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From: Dave Banisar <banisar@washofc.cpsr.org>
To: Brian Baker <baker@scs.howard.edu>
Date: Fri, 11 Feb 1994 17:59:46 EST
Subject: Scully and info access
Status: O
Scully and info access
Scenes from the National Information Infrastructure Advisory Committee...
The following is relatively accurate reconstruction of an exchange
between John Sculley and Vance Operman (president of West Publishing) on
the subject of free information access for schools and libraries.
Sculley and Operman were joined by VP Gore a bit later.
Sculley: I want us to think seriously about assuring that schools and
libraries can have free access to information resources. Not just the
transport, but the content as well. Certainly this has a cost attached
to it, but it would be an invaluable investment in our nation's future.
Operman: John, you couldn't mean that. If information is free than it's
worth nothing.... I would be horror-stricken if the result of this
committee was a consensus that all library resources were available for
free anywhere around the NII. That would put an end to the US
information industry.
[Some time passes, VP Gore arrives to make some brief comments, and the
raises the subject of free access to the NII for schools, libraries and
clinics.]
Sculley [in response to Gore]: We don't the high price of information to
be a barrier for classroom and library access. We have to talk about
more than just putting wires in schools and libraries.
Gore: We should talk about free connect time as well for classrooms. I
know that this has a cost, but it's so important that I'm not prepared to
talk it off the table just yet. It would be a very important investment.
Operman: Well I'll give you an example of a way that market forces all
by themselves have provided free access, without any government
involvment. Both West and Mead provide law students free access to their
legal information services, at very high cost to the companies. That's
millions of dollars of subsidy right there, resulting from competitive
market forces alone.
Gore: Well, Vance, professional schools are different from elementary
schools. (Operman interrupts: "law schools aren't much different from
elementary schools) It makes some sense to have a loss leader there to
build a market for your services amoung law school graduates.
Operman: Well, certain well known computer companies [he turns to
Sculley] have been known to put a lot of computers in classrooms for
similar reasons.
Gore: I really don't think that we're talking about the same market.
One is computers and the other is information services. Unless you
believe that Nintendo will come up with some kind of Euclidean geometry
game that they would give a way for free. But until you see this
happening, we still have to ensure free access for schools.
Bob Johnson (CEO Black Entertainment Television): There are also some
markets, regions, that no one competes for. These communities need
information access, too.
[I'm not representing this as a word-for-word transcript, but it's a
pretty careful paraphrase of the main points made with a fair amount of
direct quotation.]
Danny Weitzner Senior Staff Counsel, EFF
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