[8690] in Commercialization & Privatization of the Internet
Re: EFF Op-Ed on National Information Infrastructure
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (barney@databus.com)
Tue Nov 30 17:37:33 1993
Date: Tue, 30 Nov 93 17:21:48 -0500
From: barney@databus.com
To: com-priv@psi.com
>From: Dave Bachmann <bachmann@austin.ibm.com>
>
>> While I am not in general opposed to EFF's goals or tactics on many issues,
>> I _deeply_ resent the notion that I should not be _allowed_ to sign up for
>> an asymmetric service if such service is cheaper than symmetric service and
>> meets my needs.
>
>I think you should be able to sign up for an asymmetric service if you
>want to, but _I_ would resent not being able to get a symmetric
>service, if Consolidated TelcoCable decided they could make more money
>allocating all the bandwidth to 6000 channels of Oprah's Real Life
>Channel so they could sell ad time on it.
Well of course - so don't deal with them. The key issue here is the notion
of "all the bandwidth" - if we allow monopoly at any stage, from
the local loop to the backbone, then we _must_ regulate that monopoly to
assure that it's run with some attention to the good of society. But I'd
much rather trust to competition to meet the needs of the marketplace,
including yours.
Barney Wolff <barney@databus.com>
