Chaining the Future

Traditional phone lines based on miles of copper wires are expensive, especially in rural areas, and becoming obsolete. What's a regulator to do? Answer: Tax internet-based voice chat to subsidize the outdated system! Declan McCullagh comments:

It's not clear why programmers like Silva and companies offering commercial voice software must subsidize rural telephone companies. By that logic, Congress should have forced Henry Ford to pay for horse troughs. It should have also extorted cash from laser printer manufacturers on behalf of the dying manual-typewriter industry.