Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Posting-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site cbosgd.UUCP
Path: utzoo!linus!philabs!cmcl2!floyd!clyde!ihnp4!cbosgd!mark
From: mark@cbosgd.UUCP (Mark Horton)
Newsgroups: net.mail
Subject: Re: E-COM electronic mail from UseNet
Message-ID: <438@cbosgd.UUCP>
Date: Sun, 16-Oct-83 19:25:58 EDT
Article-I.D.: cbosgd.438
Posted: Sun Oct 16 19:25:58 1983
Date-Received: Mon, 17-Oct-83 23:46:28 EDT
References: <3114@umcp-cs.UUCP>
Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories, Columbus
Lines: 38

Note that such a service would not be for Usenet, but rather
for the UUCP net.  As such, the "no money changes hands" policies
of Usenet do not apply.  The appropriate policies are those of UUCP.

The policy of UUCP is "we forward your mail for free, and in return
you forward our mail for free".  Unless there are some serious
objections, I would recommend that this policy be continued, that is,
if site A needs to go through sites B and C to get to this service,
they should be allowed to.

However, in order to avoid overburdening any single gateway site
(except, of course, for the service that is making money from this),
I would recommend that all sites using the service should, if at
all possible, set up a direct connection.  Those who cannot set
up a direct connection because they lack an autodialer or funds for
the long distance calls should consider having this service poll
them.  Only in the case of (1) an impoverished institution, e.g.
a university, or (2) a quick and temporary test case, should anyone
go through a third site.  If you must go through a third site, try
to get their approval in advance, and consider reimbursing them for
any costs they will incur.

As to how to charge for the service, I suppose everybody will have
to have an account number which is put into the headers of their
messages - yet another RFC822 extension line.  Lacking a good public
key cryptosystem, I guess we'll just have to trust that people won't
intercept the account numbers and start using them - I hope some
applicible law covers this, since you can't make non-customers sign
contracts agreeing not to use somebody elses number.

Here's another wild thought - the traffic going to ECOM would probably
be pretty low, right?  How about some benevolent UUCP site that has
some extra money and wants to generate goodwill picking up the tab?
This would eliminate all this worry about account numbers.  Hopefully
nobody would abuse their goodwill by sending out mass mailings or large
quantities of stuff.

	Mark Horton