http://tlf.disqus.com/The Technology Liberation Front is the tech policy blog dedicated to keeping politicians' hands off the 'net and everything else related to technology.enFri, 28 Sep 2007 16:30:34 -0000http://techliberation.com/2007/09/28/verizonnaral-an-argument-for-regulation/#comment-1452152What happens when a lower-profile or less popular organization is censored by Verizon? It's wonderful that market pressure forced Verizon to change their policy so quickly in this case. What I don't understand is why Verizon needs or ought to censor SMSes that I intentionally elected to receive.<br><br>Believe me, SMS is a world where the market is decidedly not working -- particularly not premium SMS, where carriers take up to a 50% cut (and inexplicably disallow charities from using it, at least in this country).<br><br>Fortunately relatively neutral data services seem likely to replace the laughably expensive and limited SMS standard, so I can't get *too* worked up about this. But it really is a pretty bad situation. A very few gatekeepers continue to increase prices (despite increasing demand and no practical limit on supply) and prevent small players from using the medium.TomFri, 28 Sep 2007 16:30:34 -0000http://techliberation.com/2007/09/28/verizonnaral-an-argument-for-regulation/#comment-1452151Indeed. In a case like this, the choice is between two systems for marshaling Verizon's behavior. The existing one - market forces - reversed a bad decision in 24 hours. The alternative - government regulation - holds fast to <a href="http://www.techliberation.com/archives/042824.php" rel="nofollow">an accumulating litany</a> of bad decisions.jimharperFri, 28 Sep 2007 14:32:20 -0000