IP: Farber's remarks about the CDA

[Dave Farber <farber@central.cis.upenn.edu>]

From: Donna Hoffman <hoffman@colette.ogsm.Vanderbilt.Edu>
To: farber@central.cis.upenn.edu (Dave Farber)
Date: Sat, 3 Feb 1996 13:37:25 -0600 (CST)


Dave:


I couldn't agree more.  From a sociological perspective, the traditional
media powers merely want to shape the emerging landscape so that the 
terrain appears familiar and comforting.  Traditional media knows how
to compete under one-to-many centralized communications models.


The business models for many-to-many decentralized systems are unknown
and challenging.  Why work hard if the status quo can be imposed on the
newer venues?


The easiest way to do that is to transform what is arguably the most
important innovation since the development of the printing press into
another controlled mass media.


Since the phenomenal growth of the World Wide Web on the Internet is
being fueled by word-of-mouth arising from the ability of *anyone* to be
a provider as well as a user, the most obvious solution to the power
predicament is to remove this ability.


And, of course, this is precisely what is occuring.


The communications innovation that is the Internet is now at the most
important juncture in its development and it is not at all clear that
human society will benefit from the path this legislation has placed us on.


Wearing a Blue Ribbon,


DLH
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