He's received backing from Net2Phone and Vocaltec. No one likes to pay taxes or fees, but the argument for preferential treatment of the internet is a hard one to make. At first, creating subsidies for the net was sensibly fostering an infant industry, a practice defended by Adam Smith and Thomas Jefferson. But the net is past that stage today, and is well able to carry its share. Civic Video's Tony Aduckiewicz told BRW they need to find new markets.
Video is a mature product.
We are seeing a slow leakage of people to the Internet. Civic may gain competitive advantage from the revenue from the video sales, and the retail stores are a good sales outlet. Blockbuster had no comment, but is obviously watching. Early reports internet demand, measured at the backbone, is doubling every four months, a rate that will mean one hundred times the volume in three years. Those without strong engineering growth plans will fall behind.