The Many Paradoxes of Broadband

An interesting academic story on adoption of broadband in U.S., which, besides other technical analysis, posits on ways to increase broadband adoption: “The impractical method for stimulating broadband adoption is to make music free on the Internet…Instead of using the law to choke file swapping, perhaps we should encourage the telecom industry to buy off the music studios…”

“This is of course wildly impractical for business and legal reasons, but it would quickly stimulate demand for broadband. (It would also demonstrate that the content tail should not be wagging the telecom dog, as it too often does in political, legal, and business discussions.) A slightly more practical method would be for the government to enact a compulsory licensing scheme that would have a similar effect.”

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