If a consumer is having a bad month where "money gets stretched pretty thin" does the company say, gee, your having a bad time, let me lower your payment to make it easier? I don't think so.
Yes, that has been the idea in the past, as was the idea with NetZero, etc -- "why should I pay for the internet? It should be free for everyone, man! Free love, free sex, free internet!" but it just doesn't fly.
I couldn't pull real figures as to how much bandwidth costs compared to how much they charge for it, but just use common sense: there are people who will download 3GB in a day (can you say mp3/divx kiddies?), that's 90GB in a month. At $50/month you're paying almost $.50 per GB. Now that may seem like a lot to pay when you compare it to T1, T3 providers or even webhosts, but AT&T, TimeWarner, Baby Bell, etc all have huge networks that they have to maintain (not to mention huge staffs) and so that money gets stretched pretty thin.
Broadband users have been riding the wave of cheap access for a long time, and its just about time that we got what was coming to us.
It's the same thing that happened with the rash of free webhosting services -- the companies finally realized that their businesses were flawed -- free webhosting just doesn't exist.
And broadband companies are having quite the same epiphany: bandwidth is not free! I am surprised that everyone isn't paying per GB downloaded and/or uploaded yet. Personally I think we should be happy that we got cheap (unmetered) broadband bandwidth for so long.
"The Hybrid Super Audio Compact Disc contains two layers of encoded information; one for standard 'Red Book' Compact Disc, and another for high resolution audio recordings"
Record Exec: With this new technology we essentially have to make every CD twice! So the new price for Audio CDs MSRP is set at $55!
"Authorities have used Carnivore-type tools more than 25 times in all types of criminal cases, to catch fugitives, drug dealers, extortionists and suspected foreign intelligence agents. Carnivore is now called DCS-1000"
Sweet! Sounds like the Super-Soaker I used to have!
"Pirates seek to profit off the enormous popularity of DVDs by using the latest in technology to illegally manufacture DVD copies of Hollywood films, and again dupe consumers into purchasing a wholly inferior product,"
I thought the entire purpose of DVD Burners was to make an exact copy? So what exactly is inferior? You don't get the 2page leaflet or the colorful keep-case? Or is it that you don't get the barage of unwanted advertisements telling you to BUY THIS DVD and BUY THAT DVD and BUY FORTY WARNER BROTHERS DVDs AND THE FORTY-FIRST IS HALF OFF!
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If a consumer is having a bad month where "money gets stretched pretty thin" does the company say, gee, your having a bad time, let me lower your payment to make it easier? I don't think so.
C-A-P-I-T-A-L-I-S-M
Those with the capital make the decisions!
If enough people break the rules, they'll change em!
Yes, that has been the idea in the past, as was the idea with NetZero, etc -- "why should I pay for the internet? It should be free for everyone, man! Free love, free sex, free internet!" but it just doesn't fly.
I couldn't pull real figures as to how much bandwidth costs compared to how much they charge for it, but just use common sense: there are people who will download 3GB in a day (can you say mp3/divx kiddies?), that's 90GB in a month. At $50/month you're paying almost $.50 per GB. Now that may seem like a lot to pay when you compare it to T1, T3 providers or even webhosts, but AT&T, TimeWarner, Baby Bell, etc all have huge networks that they have to maintain (not to mention huge staffs) and so that money gets stretched pretty thin.
Broadband users have been riding the wave of cheap access for a long time, and its just about time that we got what was coming to us.
It's the same thing that happened with the rash of free webhosting services -- the companies finally realized that their businesses were flawed -- free webhosting just doesn't exist.
And broadband companies are having quite the same epiphany: bandwidth is not free! I am surprised that everyone isn't paying per GB downloaded and/or uploaded yet. Personally I think we should be happy that we got cheap (unmetered) broadband bandwidth for so long.
"The Hybrid Super Audio Compact Disc contains two layers of encoded information; one for standard 'Red Book' Compact Disc, and another for high resolution audio recordings"
Record Exec: With this new technology we essentially have to make every CD twice! So the new price for Audio CDs MSRP is set at $55!
Customer: All I get is busy signals. I can't check my email!
Tech: Ahhh I see you're a vulcan. Sorry, AOL-Space doesn't serve vulcans. Clip your ears, kid!
"Authorities have used Carnivore-type tools more than 25 times in all types of criminal cases, to catch fugitives, drug dealers, extortionists and suspected foreign intelligence agents. Carnivore is now called DCS-1000"
Sweet! Sounds like the Super-Soaker I used to have!
"Pirates seek to profit off the enormous popularity of DVDs by using the latest in technology to illegally manufacture DVD copies of Hollywood films, and again dupe consumers into purchasing a wholly inferior product,"
I thought the entire purpose of DVD Burners was to make an exact copy? So what exactly is inferior? You don't get the 2page leaflet or the colorful keep-case? Or is it that you don't get the barage of unwanted advertisements telling you to
BUY THIS DVD
and
BUY THAT DVD
and
BUY FORTY WARNER BROTHERS DVDs AND THE FORTY-FIRST IS HALF OFF!
Hey that looks like those Magic Eyes things. Except yours says "jack off"
:/
Mod, parent up!
Finally, now can we put goatse to rest? It has reached the ultimate goal of being on topic (albeit once)...