[TriLUG] OT: URGENT: H.129 to be heard in Thursday's Finance Committee!

[David Burton]

On Tue, Mar 15, 2011 at 10:29 AM, David Both <
dboth at millennium-technology.com> wrote:

> So it will basically prevent cities from doing what Wilson, NC did when
> Time Warner refused to provide decent service by starting their own service.
> Wilson, by the way provides _symmetric_ 10GB and 20GB (yes Gigabit) service
> via fibre to the home for about $49. More if you want to pay more. It is
> considered an infrastructure service like water and electricity.
>


No, the bill will still allow cities to offer their own service.  It will
simply require that they not abuse their authority to stomp competing
private services into the ground.

For instance, if Wilson's fibre is strung on city poles, and there's room on
the poles for another company's fibre as well, but Wilson won't let another
company string their fibre, that would be illegal.  Or if Wilson subsidizes
their service and intentionally runs it at a loss so that they can price it
lower than anyone else could price theirs, that would be illegal.

One exception: if Wilson were to give their service away for free (like the
free WiFi at Moore Square in Raleigh), that would *not* violate the law.
The law will only apply to services offered for a fee.



On Tue, Mar 15, 2011 at 10:35 AM, bak at picklefactory.org <
bak at picklefactory.org> wrote:

> Wait... Deeply invested in pornography? Huh?
>
> --bak
>


Oh yeah.  It is a big part of the business for all, or almost all, of the
cable & satellite TV providers
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/porn/business/mainstream.html
http://www.forbes.com/2000/06/01/mu2.html

Time-Warner is currently in a legal battle with Larry Flynt.  It seems that
T-W resells Flynt's porn, and doesn't work hard enough to prevent it from
being pirated, according to Flynt.  Or something like that.
http://www.p2pnet.net/story/47302

Dave