 PeteC2Got Mouse?Premium,MVM
join:2002-01-20
Bristol, CT
kudos:5
 ·Comcast
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| I think that there is more to this than just "greed" ...although there is that aspect as well!
Part of this has been an ongoing issue for as long as on-line services have been around, and that is the "money" end of it.
For example, back years ago, I actually paid to "own" a copy of Netscape...only to find out that I could have downloaded the exact same version, for free! Believe me, I was major hacked of at the time! Of course, now, nobody pays for a browser, right? Well sports fans, it was not always that way. And oh, BTW, Microsoft is the reason that browsers are now free...so b_tch at them as you will, but that's a fact.
The same things apply to on-line services. At one time, AOL was just another separate on-line service (not Internet based), like Compu Serve used to be. Used to pay for access literally by the minute! As the Internet developed into a publicly accessible entity, of course all that changed. All kinds of "players" came and went, all kinds of pricing schemes and levels of "service" did as well! In fact, plain and simple, the real "death" of AOL was the ascension of broadband...otherwise, they would be still raking in $21.95 a month from millions upon millions of subscribers!
As the technology changes, and the business model changes as well, there never is universal "instantaneous" change, it takes awhile for old stuff to "wind down" and new paradigms to emerge...the trick is to be observant, and flexible enough to see the new (often less expensive), changes as they come about. Along that line, I too have an old friend who it took both me and his daughter many months to quit paying for AOL dial up when he is now paying no more for basic DSL service...
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...something is happening here but you don't know what it is...do you, Mr. Jones? |
