You write: ! On Fri, 17 May 1996, Timothy C. May wrote: ! ! > At 2:38 AM 5/16/96, Alan Horowitz wrote: ! > >Hey, let's build faster and faster fiber-optic networks. Let's create ! > >bandwidth so cheap that it won't even pay to meter it. ! > ! > "Too cheap to meter"? Wasn't that what nuclear power promised in the 1950s? ! > ! > (I'm actually a supporter of nuclear power, for a variety of reasons, so ! > this is not meant as just a cheap shot against nuke plants. But this was ! > one of the "selling points" of nuclear, later shown to be a falsehood.) ! ! Actually, nuclear power, per se, is damn cheap. It's the collateral ! effects (real, i.e., waste disposal and keeping fissile materials secure ! from terrorists, and imagined, i.e., overregulation) that are so ! expensive. ! ! Just like the net. We could have a virtually free flow of information, but ! that's not exactly what the gubmint wants, is it. Not to mention that it's ! not exactly what we want, either -- Canter & Siegel are only the tip of ! the iceberg of the Tragedy of the Commons we'd see on a truly free ! network. ! ! We don't need the CDA or anything quite that stupid, but I'll drink to ! overpriced, arbitrarily restricted net access any day. CAPITALISTS' SUCK ! -rich