[12612] in Commercialization & Privatization of the Internet
Personal attacks are no substitute for logical consistency
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Bill Frezza (via RadioMail))
Tue May 24 12:35:59 1994
Date: Tue, 24 May 1994 05:46:20 PDT
From: Bill Frezza (via RadioMail) <frezza@radiomail.net>
Cc: eff-board@eff.org
To: com-priv@psi.com
Folks,
As you know, over the past few months I have been endeavoring to get the EFF
to clarify the principles behind their sweeping call for massive government
intervention in the burgeoning Information Business. I have in
particular tried to get them to spell out the mechanisms by which Guaranteed
Universal Service is to be financed.
After meeting with Danny Weitzner of the EFF I finally got him to admit
that their policy recommendations can and will inexorably lead to the
imposition of an info-tax. Danny, to his credit, felt that such a tax to
be used to supply services to the "information have-nots", was
justified based on the social outcome he desired. While disagreeing with
him vehemently I applauded his honesty and the logical consistency of his
position.
I carefully posted the results of this conversation on com-priv asking Danny
and the EFF to comment and clarify.
What was the result?
Silence from Dan, more fluff from Stanton, and a vituperative personal
attack from one of EFF's founders. I thought I would share the latter
with you (below).
Your comments and participation in this dialogue is welcomed. Whether you
agree with me or not, this is an absolutely fundamental issue to
the future of this business. The EFF cannot eat it's cake and have it to.
Either it supports liberty or it doesn't. I ask those of you I have
corresponded with on this to turn up the headlights on these guys.
Bill Frezza
---------------------------------------
Date: Mon, 23 May 1994 12:38:59 -0800
>From: John Perry Barlow <barlow@eff.org>
Subject: Re: Bill Frezza's questions to EFF
To: don.wills@swc.com (Don Wills), djw@eff.org
Cc: eff-board@eff.org, frezza@radiomail.net
At 9:22 AM 5/23/94 -0600, Don Wills wrote:
>I concur with Bill Frezza's assessment of EFF.
>
>I won't be renewing my company's membership in EFF not only because the
>positions you have taken with regard to government control of the
>Internet/NII are flawed, but also because you haven't even responded to
>Frezza's questions.
We have all responded to Frezza's questions on far too many occasions, and
if he tells you otherwise he is a liar in addition to being a pernicious
ankle-biter.
He also alleges, despite plenty of evidence to the contrary, that we have a
kill file on the mail he generates. He knows better.
The problem is not that we don't listen to his questions. The problem is
that he doesn't listen to our answers. He continues to characterize our
positions in ways which do them grave injustice and refuses to incorporate
our corrections to his interpretations.
However, you can do what you like. You can listen to a man who has a
pathologial fixation EFF, or you can listen to us directly. If you listen
to us directly and you still don't like what we're doing, I think you
should not continue to support us. We're not in this to please everybody
and we don't expect to. That's politics.
Sincerely,
John Perry Barlow
---------------------------------------
Date: 05-22-94 16:05:38
Subject: EFF ENDORSES BROAD BASED INFO-TAX TO FUND UNIVERSAL SERVICE
To: com-priv@psi.com
Cc: interesting-people@eff.org, rre-maintainers@weber.ucsd.edu, alt-politics-datahighway@cs.utexas.edu
WHY WON'T THEY COME FORWARD AND SPEAK?
For an organization that prides itself on the need for democratic discourse,
why is the EFF hiding? Why do they reflexively kill-file anyone who
disagrees with them? Why don't they have the courage of their convictions?
The message below recording Danny Weitzner's call for an info-tax was
posted on May 6th in an attempt to clarify how the EFF expects
Guaranteed Universal Sevice to be funded. Attempts to contact the EFF
privately have been rebuffed. A Nixonian stonewall has descended.
This sad organization, originally dedicated to defending civil
liberties, has become a lapdog of those entrenched Washington interests
that seek to gain a stranglehold on this new industry.
Are you proud, Mitch Kapor, of the chain reaction you have set off?
According to the latest postings, 93 organizations representing the full
panoply of subsidized artists, public broadcasters, and professional
victims groups have demanded that congress set aside a free public
"right-of-way" on the info highway. Whose hands do you think this will
play into? Don't you realize that John Malone would gladly trade away 10%
of his channel capacity in return for protection from competition?
That's exactly how he built his empire in the first place.
How can you fail to see that everything you are doing to create a new set
of info-entitlements will only attract more and more groups looking for
a handout, ultimately creating a political constituency that congress
won't be able to resist pandering to?
Those who forget history are doomed to repeat it. I was on the front lines
during the heyday of big city Cable TV franchise wars in the early eighties
and I can tell you it was not a pretty sight. The anti-competitive,
anti-consumer abuses that were perpetrated in the name of "the
public good" while private fortunes were amassed and politicians
pockets were lined was appalling. In but one example I personally
helped Wade Communications, the black front organization that Mayor Wilson
Goode promised a chunk of the Philly franchise to, fill out their
phony application - just to watch
them turn around and sell it to TCI.
Is this the kind of "managed" market you want?
The EFF leadership will no doubt not see this message as their software
will screen it out. I would like to call on each of the many people I
have corresponded with in the past few months to demand an answer from them.
Who is going to pay for Universal Service and how?
Please send your mail to:
Mitch Kapor <kapor@eff.org>,
John Perry Barlow <Barlow@eff.org>,
Danny Weitzner <djw@eff.org>
and ask them stand up and reveal their principles.
Bill Frezza
frezza@radiomail.net
