Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watnot!watmath!clyde!ima!haddock!johnc
From: johnc@haddock.UUCP
Newsgroups: comp.org.usenix,news.groups
Subject: Re: Request for special USENIX Meeting
Message-ID: <431@haddock.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 8-Apr-87 13:25:44 EST
Article-I.D.: haddock.431
Posted: Wed Apr  8 13:25:44 1987
Date-Received: Sat, 11-Apr-87 07:19:52 EST
References: <1486@hplabsc.UUCP> <304@desint.UUCP> <10009@sri-spam.istc.sri.com>
Reply-To: johnc@haddock.ISC.COM.UUCP (John Chambers)
Distribution: world
Organization: Interactive Systems, Boston
Lines: 48
Xref: utgpu comp.org.usenix:111 news.groups:621

>> >  In the past
>> > few years, however, a so-called Backbone Cabal has arisen that has
>> > more-or-less taken over the network and imposed their own ideas and
>> > beliefs upon it.
>
>> Wrong again.  It was by vote.
>
>However, I don't recall any votes that put the "backbone cabal" in
>charge.  Nor do I recall any voting for general usenet policy

There weren't any, because it's not feasible.  The "backbone cabal" 
doesn't have nearly the power that many people think.  Why not?  Well,
consider that this company has set up its own internal distribution
with a bunch of newsgroups that only go to our own sites.  The cabal
has no control over them whatsoever; they can't even find out that
these newsgroups exist unless they can get into the distribution.

Any two or more sites in the world can do the same thing.  Just hook
up some sort of link that runs a file-transfer package like uucp or
kermit or TCP/IP or whatever, explain to usenet how to use it, run
"inews -C", and you're off and running.

The usenet installation guide explains it all.  Lots of organizations
have their own usenet subset.  Last year, I helped another company do 
the same sort of thing.

This is one of the nice things about usenet.  It's possible for a set
of "backbone" sites to offer themselves up as a public service (and
perhaps charge for the service).  They can be as autocratic as they
wish on traffic that passes through their machines.  But there's no
way they can be dictators.  You want a "forbidden" newsgroup?  Fine;
make a few connections, and create your own distribution.  The manual
tells you how to do it, and the Cabal can't stop you.

Personally, I think the Backbone Cabal is doing the world a service.
They are under no obligation to run their machines to satisfy anyone
but themselves, but they are offering to forward your mail (and my
rantings here) for "free".  All they get out of it is a lot of good
publicity.  Sometimes I wonder why they do it at all.

As for net.rec.drugs, whaddaya wanna bet that the suppliers of illicit 
drugs are using email to coordinate their business?  They probably have 
their own mob.rec.drugs newsgroup up and running.  Why don't you ask your 
local dealer about it?  Maybe you can get on the distribution.

-- 
	John Chambers	(617)247-1155 <...!ima!johnc>
[The above opinions are my own; for a small fee, they can be yours, too.]