>> But mail as "they" know it has nothing to do with transport or
>> networking. They know it as a service not as anything else.
>> Like electricity. The "freedom" to exchange email is what
>> matters to them.
> Especially if they can control that freedom.
I think the "they" above referred to the users/victims.
>> Just about everyone in the developed countries permits and is ok
>> with their electric/telecom/heating service coming from a monopoly,
>> oligoploy, or government-owned entity. So the same situation for
>> email is ok with them as long as the cost is low.
> The difference with utilities like electricity is that they are
> _regulated_ monopolies.
Indeed.
> There is at least a bit of government oversight to make sure the
> electricity provider doesn't gouge its subscribers too badly.
And that they don't sell data about your electricity usage patterns to
the whoever offers the best price.
> In Canada they're threatening to cut off news feeds in retaliation for
> the government's attempts to make them pay news providers for the data
> they're redistributing. Most people are too ignorant to realize that
> this is an idle threat
It's not an idle threat: (re)distributing news doesn't bring very much
benefits to those giants, so it's definitely in their best commercial
interest to cut it off rather than to pay what the government asks
for it.
> "You get what you settle for."
> -- Thelma and Louise
I settled for Debian. Worked out OK 'til now.
Stefan
