> I don't understand why there is an attitude where bandwidth is treated > as infinite and not a finite resource. It is a finite resource. Data > and digital duplication of our material is trivial, but transferring > that to other places is not. For example, even in Australia the > majority of our schools have quite poor bandwidth, and if I want my > work to be viewed in regional Australia (and for that matter parts of > rural United States) then I have to be aware that bandwidth is > constrained. Now bandwidth might be fast or slow, but it does have a > width, and it is a material infrastructure with its associated costs. > Just as with telephony there are international, national, and local > agreements about how much a byte costs, and while the telcos might > make lots from it (or not), the pipes are not infinite.
Limiting the size of my video is NOT like polluting less with a gasoline car. It may be nice to keep videos small so anyone around the world can watch it, but this is NOT a proper scientific comparison. in the US, we've been spoiled by advertised unlimited bandwidth...and now that we're taking full advantage of it, the broadband companies are crying crocodile tears. The real issue is the relationship between broadband customers and the broadband companies here in the US. it is one of distrust, fear, and anger. The Comcast incident where they just started filtering bit torrent secretly is a great example. No conversation. In the US, we are not talking about a situation where there are many small broadband operators locally who talk to their customers. We have 3 faceless broadband conglomerates. If they have real limitations, then they need to open up and be transparent. What it feels like is a creation of "false scarcity", like the diamond industry purposely keeping shiny shiny objects off the market to raise their value. Here are some good arguments to consider: http://stopthecap.com/talking-points/ Think of this. Comcast is an internet provider AND a cable TV provider. Timewarner is all of these AND a content creator (HBO, CNN). They are worried that more and more of us are canceling our cable TV because we can watch TV (and other better stuff) on the web with our unlimited data packages. So what's the solution? Create a new business model. Cry broadband scarcity and charge people for downloads. Jay -- http://jaydedman.com 917 371 6790
