From: Mike Godwin <mnemonic@eff.org>
Date: Wed, 10 Nov 93 09:08:57 PST
To: pmetzger@lehman.com
Subject: Re: Should we oppose the Data Superhighway/NII?
In-Reply-To: <9311101654.AA21967@snark.lehman.com>
Message-ID: <199311101705.AA18927@eff.org>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain



Perry writes:
 
> Mike Godwin says:
> > But cable service would be far more valuable to me (and I'd pay more for
> > it) if I could, say, upload a video of my little girl taking her first
> > steps and send it to Tim. (Not that he'd necessarily pay for that
> > privilege, but you get the idea.)
> 
> Why do we need government for this?

We don't. We need private providers for this.

> Seems to me that bandwidth is
> going to be nearly free in both directions in a few years whether
> government intervenes or not.

I agree about the potential for it to be free, but, I gotta tell you, the
monopolists running the cable systems in this country have no inclination
to share that nearly free bandwidth with you, even if you're willing to
pay for access to it.

In order to get to a world in which free markets can meet our demand for
high-bandwidth connectivity, we have to dig ourselves out from the 
market-failure position we're in now. And because government is part of
the problem, changing government policy is part of the solution. So,
that's one of the major thrusts of EFF's NII policy. 


--Mike