To: ftth who wrote (20855 ) 4/14/2007 1:44:06 AM From: Frank A. Coluccio Read Replies (1) | Respond to "I didn't read the whole thing but..." "Consumers can't "demand" what they don't even have available, and for that matter, what miniscule percentage of consumers in any market actually know technical operating parameters well enough to "demand" numbers. Did consumers in Japan demand 100Mbps? No; the providers translated everyday consumer activities into bandwidth...they didn't wait for consumers to get a degree in communications bandwidth metrology so they could "demand" it." "I challenge your contention that "broadband" is only one-directional--from those who control the connections down to the content recipients. The whole idea of "Web 2.0," YouTube, "mash-ups" and tools like blogs and wikis is to establish arenas in which people can be content creators as well as content consumers. Sure, there are major companies behind broadband, as well as some of these applications--Verizon provides my DSL service, and Google own YouTube. Nevertheless, people are making use of the interactive capabilities of the Web--many of which require a "broadband" connection--much more than a few years ago. Copyright laws must be modernized to take account of these new phenomenons; increasingly, strict interpretations of copyright are a fortress for the old-line media companies. But this would be true with or without broadband connections." "I've got TW (or Optonline, or fill in the blank) Cablemodem service and it's great! What do you have, and what's wrong with what you're getting now?"
