[12083] in Commercialization & Privatization of the Internet
Re: Net fee-for-service
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Don Wills)
Wed May 4 15:58:20 1994
Date: Wed, 4 May 1994 08:54:15 -0600
To: com-priv@psi.com
From: don.wills@swc.com (Don Wills)
> [ deleted ]
> My thought is to suggest a "transaction tax" for the net: a small tax
>imposed on all net financial transactions. The income from this tax could be
>used to pay for increasing network capacity. Thus (i) all that is now free
>would remain free, (ii) the essential characteristics of the net are
>preserved, (iii) commercialization of the net pays its own way, and builds a
>high-speed system for the rest of us to have fun with.
>
>Any thoughts on these ideas?
>
>-Matt Blumberg
With encryption, how can you possibly tell a financial transaction from a
non-financial transaction? Who collects the tax? Who collects the tax for
international transactions? The cost of administering the tax will make
the cost of the tax prohibitive and alternate private networks will arise
to get around it. Your transaction tax is a very dumb idea!
Don Wills
Subject, Wills & Company
USA (708) 572-0240
