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From: lauren@vortex.UUCP (Lauren Weinstein)
Newsgroups: net.news
Subject: Re: Saving the net
Message-ID: <855@vortex.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 20-Nov-85 13:14:55 EST
Article-I.D.: vortex.855
Posted: Wed Nov 20 13:14:55 1985
Date-Received: Sun, 24-Nov-85 05:35:11 EST
References: <674@neuro1.UUCP>
Organization: Vortex Technology, Los Angeles
Lines: 37

From the ARPANET directory:

"The ARPANET is on operational DoD network and is not intended to
compete with comparable commercial service..."

...

"The ARPANET is intended to be used solely for the conduct of or in 
support of official U.S. Government business..."

...

The fact that some non-technical groups are allowed to quietly
exist "unofficially" does not change the basic rules of the game.
In fact, many of the more "non-technical" groups in the LIST-OF-LISTS
have virtually zero traffic these days, and the most significant
one (SFL) is a fully moderated digest.  Most of the other ones, even technical
ones, consist of lists that are manually "re-mailed" so offending articles
may be removed before being sent out to the network at large.

There are lots of other rules too, but I'm not going to take the
time quote them all here.  The bottom line is that ARPANET is not
supposed to compete with the telephone network or Telenet or Tymnet.
ARPANET isn't a "free ride" for random companies who don't like
paying their netnews phone bills.  To treat it as if it were, or to
push too far the "flexibility" of the people who run the net,
is just asking for a massive crackdown including mail gateway
closures, list shutdowns, etc.  The ARPANET is not for the use of
unassociated third parties to use to "bypass" paying bills.  It's really 
that simple.

--Lauren--

P.S.  When I say ARPANET above, I refer to ARPANET/MILNET (DDN) of course.

--LW--