Fortunately, the free market doesn’t work like group projects in grade school where one poor performer could bring down the grade of the entire group.  When one company fails or does not adequately meet customer demands, it may go under – but usually this does not lead to the failure of an entire industry. And that particular company’s shortcomings don’t typically have negative repercussions on the industry or hold the future of the industry back.  That is unless – or until – the government regulates that industry.  There has been a concerted push to regulate the broadband industry and make it into a quasi-public utility and the repercussions could be disastrous.  Another thing left back in grade school is a teacher to go cry to when things don’t go one’s way.  But that hasn’t stopped Netflix from pouting over a new specialized service Comcast is offering.  The service allows Comcast’s Xbox 360 customers to stream thousands of movies and shows from XFINITY On Demand without counting against the data usage threshold that applies to broadband internet access services. (And it should be exempt from such a data cap because the service in question is a cable service, which would render the rules governing Internet streaming inapplicable).