Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!swrinde!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!casbah.acns.nwu.edu!nucsrl!telecom-request From: halcyon!peterm@sumax.seattleu.edu (Peter Marshall) Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom Subject: {Journal-Constitution} Editorial on Prodigy Message-ID: Date: 18 Feb 91 16:46:00 GMT Sender: news@casbah.acns.nwu.edu Organization: The 23:00 News Lines: 30 Approved: Telecom@eecs.nwu.edu X-Submissions-To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu X-Administrivia-To: telecom-request@eecs.nwu.edu X-Telecom-Digest: Volume 11, Issue 131, Message 3 of 5 Originator: telecom@delta.eecs.nwu.edu In an unusual move, the daily ATLANTA JOURNAL-CONSTITUTION used its lead editorial Dec. 31 to attack the policies of Prodigy ... the editorial addressed the issue of what rules, if any, should govern electronic service providers. Prodigy argues it's an electronic newspaper, and like the J-C itself can set its own rules. But the newspaper said Prodigy e-mail "closely resembles a common-carrier communication medium like the mails or the phone systems ..." While Prodigy is ooposed to regulation by states or the FCC, the editorial continued, it is "subject to such regulation...." The editorial is important, not only for its publication in a daily paper, but for its appearance in a daily which itself has entered Prodigy's marketplace ... The ATLANTA JOURNAL-CONSTITUTION has begun offering a service called Access Atlanta, which offers electronic mail along with database access. Peter Marshall [Moderator's Note: You know what will be interesting to see -- the degree to which the J-C practices what it preaches as it were -- is when Access Atlanta has been running for awhile and they begin having run-ins with their own subscribers. Maybe they'll show the rest of us how these situations should be handled. I'm not terribly fond of Prodigy, but it is a privatly owned service to be run as its proprietors think best, IMHO, as is the J-C. PAT]