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From: jbuck@epimass.UUCP (Joe Buck)
Newsgroups: net.news
Subject: Which companies pay for news?  Which companies benefit?
Message-ID: <222@epimass.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 13-May-86 16:58:20 EDT
Article-I.D.: epimass.222
Posted: Tue May 13 16:58:20 1986
Date-Received: Thu, 15-May-86 05:00:44 EDT
Distribution: net
Organization: Entropic Processing, Inc., Cupertino, CA
Lines: 50

The Usenet is an expensive proposition.  However, it is not a charity
for all the companies that pay for it.  For some, it represents quite
lucrative free advertising.  This is not necessarily bad, as long as
those who benefit give something back.  

Some of the net's biggest phone bills are paid by:

1) AT&T (well, they are their lines)
2) DEC
3) U.S. government sites
4) universities

Other minicomputer manufacturers (e.g.  HP, NCR) and peripheral
manufacturers who sell a lot to minicomputer users (Tektronix) also
make major contributions.  In short, until fairly recently companies
who benefited from the net had a lot to do with paying for it, though
some (DEC) put in more than they get out.

Some of the net's biggest corporate beneficiaries are the makers of
personal computers.  One such company is one of the largest
corporations in the world.  Another has seven newsgroups (10% of all
net traffic!)  devoted to discussions of its products.  A third has
five.  These companies know who they are, and you know who they are.
All three are much bigger freeloaders that someone who mails the
sources to hack (I was amused to read one of the corporate
freeloaders flaming others for net abuse).

All make good products, and many people on the net want to read about
them.  But two of the three have only leaf sites on the net, and pay
almost no phone bills and move no news.  The third could certainly do
a lot more.  A cost-benefit analysis at any of these sites would show
that spending money on netnews is a good thing.  It would be a lot
easier for people at those sites to justify the phone bills to
management than it would be for those who currently foot the bill.  

I know that business for microcomputer makers is tough these days.
But what about the loss to your company when backbone sites are
forced to cut some of the lists that promote your product, because of
the load?

I doubt that this article will move anyone (except to flame me), but
if anyone is interested in moving more news as a result of this, I
suppose the backbone administrators could tell you what additional
connections would be most useful (I think we need another N. Calif-
S. Calif link, for one thing).
-- 
- Joe Buck 	{ihnp4!pesnta,oliveb}!epimass!jbuck
  Entropic Processing, Inc., Cupertino, California

Better living through entropy!