“Dear Mark. I am writing this to inform you that I shall not comply”

Re:“Dear Mark. I am writing this to inform you that I shall ... by ethbro on Thursday September 08, 2016 @09:57PM (#12459165)

We ultimately decided landlines needed to be subjected to pretty stringent regulatory requirements in return for their monopoly (before ultimately breaking them up). Hopefully the same will happen to Facebook if they retain market share in 20 years.

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Re:“Dear Mark. I am writing this to inform you that I shall ... by WalterBright on Thursday September 08, 2016 @11:18PM (#12459444)

The government created the AT&T monopoly.

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Re:“Dear Mark. I am writing this to inform you that I shall ... by ethbro on Friday September 09, 2016 @12:52AM (#12459708)

I defer to you, but my take would be that the government simply declined to fight it on anti-trust grounds between ~1910-1970.

On the other hand, I don't think you can ignore Bell Labs or the fact they they did build some amazing infrastructure. Would the world have been better off on the whole with more competition in AT&T's heyday?

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Re:“Dear Mark. I am writing this to inform you that I shall ... by jacobolus on Friday September 09, 2016 @06:11AM (#12460796)

Go read Tim Wu’s book The Master Switch. The details of these media/communications monopoly histories are fascinating.

It’s hard to answer your counterfactual definitively, but probably, yes.

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Re:“Dear Mark. I am writing this to inform you that I shall ... by drvdevd on Friday September 09, 2016 @06:24AM (#12460850)

Thanks for this. Looks interesting.

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Re:“Dear Mark. I am writing this to inform you that I shall ... by drvdevd on Friday September 09, 2016 @06:27AM (#12460862)

Including this great quote from the front:

"At stake is not the First Amendment or the right of free speech, but exclusive custody of the master switch." — FRED FRIENDLY

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