Thinking Outloud: How Long Can Free Speech Last?

8/2/02 | SamsBees

[secretagent]

I found this while a- googling:

It won’t be long, historically speaking, before spectrum auctions may become technologically obsolete, economically inefficient, and legally unconstitutional.

And it may not be long before a new form of frequency allocation may emerge where spectrum use does not require any license; when information traverses the ether as flexibly as an airplane in the sky instead of being straight-jacketed into a single frequency and routed like a train on a track; and where congestion is avoided not by the exclusivity of ownership but by access charges that vary with congestion, with the information itself often paying for access with tokens it carries along.

source

[conservatism_IS_compassion]

"We Don't Want Our DTV" is an editorial page signed opinion in The Wall Street Journal today.

Sounds like TV is sitting on 402 MHz of unused bandwidth, trying to keep wireless out of it more or less like the dog in the manger.

I think the FCC is seriously out of whack. When you seriously reflect on what broadcast does to our culture . . . we-the-people can make good use of two-way wireless, but have no need of 402 MHz of additional read-only claptrap.

[SamBees]

Echleon is real. Everything you say via the net, and on most phone systems is available to the NSA.

With voice recognition, anytime you use a phone, your location can be determined.

All cell phones will be required to contain GPS chips within 2 years.

Government is clamping down.

[headsonpikes]

"plausible alternatives--thanks"

No thanks. I see our leading 'All power to the State' poster has proposals for micro-managing the communication industry.

Roscoe, you should consider applying for a 'minimum wattage' license; you would almost certainly qualify.

[aSkeptic]

I wonder how effective it would be

[secretagent]

The state must favor someone - no way around it as long as the F.C.C. licenses spectra chunks. Roscoe's proposals seem like they would break up some of the state enabled corporate oligarchy we have.

[headsonpikes]

Obvious solution: Bag the FCC.
It's just another socialist power-trip.

Luckily, Socialism is a religion of peace.

[Roscoe]

Micro-managing? Seems more like micro-thinking on your part.

[headsonpikes]

There is no shortage of spectrum band-width; there is a surplus of Socialism in the FCC.

Considering the FCC, the Sugar Quotas, etc.; there is certainly NO shortage of socialism in the USA.

A few pirate radio stations would be a fine addition to the American heritage of sticking a thumb in the eye of Authority.

Oops! I guess that would smart, eh, Roscoe?

[secretagent]

I'd like to think we wouldn't need the F.C.C. to make the airwaves useable, but I don't know of any broadcast scheme that could survive deliberate jamming. So I conclude we need the government to assign and enforce property rights in the spectra.

Assuming permanent government entanglement, then I wonder how best to allot bands.

Great if we don't need the government here - but I don't see how it would work.

[headsonpikes]

'Homesteading' principle with protections by government of those rights.

Deliberate jamming would be like arson.

There is NO shortage of bandwidth. Only the state can create 'shortages' of bandwidth.

[secretagent]

I probably need to read more about this. If you have a link, I'll take a look.

[Roscoe]

There is no shortage of spectrum band-width

Really? Try applying for a license in Los Angeles.

[SamBees]

Don't Vote, Don't Pay Taxes, Don't Support Unjust Laws: The State is your Enemy

[headsonpikes]

Sorry; no link re bandwidth info. I'm recalling an article I read some time ago, perhaps in Reason magazine.

Of course there's a 'shortage' in L.A., it's a huge, diverse market. But radios can easily be manufactured to allow more FM stations, for instance. And low-power AM stations could be thick as hair on a dog if folks wanted them. Television, of course, has been radically transformed by cable and satellite transmission.

This reality never impinges on the dead certainty of lawyers and bureaucrats that they should control access to these 'strategic' media. It is the political decisions by these 'disinterested' players which creates artificial 'shortages' of frequencies available for use.

Then comes the lobbying; then comes the corruption; but hey--it's 'the People's business' as usual.

Luckily for us all, Socialism is a Religion of Peace. ;^)

[Roscoe]

And low-power AM stations could be thick as hair on a dog if folks wanted them.

Not under current FCC regulations. And when I suggested lower maximum powers in major markets, you called it micro-managing.

Doublethink.

[headsonpikes]

Solution: Get rid of FCC regulations AND regulators. Geez.

[Roscoe]

Get rid of FCC regulations

What about your desired "homesteading" regulations?

[headsonpikes]

A chapter of ordinary property law. No need for FCC.

[Roscoe]

A chapter of ordinary property law.

A spoonful of ignorance.

Give me an example, in even the most general terms, of how such a "homestead" would be filed, who it would be filed with and what it might say.

I doubt you're up to the task but in case you attempt it, please don't forget that a claim for property needs to clearly describe exactly what is being claimed.