From: dlv@bwalk.dm.com (Dr.Dimitri Vulis KOTM)
Date: Fri, 29 Nov 1996 06:00:25 -0800 (PST)
To: cypherpunks@toad.com
Subject: Re: Anon
In-Reply-To: <199611290549.VAA09766@atropos.c2.org>
Message-ID: <a5o6XD27w165w@bwalk.dm.com>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain


Doug Barnes <cman@c2.net> writes:
>    (Taiwan story warning...) This reminds me of the pirate cable
>    TV wars, which hit their peak during my stay there -- essentially,
>    the government had outlawed cable TV altogether, mostly because
>    they controlled most of the existing media outlets, and didn't
>    believe the citizen-units needed more than what they had. Various
>    entrepreneurs began wiring Taipei for cable -- sloppy, ad-hoc
>    cable lays that were strung from building to building. The gov't
>    would come and cut the cables; new cables would be laid. People
>    paid their cable bills, but could never quite manage to identify
>    the cable installer when the government came around asking.
>    Programming consisted of a van with a bunch of VCRs and a small
>    satellite dish, that would plug into the network at various places.
>    It go to the point where in some areas there was so much cable, it
>    was tricky to figure out which were the old ones and which were
>    the new. Eventually, the government gave up and licensed some
>    cable operators.

Now, what would the U.S. government (state or los federales) do in a similar
situation? They'd probably fine any resident found with a cable TV thousands
of dollars and if that didn't work, they'd start jailing people. Maybe even
burn a few TV viewers, a la Waco. :-)

---

Dr.Dimitri Vulis KOTM
Brighton Beach Boardwalk BBS, Forest Hills, N.Y.: +1-718-261-2013, 14.4Kbps