From: kcalder@blueyonder.co.uk   
      
   In message ,   
   Sourcerer  writes   
      
   >I do not think China intends to become a client of the US or the West.   
   >Probably not India, either, and Asia, ex-Japan, will follow suit.   
   >Western cultural (including computing) hegemony is over. I don't think   
   >the intellectual property scam and its N gigs of ephemeral crap is of   
   >much interest to the Chinese; if nobody accesses it, it is worth   
   >nothing.   
      
   Most people who I have talked to about TCPA think that it will backfire   
   in this way.  I agree, I don't think that TCPA's backers have enough   
   clout (or at least they have underestimated the logistical overhead they   
   will have to manage) to achieve the level of dominance required to make   
   the system work optimally.  What I wonder though is if this will create   
   enough space in the market for alternatives, if not 'undergrounds', to   
   flourish.  I'd like to see it happen!  On the other hand we might end up   
   getting stuck with a choice between getting dominated by the TCPA big   
   boys, and getting dominated by the biggest of the rest (potentially Asia   
   et al).  Maybe the most powerful of the anti-TCPA completion would come   
   with their own comparable standard.   
      
   >TC is a perfect example of what I mean by stagnant technological   
   >development since it creates a technology monopoly with the state having   
   >a vested interest in it, "Wintelmute", which like the notion of   
   >intellectual property itself has the goal of stifling development whose   
   >outcomes cannot be predicted. If it succeeds it will pretty much end the   
   >expansion phase of capitalism.   
      
   Yah.   
      
   Also; I had always thought of the notion of 'intellectual property' as   
   being a mechanism for inflating the profitability of products that don't   
   have any obvious value to Joe Ordinary (and his small business Ordinary   
   Productions).  I think this makes sense in terms of TCPA because it   
   allows big business to extract more money out of small businesses and   
   consumer in the form of variations on the 'administrative charge' theme.   
   I can imagine "format handling charges", "critical update charges",   
   "migration charges" and "component installation charges".  Im sure the   
   marketing people at TCPA Inc. will be even more imaginative!   
      
   >Having worked in banking,   
      
   Some kind of uber-CP underground cyber-banking surely!?   
      
   > I know that the company bankers' fear most is   
   >Microsoft, which they consider a competitor, i.e., they believe MS's   
   >attempt to provide the sw interface between banks and their customers as   
   >an attempt to steal their customer-base. As TC or its derivatives become   
   >an issue, this attitude should grow more hysterical and spread to other   
   >industries.   
      
   If I were they I'd be aiming to put 'fritz' chips in TV's, Disc & Mp3   
   players, mobile phones, PDA's and that's just for starters!   
      
   zip,   
   --   
   Kevin Calder   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)