[9846] in Commercialization & Privatization of the Internet
Re: bill text draft 2: Telecommunications Competition Act (fwd)u
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Karl Denninger)
Mon Jan 24 00:20:42 1994
From: karl@mcs.com (Karl Denninger)
To: jeffgs@netcom.com
Date: Sun, 23 Jan 1994 23:19:59 -0600 (CST)
Cc: nelson@crynwr.com, com-priv@psi.com
In-Reply-To: <Pine.3.85.9401231722.A16044-0100000@netcom> from "Jeffrey Sterling" at Jan 23, 94 06:22:58 pm
> > > 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.
Yep. Myself being one of them. As soon as you start to introduce
regulation to the industry that myself, Barry and others are working in, you
will cause prices to go up and service to go down. That's what happens when
you increase the cost of doing business......
> 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.
But it won't be, unless you folks regulate our interconnection policy to the
point that <we> all go out of business, leaving Prodigy behind.
How can the free market, short of regulatory forces, prevent people like
myself from selling the Internet services that we sell (except, of course,
if nobody wants to buy them!)
> >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.
And keep the Government the hell out of my offices.
--
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