Re: Google/Verizon policy framework

From: john g marr <jmarr_at_nyob>
Date: Tue, 10 Aug 2010 17:29:31 -0600
To: NGC4LIB_at_LISTSERV.ND.EDU
On Tue, 10 Aug 2010, Lovins, Daniel wrote:

> I haven't studied it closely enough myself yet, but here's Larry 
> Lessig's take, courtesy of the New York Times: 
> http://www.nytimes.com/roomfordebate/2010/8/9/who-gets-priority-on-the-web/a-deregulation-debacle-for-the-internet

  Here's a tiny url for that and its several associated links: 
http://tinyurl.com/23w6c5u

  IMHO, everyone is overlooking the basic issue that the legal system 
addresses, i.e. the interests of economic expansion [i.e. profit 
generation] always override personal concerns (e.g. the "good" to society 
of the former override the non-economic "rights" [e.g. freedom of 
expression] of the latter).

  IMHO (do I have to keep saying that?), it is time for the provision of 
information to be considered a vital public service, rather than a form of 
entertainment or data being a restrictable commercial commodity, and for 
ISPs to be designated "public utilities" subject to the same levels of 
government oversight as other "utilities."  Or, maybe the Government can 
be the ISP for the US and we can receive Internet access as a "right" via 
our tax forms.

  Still there will always be the problem of who controls the corporations 
and/or the governments at any particular time.  We seem to be evolving 
toward some sort of restructuring of both those concepts, which, I 
suspect, will do a great deal of harm in the process until the madness of 
misdirection is recognized.

Cheers!

jgm

                                             John G. Marr
                                             Cataloger
                                             CDS, UL
                                             Univ. of New Mexico
                                             Albuquerque, NM 87131
                                             jmarr_at_unm.edu
                                             jmarr_at_flash.net


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Received on Tue Aug 10 2010 - 19:30:17 EDT