[1339] in Commercialization & Privatization of the Internet
Re: Questions: ANS Plan for Commercial Services
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Edward Vielmetti)
Mon Sep 16 12:46:08 1991
To: Ittai Hershman <ittai@shemesh.ans.net>
Cc: proll@casbah.acns.nwu.edu (Peter Roll), com-priv@uu.psi.com
In-Reply-To: Your message of Mon, 16 Sep 91 10:14:32 -0400.
Date: Mon, 16 Sep 91 12:41:36 -0400
From: Edward Vielmetti <emv@ox.com>
It remains clear that at least some portions of the Internet in the
US will continue to be federally funded (e.g. the federal agency
networks). Any part of the Internet which is directly funded by the
federal government is obliged to restrict itself to traffic in
support of research and education.
I'd take issue with this sort of blanket statement. It is certainly
within the bounds of the federal government to provide funding, direct
subsidies, or indirect subsidies for networks which did not restrict
themselves to any sort of traffic and which did not meter usage
charges (combit pay) based on traffic measurements. It is true that
historically there has been a long precedent of Federally supported
networking having appropriate use constraints -- anywhere from "you
need to be a military contractor (ARPAnet)" to "you need to be doing
DOE research (ESNET)" to "in support of research and education
(NSFnet)".
Don't confuse the current, mission-oriented "research and education"
mandate that the NSFnet is working under with a permanent immutable
policy of federal networking. Just because things are that way now
doesn't mean there couldn't be alternatives. The government need not
-- and probably doesn't want -- to focus all of its operations
subsidies to one service provider.
To stretch the interstate highway metaphor a bit, you don't have a
giant "Advanced Highway Services" building and contracting for road
repairs and new construction all over the country; the money flows
down to the state and local levels where graft and corruption take its
toll :-)
--Ed
