When I learned that Google was rushing in late in the process to demand a net neutrality amendment on the Michigan franchise reform legislation, the image that came to mind was that of a spoiled child seeing people building a sandcastle on the beach and running through the sand castle cackling with glee at the attention they could get from destroying others hard work.
I continue to marvel at the undisciplined naivete and brat-ishness of this $150 billion 8 year old company called Google. Like a spolied child that has gotten used to getting everything they scream for because of over-indulgent market parents who never said no, this company truly behaves like they think the world revolves around them and their demands.
Google is trying to play the spoiler role in Michigan; it is not being constructive. Google will learn over time, as every spoiled child eventually does, because fewer and fewer people will want to "play" with them going forward.
If Google had done any homework at all before it rushed into the Michigan process, it would understand how it is wasting the Michigan legislature's precious resources and time on an eleventh hour problem that the state of Michigan cannot solve or legally address for Google. Even a first year law student knows that when the Federal Government specifically asserts interstate commerce jurisdiction over an issue they have the constitutional supremacy to trump state incursion into that Federal jurisdiction.
As recently as the Supreme Court's Brand X decision in the summer of 2005, the Federal Supreme Court affirmed the FCC's authority to classify broadband as a unregulated and interstate information service. Google and any Michigan legislative supporters they trick into their spoiler scheme, will have an extremely hard time finding a court that would not toss this issue out -- as an obviously settled matter.
But Google being Google, is unbowed by the constitutional pecking order of Federal-state jurisdiction, and is unconcerned with wasting public servants time and taxpayer money to pursue an amendment that doesn't stand a chance of surviving court scrutiny.
Google doesn't care about wasting anyone else's money, becuase they have plenty for themselves...    Â
