Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Posting-Version: $Revision: 1.6.2.16 $; site ima.UUCP
Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!allegra!mit-eddie!think!ima!johnl
From: johnl@ima.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.news.group
Subject: Re: revenue opportunity for Usenet
Message-ID: <128900001@ima.UUCP>
Date: Sun, 8-Dec-85 22:00:00 EST
Article-I.D.: ima.128900001
Posted: Sun Dec  8 22:00:00 1985
Date-Received: Tue, 10-Dec-85 07:07:55 EST
References: <2367@umcp-cs.UUCP>
Lines: 26
Nf-ID: #R:umcp-cs:-236700:ima:128900001:000:1459
Nf-From: ima!johnl    Dec  8 22:00:00 1985


/* Written  4:20 pm  Nov 30, 1985 by dave@umcp-cs in ima:net.news.group */
>     I am giving thought to a plan whereby Usenet news groups could be
>     packaged for sale to a market segment which does not have access to
> Usenet.  I am thinking about this as a business opportunity for both my
> company and Usenet participants.  Usenet might receive 50% of net
> profits.  The most attractive groups to this market segment are
> probably net.micro.mac and net.micro.pc for starters.

I already spool off net.micro.pc to floppy disks and send it to the
newsletter editors at the Boston Computer Society PC group and the
New York PC users' group.  They acknowledge that I'm the swell guy who
sends it along but otherwise they pay nothing.  Don't worry -- I have
made it very clear to them that each posting is the opinion of only the
poster (sometimes not even that) and that there is a fair amount of
misinformation.  It's about 2 disks full each month.

I am certainly not opposed to commercial enterprise, but expect that many
of the people who pay for usenet would be dismayed to find that their
employees' pearls of wisdom were being sold by others.  Even if we could
deal with that, attempts to create some sort of usenet institution to
which the 50% of profits could be paid back would be an incredible can of
worms, and previous attempts to create such a thing (to buy phone bandwidth
in bulk, for example) have all foundered.

John Levine, ima!johnl