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The Future of Cyberspace (r)

(written by iearn@iearn.org, 03/22/1996)

/* Written 11:29 AM  Feb  9, 1996 by coldspring in igc:iearn.tc */
from:coldspring
subject: internet

On Thursday February 8 president Bill Clinton signed the
much debated telecommunications bill.  This bill will do two
things. One it will regulate pornography on the internet and
two it removes barriers keeping different communications
services from making mergers and expanding their services to
other fields of telecommunications.
It would be far from politically correct to say "you
can't censor pornography, it's my right!" but, it seems that
many people believe that for several reasons.  The majority
here believe that censorship which begins with pornography
will lead to the further regulation of what people "should"
read and see, and a limiting of the free market.  There are
of course the people who really want to have access to
pornography, but these people are really a minority.
If the government can censor pornography where will
censorship stop?  Will they try to censor special interest
groups next?  This is the question that concerns many
"internet surfers" as government involvement with the
internet progresses.
The second major point of the telecommunications bill is
the removal of barriers from telecommunications companies.
Until yesterday a local telephone company can not offer long
distance service and, more importantly a long distance
company may not offer local telephone service.  Also, cable
television companies may not offer telephone services and
vice versa.  What does this mean?  It means that ideally your
cable and telephone companies will be coming to you with
really low rates to offer cable/phone services, they will be
competing with each other.  As of now several services have
been developing in which via coaxial cable (standard cable tv
cable) you can receive a connection to the internet at
blazing fast speeds.  Now, they may be offering you telephone
services also.  This new law will lead to huge jumps in
technology and possibly lower rates.  The only down side is
that many small local end telephone and cable companies will
be put out of business by huge companies which may even merge
to become larger like AT&T, Sprint, Bell, and MCI.
Only time will show what the removal of these trade
barriers and the censorship of pornography will do.  Is this
becoming a world trend?  Or, will the US decide that it was a
huge mistake?  Has there been anything similar in your
country?  Does anybody out there care?

Sincerely,
Mike Romanelli