From: "Vladimir Z. Nuri" <vznuri@netcom.com>
Date: Thu, 22 Jan 1998 10:51:32 +0800
To: Declan McCullagh <declan@well.com>
Subject: Re: Will bureaucrats turn the Net into TV? Note from FCC
In-Reply-To: <Pine.GSO.3.95.980121160005.2838D-100000@well.com>
Message-ID: <199801220247.SAA12030@netcom12.netcom.com>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain



does anyone else smell a bureacrat writing that article?

>Without that overarching allocation-based [license] compulsion (to force
>even facial compliance with an obligation, so that enforcement would
>become essential to compliance, thus creating a need for thousands of Web
>police to review commercial licensees sites and traffic--[what a
>nightmare] -) -the liklihood of developing a meaningful scheme of public
>interest obligation would be a an overdebated and overhyped PC exercise,
>quickly becoming comic--and then dangerous. 

whoa, someone claiming that the government won't do something because
it would lead to a horrible increase in the number of bureacrats or
federal police?

hmmmmmmmm, somehow I don't feel so reassured.

here is another reason the net won't be regulated: because it
is like society's nervous system, and freedom of expression and
speech has finally found a tangible outlet and form after
centuries of attempts. "freedom of press"
only applies to those who have a press, yet freedom of web sites
belongs to anyone who can scrounge up $5/mo. (I promise you I am
now paying that amount for a site).

moreover, the net has become a powerful economic force. there are
tens of thousands of people now making their living directly or
indirectly off the net. any attempt to change its chemistry will
involve a backlash from some of the most intelligent and motivated
people on the planet.

people don't care too much about american politics, but any attempt
to mess with the internet will be slapped hard by the population, 
which is finally getting a clue about what the words
"participatory democracy" mean. it would be political suicide. this
is not to say that some idiot politicians will continue to experiment.
<g>