Re: [wg-c] Eureka?

[Milton Mueller <mueller@syr.edu>]

Javier:
Radio spectrum is far more "scarce" than domain name space.
Yet governments around the world license private commercial businesses
to give them exclusive control of a range of frequencies. Indeed, many
are beginning to auction off spectrum space. New Zealand gives
licensees property rights based entirely on a real estate legal model.

Land is a far more scarce resource than domain name space.
There are commercial land markets. Do you own your home, Javier?

Telecom links are scarce resources. They occupy scarce rights
of way, consume scarce labor resources in their construction,
and consume materials that are also scarce.

The same point could be made about all the examples below.

Economic science defines as "scarce" any resource that
commands a price greater than zero. Few economists would
disagree with the proposition that a competitive price system is
in most cases the best way to ration a scarce resource.
If "scarcity" were a rationale for allocation by public entities on
a non-profit basis, then the entire global economy would be
rationed by bureaucrats (and we would all be very poor.)

Javier SOLA wrote:

> The point is about scarce resources, not about companies that operate in an
> unlimited market. You can compete as a portal or a bookstore in the
> Internet. There might be as many of these as they wish to be, but only one
> registry can be ".info". It is a natural monopoly, and it is not a good
> idea to give it to somebody to explote it. One was given temporarily to
> NSI, and look what happened... or data, handed to a US Government
> contractor for handling the registry is considered by them now as their
> private property, and they have discontinued data services, a a proper
> whois...  Is that a free market?  If it was a bookstore, I would move to
> another one, I cannot do that here.
>
> Javier
>
> At 21:04 8/08/99 -0400, you wrote:
> >Javier SOLA wrote:
> >
> >> It is dangerous for the community, not for the company who would like to
> >> make a fat profit out of it.
> >
> >Javier:
> >You missed the point.
> >Is it "dangerous to the community" for private enterprises to operate, for
> >profit,
> >
> >> >1) radio spectrum bands?
> >> >2) real estate?
> >> >3) third-level domain names under a registered SLD?
> >> >4) an Internet exchange point?
> >> >5) a domain name server?
> >> >6) telecommunication links into the Internet?
> >> >7) a domain name brokerage for SLDs?
> >> >8) an Internet access provider?
> >
> >If you believe so, aren't your views out of step with thereality of the
> >Internet? Hasn't the growth and development of
> >the Internet and its accessibility to the people increased
> >enormously precisely by harnessing the incentives generated
> >by private, competitive business?
> >
> >Would you have us go back to the pre-1992 Internet?
> >
> >--
> >m i l t o n   m u e l l e r // m u e l l e r @ s y r . e d u
> >syracuse university          http://istweb.syr.edu/~mueller/
> >



--
m i l t o n   m u e l l e r // m u e l l e r @ s y r . e d u
syracuse university          http://istweb.syr.edu/~mueller/