Understanding the Screenwriters' Strike

[mapes]

Regarding taxes, you could say the same thing about the Monitor, or U.S. funded Wright Brothers-model military aircraft. I didn't pay for those either, but Americans in their day paid taxes that went toward them. So what? I wouldn't really call that a "we paid for it" sort of deal because you, or I, aren't in that collective "we" in this sort of case.

It' the royal we dude. What I'm trying to say is because these were tax fund projects the knowledge learned from these our now part of of our societies knowledge and birthright. Thats what I mean when I say we paid for these. No I didn't pay for these but, my folks did and that means Taxpayer funded unveristy backed technological advances become our birthright.

On the rest, read more closely. I said other countries aren't paying anything that contributes to US efforts in internet development. Emphasis on US of A. As in an answer to your point about taxes for RnD and DARPA funding. Looking closer to modern times, most of the universities working on Internet 2.0 were/are publicly funded U.S. institutions.


My taxes are paying in part for some of that since University of Maryland is one of those universities, and I'm sure there are federal grants. But Sirex or Grisu, to pull two names from a hat, didn't pay for the early stages of that either. I don't know how far all that has progressed now, so they may be paying similar taxes in Scotland and Germany for their own internet development by now.

I'm baffled by this. First when I read the statement that other countries are not paying anything towards US internet developemnt I scratched my partially bald head. The question is why would they? That statement is like saying "Other countries are not paying for US highway system upgrades". Which seams rather obvious why they wouldn't. However....it's not really a question of who's paying for US internet development it more a question of how are internet standards developed. which is done by the IETF which is an international organization. Once those standards are codified then anyone can make products that exploit those standards. So I'm confused are we talking exploit the internet for business or are we talking about making new networking protocols and standards.

In any case, a percentage of a cent or two from your taxes going toward internet development and research (this is probably literally the case for the amount of money that every American is putting forward that is dedicated to this stuff) is quite different from direct taxes of your internet usage and purchases.

Your right... My ISP should charge me for services like bandwidth and my country via my taxes should support higher education centers that work on the next gen of networking protocols

As an aside, we should really be putting more money back into R&D in general, and internet in particular. The ancestral "we" paid for the radio, the automobile, the electric light, the television, the computer, etc. etc. Yet there aren't any of those we do particularly better than other nations and companies now. Same thing goes for the internet backbone protocols and equipment.

No we should be putting more money into education....period! Let IETC and RFC process set standards and let business build on those standards no matter country they're in. No we didn't pay for the radio Marconi an Italian made the radio, A private individual tinker without funding made the TV, the computer was made by the British during WWII, a private tinker Edison without government grants made the light bulb and I don't know about the auto but, I seem to recall that Ford was not the first to make an engine his first was mass production.....So there!

[Rand{CLR}]

As an aside, we should really be putting more money back into R&D in general, and internet in particular. The ancestral "we" paid for the radio, the automobile, the electric light, the television, the computer, etc. etc. Yet there aren't any of those we do particularly better than other nations and companies now. Same thing goes for the internet backbone protocols and equipment.

No we should be putting more money into education....period! Let IETC and RFC process set standards and let business build on those standards no matter country they're in. No we didn't pay for the radio Marconi an Italian made the radio, A private individual tinker without funding made the TV, the computer was made by the British during WWII, a private tinker Edison without government grants made the light bulb and I don't know about the auto but, I seem to recall that Ford was not the first to make an engine his first was mass production.....So there!

I'm not really talking about the first instance of the above, more of the development stages of them. The American strength up until maybe the 70s was developing technologies or improving on them in such ways as to dominate them for some time.

Radio: Marconi had the patent, but Tesla, working in St. Louis, came up with the guiding principles before Marconi's practical usage. First broadcast (as opposed to direct communication), first news program, and first small/college radio station all originated in the U.S. FM was invented in America, and the first commercially viable receivers were joint American/European.

Television: first commercial usage (though electronic transmission was shared at about the same period of time with Germany and the UK). First color transmissions and sets, first commercially available receiver/sets.

Electric light: it's not so much the light bulb itself that's the issue, but the power plants, transmission lines, and other infrastructure needed to make those Edison bulbs glow.

Computer: Colossus was first, but so highly top secret that it didn't even lead to anything else. When WW2 was over, the guys working on it began working with US engineers to move to the next step. Meanwhile, ENIAC was contemporaneous, and then IBM and others began using the transitor, which is what led to modern PCs as we know them.

Automobile: Oldsmobile production lines in 1902. Ford perfected this, but other american companies predated Ford's efforts. Various inventions world wide led to this step and others (props to Bugatti). But mass production and automatic transmission are huge steps.

Private companies for many of these steps, funding in part by government grants-i.e. taxes.

-Rand

[Devilguns]

I think they should be compensated. They are not asking for anything out of reason. It just comes down to corporate greed.

[mapes]

Computer: Colossus was first, but so highly top secret that it didn't even lead to anything else. When WW2 was over, the guys working on it began working with US engineers to move to the next step. Meanwhile, ENIAC was contemporaneous, and then IBM and others began using the transitor, which is what led to modern PCs as we know them.

So what are we debating...I uhh forgot.

[Devilguns]

Rand, this is really why your paying $50 a month for service

[th3st1ck]

lol!