From: fnerd@smds.com (FutureNerd Steve Witham)
Date: Mon, 3 Jan 94 16:49:00 PST
To: cypherpunks@toad.com
Subject: Re: Here come the data fascists
Message-ID: <9401040038.AA27461@smds.com>
MIME-Version: 1.0
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Brad Dolan <bdolan@well.sf.ca.us> fwds (thanks, Brad)-

> San Jose Mercury News
> By LAWRENCE J. MAGID <magid@latimes.com>
> 
> Do we really need Al Gore, Bill Clinton, Congress, the FCC, the FTC and 
> countless other bureaucracies meddling in this new industry?
> The answer is a qualified yes.

I love this resurgence of the idea of "just a little" regulation.
How to be a plausible policy wonk straight out of the box.
As if it were a new idea.  As if that weren't how it always starts.
Oh boy, a new field for everyone to propose their two cents worth of
regulation on.

> ...The
> government must be involved, but, as the Vice President has promised,
> it must also leave lots of room for both entrepreneurs and the corporate 
> giants to play their hands.

!  "We must make positive noises about small business while protecting the 
status quo."

I heard snippets of what must have been Gore, on NPR, talking to the
National Press Club.  Snippets because I would switch back to TV when
the commercials were over or...  Well, for instance (I paraphrase):

"I want to start with a story...
 Why did the Titanic fail to hear all the warnings about ice fields
 at their latitude?  Why did other ships fail to hear their distress
 calls?  Because the radio telegraph business was run *as* a business in
 those days.  No one was required to be listening<click>"

I know I should have let Star Trek tape and kept listening to this Guy; 
I just wimped.  Maybe he somehow completed his thought reasonably.

I hope things work out.  Gore and policy wonks and industry reps have 
all said good things, but also all those great short turning radius 
waffle words.

Brad comments:

> It's like listening to the raindrops at the start of a storm.

Like watchin' 'em spray the primer.

-fnerd
quote me

- -
cryptocosmology- sufficiently advanced communication
                 is indistinguishable from noise
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