Re: Should we oppose the Data Superhighway/NII?

[Mike Godwin <mnemonic@eff.org>]

Perry writes:

> X-Rated movies are a huge business. I suspect cable companies would
> love to broadcast them.

Right. And the telcos would love to carry phone-sex services. 

Your suspicion would be incorrect. Current providers tend not to want to
carry sexually explicit services because it hurts their image. For
example, the telcos didn't want to support 900-number phone-sex services,
in spite of the fact that there is a very clear market for them, because
they didn't want to do any business for and with the phone-sex companies.
See, e.g., Sable Communications v. FCC.

If your characterization were correct, the phone companies would be dying
to carry phone-sex services. In real life, however, they keep petitioning
regulatory bodies to allow them not to carry them.

> Of course it would, BARRING LEGAL OBSTACLES. Again, as before, the
> market is not currently free -- the obstacles are government created.

Thanks for the capital letters--I am getting a little nearsighted in my
old age.

But your analysis hear assumes that, given a clear and profitable market,
any rational provider would cater to it. Even in the absence of legal
sanctions, this isn't true, as Sable Communications and other cases
clearly show.


--Mike