[9851] in Commercialization & Privatization of the Internet
RE: bill text draft 2: Telecommunications Competition Act (fwd)
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (rob horn)
Mon Jan 24 09:53:25 1994
Date: 24 Jan 1994 09:35:18 -0500 (EST)
From: rob horn <horn%temerity@leia.polaroid.com>
In-Reply-To: <9401220639.AA13472@ polaroid.com>
To: com-priv@psi.com
There ought to be a part of Civcs 101 on writing laws and regulations. When
you set out to do this consider two important environmental considerations:
1) 80% of the time your law will be interpreted and enforced by civil
servants who don't care what your original intent was. They will enforce
the law as written. So don't write something ambiguous. Don't leave
new terms undefined. Don't assume anything. If you only mean the law to
apply to certain situations, say that, otherwise it will be applied in
situations where you did not mean it to apply.
Those of you with experience writing specifications for software will
understand. What you ask for is not often what was delivered, but when
you go to check the specifications you find that they could also be
interpreted to mean what was delivered. This is part of why laws are so
often written in contorted mutant English. It is very hard work to write
a clear specification in conventional English. (It is well worth the
effort to try. This usually does wonders to improve the document.)
2) 10% of the time your law will be interpreted by your bitterest
opponent. Forget it accomplishing your goals. Examine whether it can be
twisted to do damage. It can. But how much damage will be done?
This draft fails both tests. It is littered with unintended consequences.
In the hands of an Internet opponent I could use the interconnect and
service clauses to close down almost anything.
I personally think that none of these Universal Access efforts are
necessary. The trend over the past ten years is marvelous and in the
right direction. Ten years ago a dial-up 9600 bps commercial email/ftp
access to the Internet cost $25,000-$50,000/yr. Those are the then extent
CSNET fees for a commercial user. Now it costs me $1/hr (or about
$1,000/yr for heavy use). That's a 40-50% reduction per year.
The cost problem is with the telco systems for reaching the service access
points. And, oddly, these are the one part of the whole system that has
been subject to heavy (overwhelming?) regulation and government control.
So if regulation is good why not focus on using the existing regulatory
framework to deal with these costs? (I know. Unfair. Those were the OLD
regulators. They are a problem. We will put in NEW regulators. That
will fix everything. :-))
Rob Horn horn@temerity.polaroid.com
