NNSquad - Network Neutrality Squad
[ NNSquad ] Re: Thomas Edison's plot to hijack the movie industry
Of course there's the obvious analogy with DRM and the DMCA but it's useful to think about the other big story about Edison -- his fight against Tesla's AC. Edison created a complete silo business based on providing light using Direct Current. DC had many limitations but unlike AC it could be used to power motors. Tesla solved that problem. AC's big advantage was to allow for long distance transmission at high voltage thus laying the ground work for today's grid. Edison's associates agreed AC was better but he put his short term business interests before anything else and even killed an elephant to "prove" that AC was too dangerous. His big success was in getting the NYS prisons to use AC for the electric chairs. It wasn't until the 1960's that Avenues A B and C in NYC went fully AC. The comment on the Sherman Antitrust suit is important. Today we have silos playing the role in controlling the distributions system. The antitrust effort came from a recognition that locking down the infrastructure so that it can only be used for a narrow purpose causes harm. What is missing is the recognize that this is still true when we have companies with the similar business models each controlling their own infrastructure as a silo (or controlling the value chain). It's as if there were two Edison's who succeeded in controlling the their own supplies of film stock while also controlling the distribution system so that no upstarts could show movies in their theaters. Even if they gave some concessions to new entrants by selling some film stock at high prices they could argue they shouldn't have provide so much as to threaten their business model. And they would probably get away by arguing that two silos are real competition even though the resources are still under tight control. What will it take to get people to see that silos are today's equivalent of the trusts of Edison's days? -----Original Message----- From: nnsquad-bounces+nnsquad=bobf.frankston.com@nnsquad.org [mailto:nnsquad-bounces+nnsquad=bobf.frankston.com@nnsquad.org] On Behalf Of Lauren Weinstein Sent: Thursday, September 02, 2010 01:50 To: nnsquad@nnsquad.org Subject: [ NNSquad ] Thomas Edison's plot to hijack the movie industry Thomas Edison's plot to hijack the movie industry (not only a great read, but relevant to our technologies today): http://bit.ly/clDDt3 (ars technica) --Lauren-- NNSquad Moderator