Having said all this, why couldn't some SBB (Server-based billing) be developed?
Both my Windows-7 and my Ubuntu systems, as well as ALL other software has been DLed from the internet.
i.e., I haven't ordered a CD or DVD in years. They're obsolete!
Needless to say, with my Bell Turbohub's UBB, I go to a friend's place in town to DL / torrent any large packages. ..And Win-7 is 2.5 Gig!
So why couldn't ISPs charge the server instead of the user?
If I download a new Ubuntu (coming in 11/04) the DL to me would be free. If however I start to DL a movie, or (Ahem!) some Pr0n, then the meter would start running for me.
... Unless the Pr0n server were willing to pick up the bill!
Charge only for ULs, not DLs! It would cut down a lot of zombie spam too! Particularly when the end user got a big bill from his ISP!
Agreed, it would kinda cramp the PtP torrents stuff though...

repeat:
Satellite broadband is BS.
Geosynchroneous birds are USELESS for two-way high-speed communication. They are two far away!
Stick with earth-bound fiber-optic or possibly in the future, lowflying Iridium-type multiple satellites.
Please get off of this Satellite fascination!

Alas, non-profit operations too often have members that drop-out, or who once their immediate goals are realized, lose interest.
And then the "for-profit" coyotes take over.
If ya want non-profit, you not only have to work for it, but you have to maintain an interest and keep your work-ethic.
I have seen too many not-for-profit systems go to weeds when their members lose interest.
Basically it has to be run as a FOR-profit business- and any profits (there should be) be returned to the members, either as $$, or perhaps visually recognizable improvement (equipment upgrade?), or golly! a dance/party with free booze, or a ski trip etc.
Otherwise your non-prophet... oops, profit! is doomed...

Sorry Brett- but government IS the way to go.
From your remarks about Satellite internet, I fear you have bought into it, not just psychically, but financially. That's too bad. Cover your losses, and await some fiber/copper or possibly WiFi connection.
Unless of course you are several hundred miles from a small town. THEN, perhaps you have little option but satellite.
Fiber-optic cable has been pulled ALL OVER rural Quebec- at least the southern part. All that remains is for Bell (Not a government monopoly) to install the end-equipment I mentioned above.
But they will not do it. Why?
Well, government (by the people - that is you and me, and Nora Young) has butted out, thanx to libertarians like you.
I AM prisoner of a monopoly- a small wireless company that charges what they want, and will install when they want. I would provide competition, but am alas too old to be climbing church steeples etc.

Well. These days, fiber-optic cable is cheaper than copper wires, and unlike copper wires they (as yet) will not be stolen by the outlaw scrap-metal dealers.
Beige telephones? Hey I remember back when they were BLACK. And made of heavy bakelite.
Brett? Dump your Geo-stationary satellite crap and come over to fashionable 21st century fiber-optic.
Go ahead- take a $beating$ but learn, dear fellow!
And I suggest perhaps that a small refresher in your high-school physics is in order.
..

- Tony
This message was sent at 37KBs via V90, over damn old underground copper wires that have been buried there for 40+ years.
And... AND!... I live in the country and have a fiber-optic wire LESS THAN ONE KILOMETER from me!
Grrrr! I take no prisoners.