Lars, That is a fair criticism, but I suspect something that bothers the American mind is any sense of entitlement. For example, we would tend to ask the question, "At what point does something become so cheap that I have a 'right' to expect someone else give it to me for free to do as I wish." Who determines that threshold of cheapness?
Respectfully, I think your gasoline analogy is flawed. The gasoline in your tank is a fixed quantity you acquired for a fixed price. When that fixed quantity has been depleted, you will need to return to the vendor for more. Your willingness to share that fixed quantity has no impact on the gasoline vendor. However, with respect to your xDSL, if you are paying a flat fee for an unlimited or even unfixed quantity, then you are offering your friend something you would not otherwise use and, in fact, do not retain in your stock. You are offering him something sitting in the vendor's resale stock. I would argue you have not right to do so, even if that stock cost only 1 cent. If, however, your usage you pay for is fixed, say capped at 2gig, then you could offer it for your friends. That 2gig resides in your personal stock, once depleted you would have to return to the vendor for more. The provider is therefore not injured by you action. Having said that, I personally would ultimately like to see government ownership of fiber optic transcontinental lines, then perhaps state and then local control of feeder runs much like the method used by the US federal interstate system, state highway, and county roads. I do not think there is money enough in the transport of IP to support maintenance and expansion, and I would like to see our tax dollars qualifying us to use have access to the media. Then all we would pay for would be content. I am increasingly uncomfortable with content providers owning infrastructure. Kind regards, Patrick Leary -----Original Message----- From: Lars Aronsson [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] Sent: Monday, December 02, 2002 9:54 AM To: DonChicago Cc: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Re: [BAWUG] CNN Aricle.. DonChicago wrote: > This is nothing more than a vain attmept to rationalize theft of service. Just as much as offering a friend a ride in your half-empty car is theft of gasoline that "belongs" to the train and bus companies. > affordable, and reliable delivery of the bandwidth THAT I BUY FROM MY > NETWORK SERVICE PROVIDERS to my valued customers. How nice of you. I do the same. > In order to offer this bandwidth to customers, every entity in the > bandwidth supply chain must invest significant capital, both > financial and human, to provide and maintain the equipment and But the significance of that investment is falling all the time. For example, Ericsson just launched an ethernet-based DSLAM that they claim can cut an operator's DSL investment in half, compared to existing ATM-based DSL systems. Expect residential DSL in the $30/mo range. Then work from your home, for a really lean business. -- Lars Aronsson ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) Aronsson Datateknik Teknikringen 1e, SE-583 30 Linuxk�ping, Sweden tel +46-70-7891609 http://aronsson.se/ http://elektrosmog.nu/ http://susning.nu/ -- general wireless list, a bawug thing <http://www.bawug.org/> [un]subscribe: http://lists.bawug.org/mailman/listinfo/wireless ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---------------------------------------- This email and any files transmitted with it are confidential and intended solely for the use of the individual or entity to whom they are addressed. If you have received this email in error please notify the originator of the message. This footer also confirms that this email message has been scanned for the presence of computer viruses. Any views expressed in this message are those of the individual sender, except where the sender specifies and with authority, states them to be the views of Alvarion Inc. Scanning of this message and addition of this footer is performed by SurfControl SuperScout Email Filter software in conjunction with virus detection software. -- general wireless list, a bawug thing <http://www.bawug.org/> [un]subscribe: http://lists.bawug.org/mailman/listinfo/wireless
