On Mon, 28 Jun 1999, H Morrow Long wrote:
> Public libraries, cybercafes and free 'Web' terminals at airports (there are
> a few I noticed at Hartford/Springfield's Bradley airport recently) generally
>
> allow anonymous Internet access. I think in the future that we will think
> of supplying open access to the Internet (and especially the Webspace
> portion of the Internet) in the same way that we think of providing
> ubiquitous coin operated pay phones in the U. S. We will have appliances
> that get us out to the Net which will decreasingly resemble computers.
> Most companies providing pay phones on street corners in the US have
> not been sued for making them available and neglecting to notice that they
> can also be used for criminal purposes (though the incoming call capability
> has been disabled in many due to the drug trade on some city corners and
> some pay phone booths have been removed altogether to prevent loitering).
>
> - H. Morrow Long
>
I hadn't thought about it this way. I guess I always assumed that coin
operated network access devices would eventually yield to accountable
credit-based systems and in turn the anonyminity factor would disappear to
a certain degree.
Phone probably have a long time coming in this regard, but I can't imagine
coin operated net access devices really being deployed globally although
there are several in place right now.
+++ath
Derek Vadala, [EMAIL PROTECTED], http://www.cynicism.com/~derek
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