On Sun, 21 Sep 2003 14:19:42 -0500 John Hasler <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> The latter. Having a monopoly is not illegal. Taking unfair advantage > of it is. It might not be illegal, but the method to reach/hold it might at least be questionably for a normal citizen. > I have only one provider accessible via a local phone number: he went > into business first and no one has seen fit to go into competition with > him in this rural area. You seem to feel that he should be punished for > "having a monopoly". Why? I didn't say he should be punished, but that he shouldn't have the power to force me to pay for nothing (literally): I've got connectivity and IP from a company called Telefônica. I'm forced to subscribe the `services' of another company `Terra' which does nothing constructive: They filter my traffic, they force me to type regularly username and password. They do offer a few email accounts (which are unreliable and sold to marketing companies) and a frequently failing DNS service which I've replaced a long time ago with independent servers. I do not use anything from them. Why then do I have to pay? > Is there something preventing you from going into competition with him? > If so _that_ is what you should be complaining about. I can (try to) compete with someone doing something, but not for taking money without anything in exchange. Thieves can do that. > In some circumstances, yes. It depends on the details. If my provider > was to decide to double his rates I would have no legal recourse (other > than starting my own ISP, of course). No motivating details. This company offered broadband connections without restrictions for a certain amount of money. A few months later, lots of restrictions where applied without asking any customer (we found out by surprise), at the same time a `new product' was presented having the same features as the original one, but with more than the double price. In the meanwhile, this second product also has restrictions, but price is going up continuously (in steps of two digit percentages). No more details than this. If your only local provider doubles price in a consumer product, what would happen in your area? Would he get support of the local authorities? -- Christoph Simon [EMAIL PROTECTED] --- ^X^C q quit :q ^C end x exit ZZ ^D ? help . -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]