Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!munnari!vuwcomp!hine
From: hine@comp.vuw.ac.nz (John Hine)
Newsgroups: comp.protocols.tcp-ip
Subject: Re: Whither chargeback policies?
Message-ID: <13544@comp.vuw.ac.nz>
Date: 26 Apr 88 21:03:18 GMT
References: <8804222219.AA01478@LANAI.MCL.UNISYS.COM> <8804222230.AA09291@bu-cs.bu.edu> <183@ftp.COM>
Reply-To: hine@comp.vuw.ac.nz (John Hine)
Organization: Comp Sci, Victoria Univ, Wellington, New Zealand
Lines: 25
Summary: And outside the DOD breadbasket...

This has been an interesting discussion.  Unfortunately it seems to
ignore those of us a long way from the centre of activity.  COnsider
the case for usage charges.

I would have to agree that usage charges don't always create an
immediate increase in efficiency of use, but they might introduce some
fairness.  Down here we pay real money for our X.25 link to UUNET, and
we pay both ways.  Because the Internet has no chargeback mechanism we
pay for you to send us mail.  This makes an e-mail connection
expensive but still worthwhile.  The problem arises when someone
decides they have something you would like and, without thinking, pops
it in the e-mail.  Voila, we have a $60 bill for something that might
not have been solicited.  We've had worse cases than this and it
happens with annoying regularity.

Some form of chageback would at least get these people to think about
their actions -- at least after their first $60 bill.  For a lot of
things air mail is still a cost effective communication medium!

jh
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