Re: Rural Datafication (Was Re: Edited Edupage, 9 May 1996)

["E. ALLEN SMITH" <EALLENSMITH@ocelot.Rutgers.EDU>]

From:	IN%"tcmay@got.net" 15-MAY-1996 02:31:15.60

>A consequence is that many customers leapfrog right over local cable and go
>directly for satellite dishes. While the local community cable systems and
>their government partners could (and did) keep out other cable competitors,
>this became less and less possible with satellite dishes. Zoning laws were
>used to limit BUDs (Big Ugly Dishes, the big 8-foot and larger C-band
>dishes). But as the Ku-band dishes (mentioned favorably in my 1988 Crypto
>Anarchist Manifesto, interestingly enough) became available, even the most
>restrictive zoning ordinances became unenforceable....dishes could be in
>attics, on balconies, even covered with fake boulders!

	The courts are also (sensibly) seeing zoning laws attempting to outlaw
such small dishes as being completely ridiculous.

>In my own case, I skipped cable and installed a DSS dish...150 or more
>channels, at least 20 movies on at any given time (not even counting the
>Pay Per View movies, of which there are at least 30-40), financial news,
>CNN, etc. Plus, a digital output connector for (Real Soon Now, they claim)
>a PageSat-type Usenet and Web page feed, using phone links for the back
>link. I submit this as an example of where the free market is providing a
>better solution than "community access cable" did. In fact, the
>socialization of cable held cable back.

	I've gone even farther than that - I don't bother with having a TV, I
just get my info from the net. There is the problem with the satellite net
links that it tends to concentrate data production & distribution into
relatively few hands, from which it can easier be taken by government and other
forces. Larger corporation, despite the influence their size gives them, can
be easier to pressure than the small ones. Look at Compuserve in Germany, for
instance - they were having pressure from Christian Coalition types, etcetera,
and used the German investigation as an excuse.
	On the other hand, this is also a very good argument against rural
subsidies being necessary - if people want net access and are educated and
smart enough to afford it (and thus be able to use it properly), they can get
it even if they're in the wilds of Montana.
	-Allen