Re: NYT's _Unmuzzling the Internet_

[liberty@gate.net (Jim Ray)]

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"Vlad"  wrote:

<snip>

>I am all for helping congressmen "get a clue" at this moment in time.
>the Digital Telephony bill is not a declaration of war. when they try
>to tax Cyberspace or get the FCC to regulate it, or outlaw cryptography,
>*that* will be a declaration of war.

I hate to be the bearer of bad news, and I try to resist forwarding
messages from other lists, but on cyberia-L, Mr. Nick Keenan wrote:

<snipped, forwarded message follows>
____________________________________

The FCC is now proposing a tax on ISP's -- in the name of "universal access"
!?? :O(.

They claim that since voice can be transmitted over the Internet, it falls
under the jurisdiction of the FCC.

Read about it in the Dec. 18 issue of Interactive Week
( http://www.zdnet.com/~intweek/print/951218/upfront/doc11.html)

>From the article:

>FCC Chairman Reed Hundt provided the tip-off earlier this year during a
>speech he gave in Washington at the Networked Economy Conference. Hundt said
>the commission would issue a Notice of Proposed Rule-Making sometime this
>year in order to re-examine how access charges are assigned and universal
>service is funded, said Mark Corbitt, Hundt's main technology adviser.
>
>The Internet community "should wake up [and] pay attention," Corbitt
>said. "This issue could hit them before they know it. I don't think
>most of them are even aware" that this is bubbling up through the agency.

____End forwarded message____

I would hope that we would flood them with comments during the period
after the "Notice of Proposed Rule-Making" appears, not that it will
help, as they have already made up their minds. The FCC (like the FDA)
should be defunded, not just "cut," whatever that word means anymore.
There are good economic reasons why this won't help "universal access"
any more than peanut subsidies help minority farmers, despite lies to
the contrary by various self-interested bureaucrats. As Republicans
said (before they became the majority party) "Cut Their Pay and Send
Them Home."
JMR

Regards, Jim Ray
 http://www.shopmiami.com/prs/jimray
             "Hooters GUYS? Washington -- GET A GRIP!"
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