bit.ly/1t9x8nl Precisely why I am am opposed to permitting private capital to own the Internet infrastructure: The direct costs of transmitting data across the Internet will continue to decline -dropping steadily toward zero. But the price of using the infrastructure will continuously rise as there are fewer and fewer competitors licensed to operate the infrastructure. The result will be an imposed private tariff added to the costs of the content we transmit --content that is the sole provenance of the originator, for use by the intended recipient(s). That it transits via a stream of bits ads no value to the content. That it can be transmitted faster, or slower has no existential impact on the relative costs of the transmission or its infrastructure, yet those who control the infrastructure feel they are entitled to place a tariff on the speed at which the data travels. Granted, there is perceived value in faster for some, but it is not related to the accuracy or currency of the content. Its all bits. Every bit should have the same cost of transmission. Who is too say that this bit is more valuable than that bit! Perhaps the creator of the content or the user of the content, but certainly not the transmitter of the content. We are not dealing with movie theaters in which there is a fixed capital costs related to adding more seats. Movie theatre chains -build more theatres to accommodate more asses in seats. In digital transmission, the consumer tends to pay to put his/her own ass in the seat, buys the seat, and buys the screen --whether s/he is watching entertainment, or modeling the next DNA molecule. If private equity does not want to make the investment, no one is making them. Its essential that their be a global commons in digital transmission or, at the very least, a global network of public commons. Weve managed to sort such things out for trafficking in airline passengers through the use of international treaties. We dont get to fly faster, or more recklessly. Even the private jets of the elite have to obey FAA rules.
Posted on: Mon, 27 Oct 2014 16:33:09 +0000