Ben sent me a BBC article that contained the following paragraph:

Spread Networks has been building one such fibre-optic connection, shaving three microseconds off the 825-mile (1327km) trading journey between Chicago and New York.

I thought it's got to be 3 milliseconds, not microseconds. Doing some sea[]{#goog_2120667989}[]{#goog_2120667990}rching seemed to confirm this. I'd have contacted the author about it, but these days I'm reluctant to contribute to anything that has a proprietary licence, as opposed to an open content licence. The reason is that if a digital thing is of value, then there shouldn't be an artificial monopoly on it, anybody should be able to use it for any purpose. Society as whole benefits, not particular monopolists. That's why I'm in favour of Wikipedia, Open Streetmap, Wiktionary etc.

This only applies to things that are digital and can be copied at near zero cost, ie. non-rivalrous goods. It does not apply to rivalrous goods such as food, cars, one to one guitar lessons and electricity, for which the conventional exchange of money for the good or service is the best solution.