Date: Tue, 29 Mar 2005 13:02:44 -0500
To: WSFA members <WSFAlist at WSFA.org>
From: "Mike B." <omni at omniphile.com>
Subject: [WSFA] Re: Nattering about the 'net.... [WSFA] Re: Different subjectnow,you have been warned!
Reply-To: WSFA members <WSFAlist at WSFA.org>

At 11:08 AM 3/29/05 -0500, Michael Walsh wrote:
>> omni at omniphile.com 3/29/2005 10:40:26 AM >>>

>>Actually, until the internet went truly public, business use of the
>>internet for advertising was prohibited and about the only business

>I was thinking more about business-to-business email communication.

There wasn't much of that until businesses got email...the only businesses
on the internet prior to the early 90s were pretty much limited to
government contractors (university professors working grants, defense
contractors talking to the Air force or whatever).

>After all, what possible reason would someone at some random company
>need with usenet?  Just a thought.

The technical people used it to stay current with other technical people
mostly.  Management didn't have a lot of use for it.  Not a lot of use by
them of email either, as it was unlikely that whoever they needed to
communicate with was on the internet at the time.  Being the first guy with
a phone was probably a very similar situation.  FAXing was the more common
way for management people to communicate quickly when voice wasn't desired.

>As for advertising/commerical usage ofthe net - for the small business
>it has been a miracle.  Even though the sf buyers at B&N and Borders
>have declined stock the latest Old Earth titles, I still have a darn
>good shot of selling the books due to the net.

Yep.  But that has all happened in the last 10 years or so, since the
general public got access.

>Sometime ago I received an email about the Lensmen books I reprinted.
>Turns out the person inquiring was in Japan. There goes territorial
>rights restrictions.

One hopes.  There are still people trying to preserve that in the DVD arena
for instance, with the "region encoding" idiocy.  Unfortunately for them,
there are DVD players that don't enforce those restrictions, and most
computers that can play DVDs don't either.  There are also places, lots in
Asia, that make copies of DVDs without the restrictions and sell them
cheaply...or over the net with "file sharing" systems.  One recent response
to this is the announcement by one of the big entertainment companies
(can't recall which at the moment) that they will be selling legal DVDs
much more cheaply in those areas...trying to price compete with the
pirates.  They won't be dropping *our* prices though...

What's really funny is watching various legislators trying to pass
restrictions on the internet (content restrictions, anti-SPAM laws, sales
tax, etc.).  They just haven't quite gotten their tiny brains around the
fact that it's world-wide, and not geographically restricted to their area
of authority.  They can pass all the laws they like, but folks can just
move their web site to an area outside of the jurisdiction and thumb their
noses at them.  For now anyway.  I predict the formation of international
bodies empowered by treaties with enforcement through economic sanctions
and isolation of connections to the net to enforce some standards of
behavior.  Then censorship can reign again and governments can increase
their powers still more.  They will do this, of course, "for the children"...

>The cash following into web retailers is signiificant enough that the
>states with sales taxes desperately want their sales tax applied to
>those sales.  It may happen.

I think they will have to await the formation of that international treaty
setup.  Until then they can only harass people with it.  They are already
getting revenue from internet business though.  The folks running them
"contribute" through payroll taxes, spending money locally in the states
(and thus pumping up the local economy), and increasing shipping levels
(fuel taxes and increased size of businesses like UPS, FedEx, etc.).
States should just go to a VAT and give up on retail sales taxes if they
want a bigger cut of the action.

-- Mike B.
--
What's worth doing is worth doing for money.