Well, here it comes guys: --------------------------------------------------------------------- LET'S MAKE SURE GOVERNMENT STEERS DATA HIGHWAY IN THE RIGHT DIRECTION San Jose Mercury News Sunday, January 2, 1994 By LAWRENCE J. MAGID (...) 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. While industry will and should take the lead in developing new products and services, it is the role of government to take the long view to assure that these services are implemented in a way that is fair and fruitful. We don't need unnecessary bureaucracies, but we also don't want the educational equivalent of lead poisoning or data equivalent of gridlock. The government's role is especially crucial in a world where physical geographic borders are increasingly irrelevant. Think about the cybernetic equivalent of illegal immigration and smuggling. The Internet doesn't have border patrols to protect our intellectual property. 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. (...) Lawrence J. Magid writes a telecommunications column weekly for the Mercury News and is author of ''The Little PC Book, a Gentle Introduction to Personal Computers.'' You can write to him via Mercury Center Online at LarryMagid or the Internet at magid@latimes.com. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Crypto? Why that would make it impossible for the data police to do their jobs! Anyway, only someone with something to hide would use crypto! Try to hold 'em off with this one, it worked elsewhere for a while: "When crypto is outlawed, only outlaws will have crypto". It's like listening to the raindrops at the start of a storm. Corporate America just woke up and realized we have a good thing that it doesn't control. It will soon rectify that. Pessimistically yours, bdolan@well.sf.ca.us