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There's an important part in that definition: "commercial radio station" - the general premise of telecommunications regulation has been that using a finite resource (radio spectrum) comes with obligations (FCC licensing, content restrictions, etc). That's also why you'll see the giant "THIS IS A PAID PROGRAM" warning on late-night infomercials.

Internet streaming doesn't fit into that "finite resource" model.




I think this widely misses my point.

Maybe I can rephrase it?

Interacting with someone comes with obligations.

This, then, allows us to peer deeper in to the problem: some people think it's okay to run roughshod over existing norms because "on a computer".

I'd argue it's not okay to exploit people's weaknesses just because "implemented using new(er) / different technology".

Other people seem to be quite happy to build an empire doing so.

I guess this is why I'm likely to remain relatively poor.


Well, internet bandwidth is a finite resource, but it's limited on the consumer side. If the consumer doesn't stream Spotify, his/her bandwidth is not used. By contrast, spectrum is consumed whether a given consumer tunes in or not. In this sense, the spectrum is a shared public resource whereas the consumer's bandwidth is a non-shared private resource.


The finite resource in the Internet model is attention. We could redefine our regulations with that in mind. Perhaps that would helpful for addressing the filter bubble phenomenon.




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