Broadband Rights & the Killer App of 1900

newscloud writes "Tech writer Glenn Fleishman compares the arguments against affordable, high speed, broadband Internet access in each home to arguments made against providing for common access to electricity in 1900 e.g. '...electric light is not a necessity for every member of the community. It is not the business of any one to see that I use electricity, or gas, or oil in my house, or even that I use any form of artificial light at all.' Says Fleishman, 'Electricity should go to people who had money, not hooked up willy-nilly to everyone ... Like electricity, the notion of whether broadband is an inherent right and necessity of every citizen is up for grabs in the US. Sweden and Finland have already answered the question: It's a birthright.'"

Comments

Bah!

[Anonymous Coward]

The killer app was stereoscopic pictures of women showing their ankles.

One step.

[Thanshin]

A step in the right direction.

1 - Right to broadband.
2 - Human right to broadband.
3 - Human right to porn.
4 - Human right to 3D multi-sensorial porn.
5 - Ascension of mankind to a new state of consciousness and peace with the universe.

We should have listened to this wisdom

[Junior J. Junior III]

If electricity hadn't become ubiquitous, we'd have a lot less carbon being emitted today from power plants.

Re:Same Arguments, So Simply Discredit Them

[minsk]

"I mean, traveling scam artists were well known to people at the time"

Little did they know that electricity, and the ensuing advances in technology, would remove the need for scam artists to travel :)