At 01:20 PM 12/14/95 EDT, E. ALLEN SMITH wrote:
The more critical question is likely to be what the people at the local MBE/whatever _think_ the rules are. When I last got a box (under my real name, in case anyone's wondering), I seem to recall that they'd accept credit cards. Once one has one box under a given name, this opens up the possibility of getting a secured credit card to make future access easier. However, I believe that they do want at least one form of photo ID; I can't remember just off what their specifications were. -Allen
I have found that credit cards are very good ID (even though they aren't ID at all) since people are sure that you can't get one without getting thoroughly checked out. A secured credit card in a nome de guerre backed up with employment photo "ID" will usually get you what you want. The reason that market access controls like these break down is that they are dependent on every seller on earth giving up the profit involved in selling to you. Sellers are different. You can usually find one who doesn't check ID well or is in another jurisdiction (in the case of non physical transactions). A new effect is the spread of libertarian (small L) political ideologies which means that a growing group of market participants are philosophically opposed to traditional control regimes. Eg C2.ORG. A final problem for control freaks is that Friction Free Capitalism is eating away at the traditional market institutions that have grown up during the control era. Thus if traditional banking, telephony, and electricity distribution are wiped out by new forms of competitive business activity it is hard for regulatory agencies to extend their traditional controls to the new entities. Budget restraints play a part as does inertia. All of this is before the new market players deploy anti control technologies and procedures. They are in business because they can displace traditional quasi-monopoly institutions and often see government as just another competitor to be bypassed. DCF