[12767] in Commercialization & Privatization of the Internet
What is required for information access?
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Bill Frezza (via RadioMail))
Sat May 28 06:32:17 1994
Date: Fri, 27 May 1994 13:20:01 PDT
From: Bill Frezza (via RadioMail) <frezza@radiomail.net>
Cc: com-priv@psi.com, alt-politics-datahighway@cs.utexas.edu
To: djw@eff.org
Dan,
You state:
<We'd like to see an
environment where access is so cheap, that little subsidy is required, but
we are simply not willing to rely on market mechanisms alone to determine
who has access to information and who is without it.>
Fine. To have access one needs to have a network connection and a computer
to plug into it.
Does the EFF endorse the subsidization of the purchase of computers by
the "information have-nots"? (I suspect not.)
If you don't endorse this, WHY NOT? By what principle do you endorse the
subsidization of the network connection but not the device that
connects to it? How many computers are there in poor people's homes? Doesn't this represent a glaring inequity that threatens "democratic discourse"?
Suppose the price of PCs don't come down fast enough to suit you?
Are you going to lobby in favor of a law that denies Compaq the right
to sell a computer in Scarsdale if they don't also offer one at
subsidized prices in Harlem?
Where is the consistency in your position? If you are going to play
Robin Hood, why stop short of
solving the entire problem?
Bill
