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