[calvinmorrison]

well exactly, Verizon, Amazon, etc all LOVE more regulation. they have armies of lawyers who not only help in constructing the laws, they help pass, lobby and implement them. then the same law firms help amazon, verizon, etc execute it.

It's regulatory capture

now a small competitor wants to do something like get into the wifi game and they're look at huge fixed fees to get started.

[ethbr1]

I think 00s+ tech history has demonstrated that the free market is no longer sufficient to promote healthy competition.

Partly a consequence of the biggest tech firms getting bigger.

And partly because of newfound technical ability to achieve mass lock-in (e.g. vendor-controlled encryption, TPMs, vertical integration in platforms, first-party app stores, etc).

The 'but regulatory capture' counter argument rings hollow when the government has given the market a lighter monopoly regulatory touch... and we've ended up with a more concentrated, less competitive market than when it was more heavily regulated.

[marcosdumay]

Fixed fees are nothing.

If you want to make electronics with any complexity, you'll suddenly discover that you need to pay patent fees. And those come as a fixed share of your revenue. Add enough complexity and you can easily be required to pay more than 100% of your revenue in fees.