RE: regulating the internet

Your question is too vague to get any kind of simple answer.

Regulate *what* exactly? Protocol standards? Pricing? Volume 
of traffic? Traffic content? Internationally or domestically?
If domestic, which countries? Use of encryption? Anonymity?
Digital signatures? Taxation? Email content? Spam?  Porn? 
Usenet? Web sites? IRC? DNS naming services? Digital telephony?

Packets currently fly around the world as free as migratory
birds, and as hampered by borders.

Peter Trei
ptrei@securitydynamics.com
 

> -----Original Message-----
> From:	Jennifer DePalma [SMTP:jdepalma@cato.org]
> Sent:	Thursday, April 02, 1998 1:30 PM
> To:	cypherpunks@toad.com
> Subject:	regulating the internet
> 
> Anyone have any opinions on the feasibility of regulating the
> internet?
>

Trei, Peter enscribed thusly:
> Your question is too vague to get any kind of simple answer.

	I thought her question was pretty specific and the simple answer
is yes.  She asked if anyone had any opinions.  I might have responded that
asking an opinionated bunch like cypherpunks if any of them have opinions
must have been a retorical question.

	I think we all have opinions on regulating the internet.  I
don't think the simple answer is what she WANTED though...  :-)

	Answering the question she ASKED is REAL SIMPLE.  Just like the
joke about Microsoft support...  The answer is 100% correct and completely
useless.  :-)

> Regulate *what* exactly? Protocol standards? Pricing? Volume 
> of traffic? Traffic content? Internationally or domestically?
> If domestic, which countries? Use of encryption? Anonymity?
> Digital signatures? Taxation? Email content? Spam?  Porn? 
> Usenet? Web sites? IRC? DNS naming services? Digital telephony?
> 
> Packets currently fly around the world as free as migratory
> birds, and as hampered by borders.
> 
> Peter Trei
> ptrei@securitydynamics.com
>  
> 
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From:	Jennifer DePalma [SMTP:jdepalma@cato.org]
> > Sent:	Thursday, April 02, 1998 1:30 PM
> > To:	cypherpunks@toad.com
> > Subject:	regulating the internet
> > 
> > Anyone have any opinions on the feasibility of regulating the
> > internet?
> > 
> 


-- 
 Michael H. Warfield    |  (770) 985-6132   |  mhw@WittsEnd.com
  (The Mad Wizard)      |  (770) 925-8248   |  http://www.wittsend.com/mhw/
  NIC whois:  MHW9      |  An optimist believes we live in the best of all
 PGP Key: 0xDF1DD471    |  possible worlds.  A pessimist is sure of it!

Which rasies another issue...

I personally have always forseen the day when you will be charged by the
megabyte, and not the minuite. Picture this...

Your at the air port, and you need to see if a very important email has
arived... you walk to the nearest phone booth, which cosists of nothing
more than a little plastic booth for you to stand in, and an rj-11. No
handset, no keypad, no coin slot... just a jack. You take out your palmtop
computer, plug it into the jack, type in your password, download your
e-mail and attachments (about 7 meg in all, large attachments) and press
the Logoff button. A little window appears with the AT&T logo in the corner
and says:

Thank you for using AT&T for all your digital needs.
Total use: 7101k
Total charge: $0.71
$0.71 has been billed to your MASTERCARD.

Could you see ISP's and phone companys alike JUMPING on this?

There's a slew of questions that this raises... do you get charged for
uploading too? is it a different pricing system for uploading? do you get
charged less? more? is there such a thing as a free address, like our
present (800) or (888) numbers in which the recipiant picks up the tab? 

And most importantly... does it cost more to send your packet further away?
to another country?

I think I just slamed this idea into a virtual brick wall... Comments,
ideas, and criticisims are always welcome!


At 03:23 PM 4/2/98 -0500, you wrote:
>Your question is too vague to get any kind of simple answer.
>
>Regulate *what* exactly? Protocol standards? Pricing? Volume 

-Kevlar
<Kevlar@smartlink.net>

Oh, I'm sorry... Was I not suposed to EXPORT STRONG CRYPTO?
print pack"C*",split/\D+/,`echo
"16iII*o\U@{$/=$z;[(pop,pop,unpack"H*",<>
)]}\EsMsKsN0[lN*1lK[d2%Sa2/d0<X+d*lMLa^*lN%0]dsXx++lMlN/dsM0<J]dsJxp"|
dc`

Beat your algorithms into swords and your virtual machines into spears...
Let the weak say, "I am strong".