Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!cbatt!gatech!spaf From: spaf@gatech.UUCP Newsgroups: news.software.b Subject: Re: Copyright status of the netnews software Message-ID: <12581@gatech.EDU> Date: Sun, 22-Feb-87 21:13:04 EST Article-I.D.: gatech.12581 Posted: Sun Feb 22 21:13:04 1987 Date-Received: Mon, 23-Feb-87 18:37:12 EST References: <1808@hoptoad.uucp> <539@hao.UCAR.EDU> <1311@hplabsc.UUCP> <7683@utzoo.UUCP> Reply-To: spaf@gatech.UUCP (Gene Spafford) Organization: Software Engineering Research Center (SERC), Georgia Tech Lines: 64 Let me echo Henry's comments: 1) If you don't like the current backbone structure, form your own. If you can provide reliable service with the same (or less) propagation delay than the current backbone structure, then I think you'd find a number of backbone sites gladly turning it over. For example, here at "gatech", we exchange a full newsfeed with 4 other backbone sites, and partial feeds to 4 others; we feed 10 other sites with a full news feed, and 6 more with partial feeds. Our phone bills are higher than we'd like, but luckily we have some cheap methods we can use to good advantage. We move between 6Mb and 15Mb of uucp traffic DAILY for news and mail, much of it at 1200 baud. I spend at least an hour a day maintaining the software and connections, and dealing with mail. I don't get paid *anything* for what I do -- my job is as a research scientist here at Tech, and in fact, my boss would prefer that I spent less time and energy on the net and more on my job. So do I. I shudder to think about the time spent by other admins -- and I wonder if Rick Adams ever sleeps. I used to enjoy the net, and I used to read a lot of the groups. Nowadays, I don't have time to read anything other than the news.* groups and one or two mod.* groups. The continuing antagonism and invective heaped on those of us making hard choices to keep the network alive is getting to me, and I try to keep a low profile these days. I wonder what would happen if we (backbone sites) became read-only sites. Disconnect seismo, ihnp4, decvax, hplabs, akgua, mcnc, gatech, cuae2, linus, utzoo. That's just 10 sites. What do you think would happen to the North American network? I bet it wouldn't kill Usenet, but the results *would* be instructive. Maybe we ought to try it for a month.... 2) If you don't like the software, write your own. As Henry said, if you come up with something with advantages and if it meets the standards expected by the community, then maybe people will use it. Be prepared for abuse, though, by people who think you should have done it *their* way. Expect countless requests for bugfixes, patches, changes, and enhancements. Expect requests to make it run on machines and Unix versions you never knew existed, each with its own little quirks. Expect people to look to you for software solutions to human problems. Watch how some people will take your code and do awful things to it that you absolutely do not want done, and either balme you (if it fails) or take all the credit for themselves (if it works). Then let's have this discussion again. 3) If you don't want to pay $150 or $200 to register a domain in the UUCP structure, don't. If you want an official subdomain, you can always pay $10000 for CSNet registration. Or pay the $100K costs to join ARPA -- if they'll let you. Pay to get two machines hooked up to the Internet, configure your mailer to forward domain mail, and handle all the paper work and you're more than welcome to offer free second and third level naming to anyone who wants it. But don't complain that the people who are doing it now are expecting something to help defray costs unless you provide a viable alternative. The botton line is, it sure is easy to criticize if you aren't the one doing the work and paying the costs. -- Gene Spafford Software Engineering Research Center (SERC), Georgia Tech, Atlanta GA 30332 CSNet: Spaf @ GATech ARPA: Spaf@gatech.EDU uucp: ...!{akgua,decvax,hplabs,ihnp4,linus,seismo,ulysses}!gatech!spaf