No one was surprised that the Berkman Center was appointed by the FCC to prepare a study supporting the radical views on regulating broadband usage, particularly given the much trumpeted influence of certain members of the anti-copyright crowd with basketball players at that agency. Neither should anyone be surprised that the Berkman Center study is under attack. Or as Professor Nesson might say, you pays your money and you takes your chances.

Brett Swanson makes very good points in his piece “Preparing to Pounce: D.C. angles for another industry“: “Benkler and his team of investigators can be commended for the effort that went into what was no doubt a substantial undertaking….The gaping, jaw-dropping irony of the report was its failure even to mention the chief outcome of America’s previous open-access regime: the telecom/tech crash of 2000-02.”

George Ou does an in depth analysis of the methods used by the Berkman folk and finds some suspect cards in the deck. He concludes: “The underlying data cited by Berkman study is simply too flawed to be of any use. And because the study bases its conclusions on flawed data, the conclusions drawn in the Berkman broadband study are equally unreliable”

Talk about a busted flush! Chalk players of the world, unite! Time to get advice outside the very predictable Ivy League.