[IP] more on SBC hints at charge to Web publishers By Frank Barnako, MarketWatch

[David Farber <dave@farber.net>]

Begin forwarded message:

From: Robert Lee <robertslee@verizon.net>
Date: November 2, 2005 11:16:54 AM EST
To: dave@farber.net
Subject: RE: [IP] SBC hints at charge to Web publishers By Frank  
Barnako, MarketWatch

Two or three years ago SBC sent letters to thousands of small businesses
that used frames in their web pages that SBC had invented frames and
that the businesses should begin paying SBC royalties or face law suits.

I don't know where this campaign wound up.  An IP attorney friend of
mine wrote to me that this is a ploy used by unethical large
corporations to see if they can set a precedent using undercapitalized
stoolie businesses that do not have the wherewithal to fight a large
corporation.  If they can get enough people paying then the idea is that
they can use that as corroboration of their claim.

-----Original Message-----
From: David Farber [mailto:dave@farber.net]
Sent: Tuesday, November 01, 2005 5:04 PM
To: robertslee@verizon.net
Subject: [IP] SBC hints at charge to Web publishers By Frank Barnako,
MarketWatch



Begin forwarded message:

From: Rob Raisch <info@raischfinancial.com>
Date: November 1, 2005 2:35:14 PM EST
To: dave@farber.net
Subject: SBC hints at charge to Web publishers By Frank Barnako,
MarketWatch

SBC hints at charge to Web publishers By Frank Barnako, MarketWatch

Last Update: 1:59 PM ET Nov 1, 2005

WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) --- The chief executive of SBC
Communications Inc. thinks companies doing business on the Internet,
such as Microsoft Corp. and Vonage Inc., are due for a wake-up call.

"How do you think they're going to get to customers? Through a
broadband pipe. Cable companies have them. We have them," said Ed
Whitacre in a BusinessWeek Online interview. "What they would like to
do is use my pipes for free. I ain't going to let them do that."

He argued that because SBC and others have invested to build high-
speed networks, they are due a return.

"There's going to have to be some mechanism for these people ... to
pay for the portion they're using. Why should they be allowed to use
my pipes?" He offered no details how his idea could be accomplished.

For an Internet company to "expect to use these pipes free is nuts!"
Whitacre added for good measure.

http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story.asp?guid=%7B5A606A5A%2D18D7%
2D4FC9%2DA65C%2DC7317BC7E1CB%7D&siteid=mktw&

--
Frutex esse delendus.


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