The reason the public gets nothing for their investment in the internet is because no one is representing the public. Government is just the handmaiden of corporations, and they have armies of lawyers and lobbyists to make sure they get their way, especially when it comes to privatizing public assets. What we need is a public equity corporation to sue for taking of the public's wealth. "Takings" law is normally about business suing the government for a loss of profit or revenue due to some government action, like for example, a zoning law that reduces property value. How about the taking of public wealth by corporations, like the value of the internet that they got for free? This turns "takings" on it's head, but the contingency fees would be huge. I don't understand why some enterprising lawyers haven't figured this out.
We need a public equity corporation to recover all the assets stolen from the public. The internet is only one. The electromagnetic spectrum is another. Government gives away radio, tv, cellphone, broadband and other spectrum mostly for free and it's worth hundreds of billions per year. As the late John McCain used to say (of all people), "They used to rob stagecoaches, now they rob spectrum". There are many other assets created by nature or society stolen by corporations from the public, like pharma patents from research paid for by the public purse. If you want to learn more read Capitalism 3.0, by Peter Barnes, the best book on the subject.
And give me my damn dividend check from our share of the internet.
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