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from the are-utilities-really-optional dept.
Broadband Internet access is a "core utility" that people need in order to participate in modern society– just like electricity, running water, and sewers, the White House said on Tuesday. A report written by the Broadband Opportunity Council, a group created earlier this year by President Obama and co-chaired by the Secretaries of Commerce and Agriculture, says that even though broadband "has steadily shifted from an optional amenity to a core utility," millions of Americans still lack high-speed Internet access.
The report cites 2013 data indicating that about 51 million Americans, or about 16 percent of the population, cannot purchase broadband access at their homes. That number may have dropped by now, but the White House says the government needs to make a bigger push to expand broadband deployment, especially in rural areas and low-income communities.
(Score: 2) by Joe Desertrat on Thursday September 24 2015, @06:40PM
So what model other than copyright would you recommend for funding the creation of the first copy of a work, such as a movie or video game?
The same model that has existed for almost all creation of first works since there was a person with the classification of artist. Don't confuse the corporate funded creation and marketing of a Taylor Swift or a Justin Bieber with the normal process of such things. Art has historically done just fine without that sort of model. Look at groups like the Beatles or the Rolling Stones, they got together as teenagers, learned to play as a hobby and spent years living a marginal existence honing their craft before they had any hint of financial success. Ditto with film makers, George Lucas did not wake up one day, decide to make movies for a living and get handed millions to learn how. He started on his own making 8 mm movies as a hobby long before he had the idea of earning a living from it.
I would also like to add that most people here I think are not anti-copyright, but they do feel strongly that the term length of copyrights has become ridiculous. It only needs to be long enough to create the next work. Anything beyond that and you are wandering into the territory of a subsidy.