Interesting People mailing list archives
Re: The FCC strikes the Internet
From: David Farber <farber () central cis upenn edu>
Date: Sat, 12 Mar 1994 03:24:12 -0500
Date: Fri, 11 Mar 1994 21:44:53 -0500 (EST) From: James Love <love () Essential ORG> Subject: Re: The FCC strikes the Internet To: David Farber <farber () central cis upenn edu> cc: interesting-people mailing list <interesting-people () eff org>
David, the language that you posted to Interesting-people really deals with two separte issues. 1). the FCC would be required to accept comments from the pulbic on the future of democratic discourse via the internet, and comment specifically on whether or not telephone companies should be required at provide some type of flat rate access to the net, not as a monopoly provider, but as one of many ways that people get access to this network. I don't think it will be the end of the world if this issue is debated openly, and we confront the future of the net with a privatized NSF backbone. If you are so confident that FCC involvement isn't a good thing, you will probably carry the day by a huge margin, and I perhaps I will agree with you. Asking of an inquiry is just asking that this be deal with in an open and democratic forum.
2). The second part of the amendement referred to any entirely separate issue of how consumers are represented before the FCC. Again, it is just a study to look at different models. Maybe I'm missing something, but why shouldn't there be some debate and analysis of these issues?
We could not agree more. I am a complete believer that we must discuss this in an open and democratic forum. As I have said I just dont believe that the FCC is the right or wise place for that discussion to take place. Again mostly because it's mechanisms are limited and stoggy and because it would start us down the regulatory path that I think both of us would rather avoid. It seems to me that a good start would be a smallish conference where all the relevent parties can get to present their opinions on the role of networking in a democratic society. The results of such a meeting would be widely available (maybe live). The model coming into my head is the constitutional debates held on the 200 anniv of the Constitution in Philadelphia. If there is any interest in so organizing such a forum, I would be happy to explore whether Penn would host such a meeting
By the way, a number of persons were responsible for the legislative language that you quoted, and there is no need to worry about who gets the credit or blame, as the case may be.
Fine -- I was not at all worried and my comment on who gets the blame had a big :-) after it.
- jamie ---------------------------------------------------------------------- James Love, Taxpayer Assets Project; internet: love () essential org P.O. Box 19367, Washington, DC 20036; v. 202/387-8030; f. 202/234-5176 12 Church Road, Ardmore, PA 19003; v. 215/658-0880; f. 215/649-4066 ----------------------------------------------------------------------
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- Re: The FCC strikes the Internet David Farber (Mar 12)