Re: Kindle 2.0

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

Begin forwarded message:

From: Kent Borg <kentborg () borg org>
Date: February 9, 2009 1:56:47 PM EST
To: dave () farber net
Subject: Re: [IP] Kindle 2.0

Jonathan Zittrain wrote:
> I'm worried about the end of the ethos of the mainstream hobbyist PC
> -- defined as the general public being able to define what code they
> want to run, without interference or undue shaping by gatekeepers --
> and see appliances (and managed web services like the Facebook and
> Google apps platforms) as substitutes rather than complements.[4]

Even general purpose PCs are fed limited content for free in places like
Starbucks and hotels when one hasn't paid the Wifi fee. The Kindle
offering some data transmission for free feels a lot like free Itunes
access at Starbucks.

It also reminds us of the difficulty of writing net neutrality into law:
Should Starbucks and Amazon be allowed to offer some data transmission
for one price (free, because they make money on the other end) and
charge more for the transmission other data? Seems reasonable to me.
Should Comcast be allowed to do the same? Seems terrible to me. But is
there a real difference?


-kb, the Kent who won't get into the net neutrality issues of Wifi on
airplanes trying to block porn and VoIP packets.





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