[9843] in Commercialization & Privatization of the Internet
re: bill text draft 2: Telecommunications Competition Act (fwd)
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Jeffrey Sterling)
Sun Jan 23 21:33:55 1994
Date: Sun, 23 Jan 1994 18:22:58 -0800 (PST)
From: Jeffrey Sterling <jeffgs@netcom.com>
Reply-To: Jeffrey Sterling <jeffgs@netcom.com>
To: Russell Nelson <nelson@crynwr.com>
Cc: com-priv@psi.com
In-Reply-To: <2d40ada1.crynwr@crynwr.com>
On Fri, 21 Jan 1994, Russell Nelson wrote:
> > Special interest pressures already control the legislative process, this
> > Act is an attempt to shine a little light on the subject and introduce a
> > paradigm that the public can understand.
>
> I know you mean well, Jeffrey, but you know not the genie you awaken.
> In a democratic society, a regulated industry tends to be controlled
> by the industry itself (Look at the AMA). Why? Because the industry
> has a far larger interest in the regulations than the individual
> consumers.
Telephone and cable industries are currently regulated and shall continue
to be so. The point of the Telecommunications Competition Act is to
recognize they are both moving toward being computer networks and ought
to be interconnected in a fashion that allows couch potatoes to choose
more than 300 shopping channels and 100 movie channels from their TV
settops. Many computer people don't seem to care much about what happens
in the realm of video and voice as long as data (Internet) is left
unfettered.
I can't much disagree with that attitude (why get involved), however the
opportunity to influence the outcome of what interactive TV could be is
too much for some of us to resist. The corporate strategy is control to the
pipeline and own the content. That doesn't sit well with me. Imagine want
the Internet would be like if your only choice was Prodigy.
>The best way to solve it is to form consumer unions.
I fully agree with you and would be very interested in pursuing that line
of thought further.
Jeffrey Sterling
jeffgs@netcom.com
