[247] in Commercialization & Privatization of the Internet
Usage Charges
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Barry Shein)
Thu Feb 28 19:35:21 1991
Date: Thu, 28 Feb 91 19:21:41 -0500
From: bzs@world.std.com (Barry Shein)
To: farber@central.cis.upenn.edu
Cc: richardt@Legato.COM, com-priv@psi.com
In-Reply-To: David J. Farber's message of Thu, 28 Feb 91 16:01:35 GMT-0500 <9102282101.AA01035@pcpond.cis.upenn.edu>
Actually, I would turn the problem on its head.
It's not so much the fear of an unexpected large charge which is the
problem (although it is a concern), it is that an unexpected budget
shortfall will often lead to a witch hunt as to what could be cut.
Given a usage charge, this would inevitably lead to new and stricter
rules on who could use the net. Not in an attempt to cap charges, but
in an attempt to severely reduce them to help balance the budget (or,
worse, to be able to try to say that one is trying to cut the budget
before going to central to make an argument for more money, getting
people to howl is often effective pre-ground war preparation.)
These witch hunts invariable lead to rules, at least in academia,
which do not reflect who needs the net, but rather the general pecking
order (e.g. grad students who collaborate on the net actively will
often be cut or curtailed while senior faculty who haven't even shown
an interest in the simplest e-mail usage will maintain access. Of
course, that does work to cut usage drastically, but is perhaps not
what is intended.)
-Barry Shein
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