[ NNSquad ] Re: Canada goes crazy

["John Meissen" <john@meissen.org>]

It's a bad analogy. You aren't being charged for consuming bits, you
are being charged for transporting bits. The two are fundamentally 
different.

john-

> (Thanks to Aleks for this pointer)
> 
> http://www.cbc.ca/technology/story/2010/05/06/crtc-usage-based-billing-internet.html?ref=rss
> 
>  
> 
> The idea of charging people for bits consumed is a crazy idea since you
> aren't consuming bits. We've been through this before - do I need to explain
> once again how bad the idea is?
> 
>  
> 
> .         It creates scarcity. A copper wire (or fiber or radio) is just
> sitting there idle. We limit how much can be used.
> 
> .         Even if there is a temporary constriction somewhere else it means
> we can't use the capacity locally. To take it to an extreme imagine if there
> is such a limit in your house - you can't copy too many files between your
> computers.
> 
> .         FiOS VoD, for example, goes over IP through my router. I can't
> watch much "TV" [sic] if the limit is applied to those bits. If the limit is
> not applied we have a vertical playing field where the provider has all the
> advantages.
> 
> .         Any sane price doesn't allow making video affordable if we're
> going to make the cost of other uses visible.
> 
> .         As with SMS any market that permits prices to be millions of time
> cost (determined by competition with Moore's law) isn't really a market in a
> useful sense. It's rent taking gone to hostage taking.
> 
>  
> 
> But basically it shows a deep inability to comprehend the very concept of
> connectivity using best efforts. It's railroaders banning the use of roads
> unless you buy a ticket for a ride every time you leave your driveway even
> if it is just to reorder the cars in the driveway.
> 
>  
> 
> Others care to add to the reasons why this is crazy?
> 
>  
> 
> http://frankston.com/public
> 
> 
>    [ And coming soon to a U.S. ISP near you (and me) too, I'll wager.
>      Since the FCC chairman has shown no interest in including any
>      sort of pricing or realistically effective competition-enhancing
>      elements in his proposed "third-way" regulatory plan, the
>      dominant ISPs are ensured a captive audience of users who will
>      "pay through their noses until their skulls are a vacuum" (as one
>      high level ISP executive expressed it to me yesterday --
>      picturesque, this guy, and a master of invective as well ...)
> 
>          -- Lauren Weinstein
>             NNSquad Moderator ]
> 
> 
>