any. The transmission is an entertainment program provided by a company that creates content, say Home Box Office (HBO). Rifkin is concerned about the fact that the final customer pays for viewing the content, but does not own anything. However, this situation is no different from any other type of rental agreement. Customers rent automobiles or apartments without any ownership. These types of rental agreements have been around for a long time and do not represent anything unfair or dangerous requiring government regulation. Markets are as capable of pricing rentals as they are of pricing any other service. Rentals face several types of competition. First, rental companies compete with each other, SO apartment rents reflect competition between apartment owners. Second, rental companies compete with the option of ownership: for example, customers renting or leasing cars compare these options with the cost of owning a car. Third, rental companies compete with companies that own or rent the necessary assets to provide the final service, SO that a consumer renting a car would compare prices with the cost of taking a taxi. Finally, rental companies compete with substitute goods and services; for example, a customer considering renting a movie from a movie rental store would compare the benefits with other forms of entertainment and the opportunity costs of time. The Structure and Functions of Networks The access to which Rifkin refers is to the content itself. That access is provided by the creators of the content. It is transmitted to the final customer through a network, but it is not the network that creates the content. Rather, the network provides transmission services; that is, the network provides access to the network itself. The fact that some types of content are transmitted over networks whereas other types of content are not - for example, movies can be transmitted over cable television or viewed in a movie theater - in itself does not provide any reason for regulation of networks. 2. Wholesale Access Acce