roundtable: RE: ENTERTAINING VIDEO O

roundtable: RE: ENTERTAINING VIDEO O

RE: ENTERTAINING VIDEO O

Matt York (myork@videomaker.com)
Thu, 30 Mar 1995 08:43:59 -0800 

Date: Thu, 30 Mar 1995 08:43:59 -0800
Message-Id: <199503301643.IAA14698@video.hidden.videomaker.com>
To: roundtable@cni.org
From: myork@videomaker.com (Matt York)
Subject: RE: ENTERTAINING VIDEO O


>Matt York replies:  "Telcos are common carriers. Cable companies are 
>not. They control everything that passes on their wires. If for some 
>reason someone on this list had some information that is best conveyed 
>in video form, they'd be forced to use another common carrier, the 
>post office, to hand deliver the data."
> 
>Jack Hirschfeld replies
>For reasons that completely escape me, the option of mailing cassettes 
>is repeatedly dismissed in Matt's messages.  Always a fine option, 
>in my opinion, if what you are trying to do is "send" large video 
>files from one location to another.  Matt apparently misunderstood my 
>message when I pointed out the availability of satellite space (where 
>$ speak!), and how cheap transmission is if the receivers have 
>receivers (recipients have downlink capability).  From a strictly 
>economic point of view, this system virtually without restraint, is by 
>far the cheapest way currently available for an individual or group to 
>disseminate "large video files" to large numbers of people.


Mailing cassettes is a stone age option. Its slow and expensive ($5 
per viewer).  The activity on this list is happening due to the speed, 
ease and the low price of e-mail. If we were forced to mail letters in 
envelopes this list wouldn't be happening.  Satellite space does indeed 
have restraints. Prices have increased dramatically in the past few 
months and it is very expensive ($400 per half hour). The most 
significant restraint is that very few people have access to a dish.
 
Think big Jack. We've got wires circling the globe and two nodes (telco 
and cable) terminating in most homes in the country. Telephone wires 
are cheap to use, but have limited bandwidth. Cable TV wires are 
controlled by the television industrial complex. These aristocrats 
dictate what our nation sees and hears on the most pervasive video 
distribution system the world has ever know. It ludicrous that a debate 
over telecommunications policy is restricted to text that reaches an 
audience of a few hundred(?).

Society's collective ability to send large video files around is 
restrained.  Our freedom of the (video) press is controlled by a small 
minority people running   mega corporations. Satellite may indeed be 
the cheapest way currently available for an individual or group to 
disseminate "large video files" to large numbers of people, but it 
shouldn't be. I presume issues like this are at the core of the 
roundtable's concerns.    

''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''
Matt York, Videomaker Inc           | internet: myork@videomaker.com
920 Main Street                     | v 916-891-8410 fax 916-891-8443 
Chico, CA 95926                     | http://www.videomaker.com

[CNI Home Page]