anything BUT lower prices. It would hurt innovation in the area of ebooks and it would hurt competition.