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From: zane@ddsw1.MCS.COM (Sameer Parekh)
Newsgroups: comp.org.eff.talk
Subject: Re: Big Brother charging for modem use?
Message-ID: <1991Mar16.042030.18706@ddsw1.MCS.COM>
Date: 16 Mar 91 04:20:30 GMT
References: <0Zaiy3w163w@cynic.wimsey.bc.ca> <0852J16@taronga.hackercorp.com>
Organization: ddsw1.MCS.COM Contributor, Wheeling, IL
Lines: 23

In article <0852J16@taronga.hackercorp.com> peter@taronga.hackercorp.com (Peter da Silva) writes:
>curt@cynic.wimsey.bc.ca (Curt Sampson) writes:
>> Residential local exchange rates will apply to a BBS EXCEPT when:
>
>> 1.   Money   or  payment  in  kind   (including  club  membership,
>>      contribution of any type) is paid for services;
>
>If this does not include software uploads (as SW Bell tried to regard
>as "payment"), then this is a totally reasonable policy. Much better than
>the disasterous "3 lines max" that COSUARD agreed to down here.

	This is NOT a reasonable policy even if it doesn't include software
uploads.  If a BBS asks for money, that does not necesarily mean that
it makes a profit.  And the definition of a business is (IRS) something
which did not make a loss for the past three years.  Most BBSes,
even though they may take in money never pull a profit. (And even if they
do make some more money, it is usually invested into the system.)
	This is NOT a business, it is a hobby, as the IRS calls it.
(And it is.)  If the phone company calls me a business I would atleast
want the IRS to call me a business.

-- 
zane@ddsw1.MCS.COM