On Wed, 12 Feb 1997, Ben Coffer wrote:
quoted 5 lines WHAT? You mean you americans are gonna have to start PAYING for the> WHAT? You mean you americans are gonna have to start PAYING for the
> internet !!??!! Outrageous!!!! :)
>
> Just take the time to think about us other people from other
> countries who have *always* had to pay for the internet.
Hello?! DUH, Americans paid for our current net and it's entire
construction down to some of the original TCP/IP and unix-based protocol
*engineering* through TAXES to our Federal Gov't DECADES ago! Over 75% of
our federal taxes go to the military here, and ARPANET, a military
communications system meant to survive nuclear attack (no critical central
hub to the network linkage) the internet was born. We are still paying
for it, even those Americans who don't use it. What, do you think aliens
came down and gave the USA pbx's, .gov servers, and digital-backbones? Do
any of your UK taxes pay for your connectivity? ;>
I apologize for continuing the off-topic thread, but at least having the
most fundemental bit of history of what you are using to communicate with
seems proper here. The internic is in the USA, in case you didn't notice.
David
solenoid@europa.com <------+