[12735] in Commercialization & Privatization of the Internet
Re: EFF and the big bad T (tax) word [same old stuff]
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Bruce Fancher)
Fri May 27 12:46:28 1994
From: bruce@phantom.com (Bruce Fancher)
To: mech@eff.org (Stanton McCandlish)
Date: Thu, 26 May 1994 20:24:27 -0400 (EDT)
Cc: bruce@phantom.com, frezza@radiomail.net, djw@eff.org, com-priv@psi.com,
alt-politics-datahighway@cs.utexas.edu, freedom@phantom.com
In-Reply-To: <199405262219.SAA25040@eff.org> from "Stanton McCandlish" at May 26, 94 06:19:20 pm
[Stanton McCandlish] has written:
|
| > Whether or not a "fantasy-land" completely free of Government meddling is
| > achievable is not the point. Even if you can't eliminate Government
| > entirely, it's always better to reduce it than expand it.
|
| This is an extreme generalization. I also believe it to be unsupportable.
| I can falsify it easily. Let's take away the power of the supreme court
| to rule that a law is unconstitutional. Let's also remove the power of
| Congress to impeach. Do you think we'd have a better government then?
|
[stuff deleted]
As I said before, Government exists to protect us from force and fraud.
Neither of which has anything to do with the NII.
| When are you going to get it thorough your head that the NII *will* be
| regulated, no matter what? EFF didn't invent the idea of regulating the
| networking world. We've simply seen it coming, and are trying to have it
| regulated our way, and our members' way - a way that yields the broadest
| and most open infrastructure, rather than, say, the cableco's way, or the
| Moral Majority's way, or whatever. Just accept it. Regualation is
| coming. You can see it from miles away. Given that, please show me
| anyone advocating that the inevitable regulation be shaped in a way that
| is better, and actually getting any kind of results.
I refuse to accept that. There are already 20 to 30 million US citizens
online through Compuserve, BBSes, Internet Providers, etc. This would
not be the case if the Government had regulated it 10 or 15 years ago.
Even if regulation is inevitable, that doesn't change the fact that the
regulation that the EFF advocates is seriously flawed and demonstrates a
lack of understanding of not only market principles, but also of the
technology involved.
| I'm dead serious. Don't yak at me all day, go DO something. Hell, I'd
| probably send your organization 10 bucks or so. I wouldn't have much
| faith in your success, but better to have tried and failed, that just shot
| the bull on com-priv.
Point taken. We're all wasting too much time with this. I'll shut up
until I can put up.
