[governance] Clinton Admits: "Free" Trade is Harmful to 3rd

[Milton L Mueller]

> -----Original Message-----
> 
> Do you deny that the root of Internet numbering resources are a
> natural monopoly?  How about names?  If it wasn't then I could have
> itforchange.net, and there would be chaos in terms of who is who.

I'll deny it. That's because I actually know what the term "natural monopoly" means.

Like many techies with no background in political economy, you are confusing the need for coordination and exclusive assignment with a monopoly in the supply of a service. They are distinct. And the distinction is significant. 

Natural monopoly theory asserts that a service supplier is a monopoly because it has the lowest marginal cost across the entire market, due to economies of scale and scope. It becomes immediately clear that a single entity (IANA) almost certainly does not have economies of scale and scope in the supply of registration services sufficient to make it the exclusive supplier of such services. If they did, there would be only one such entity, and you should be arguing for the abolition of all RIRs. Indeed, taking the logic even farther you should argue that there should be no LIRs, either. All assignments should come directly from IANA. 

Doesn't sound so good, does it? So obviously what you intend to say is that the root should be coordinated to ensure global compatibility of addressing - not that the root is a "natural monopoly." And as we have learned from the liberalization of telecoms, there are numerous ways to retain universal connectivity while breaking up monopolies. 

These discussions would be a lot easier to have, and more productive, if the technical community was willing to listen to forms of expertise other than engineering and computer science. 
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