[2787] in Commercialization & Privatization of the Internet
Re: The fate of Internet, further comments
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Roy Tennant)
Wed Jun 3 11:28:59 1992
Date: Wed, 3 Jun 92 08:23:35 PDT
From: rtennant@library.Berkeley.EDU (Roy Tennant)
To: com-priv@psi.com
Stephen Wolff replying to ?
>> I'm against Dialog's being on the net as they charge for your telneting over
>> to their machine
>
>So I shouldn't be allowed to telnet to them even if I am willing to pay for
>the convenience? Or is it that you wish to regulate their pricing policy?
>
>If their Internet business isn't profitable they'll change it. Why not let
>the market decide?
What I have a problem with is private companies charging public
entities (libraries, universities, etc.) for using publicly-funded
infrastructure and *making a profit* at it. THAT'S what *I* have
a problem with. And as far as being profitable, *of course* it
will be profitable. All they need to do is to charge less than what you
already must pay to get access, which is pretty darn easy when the
taxpayers have already paid the startup costs. No one is talking (at
least anywhere I can hear) about what Dialog was charged to offer
their services over the Internet, but I can't help wondering how it is
they arrived at their hourly connect rate. You can bet they are
doing a good bit more than breaking even.
My quarrel is *not* with the fact that they need to make a profit--
that is a given. But they should be making their profit off their
value-added services rather than skimming profit from publicly-
funded infrastructure. If this is not the case, then by all means
someone should lay all the figures out and stop this nonsense now.
Roy Tennant
UC Berkeley
