Xref: utzoo news.admin:2652 comp.mail.uucp:1365
Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!lll-winken!lll-tis!ames!killer!tness7!bellboy!hack
From: hack@bellboy.UUCP (Greg Hackney)
Newsgroups: news.admin,comp.mail.uucp
Subject: Re: The rebirth of USENET
Message-ID: <1100@bellboy.UUCP>
Date: 16 Jun 88 02:12:48 GMT
References: <585@cbnews.ATT.COM>
Reply-To: hack@bellboy.UUCP (Greg Hackney)
Organization: home
Lines: 29

In article <585@cbnews.ATT.COM> mark@stargate.COM (Mark Horton) writes:
 
> Mail into and out of AT&T through the "att" gateway will continue.
> Comments?

Only if it is from an AT&T site, or whose final destination
is an AT&T site (from what I understand). The question I must
ask myself is, do I want a connection bad enough to pay for the
phone costs of passing email to AT&T employees, for their benefit.

Defend the change as you will, but to me it marks the beginning
of a gradual exodus from the past committment to support USENET.

There's little doubt in my mind that this change in policy is
in conjunction with the advent of the commercial ATT Mail service.
There is also little doubt in my mind that such a decision would
be from management, rather than the technical folks that built
the network (and are the predominate users). It's sad to see a
shift in attitude, from one of being supportive of a educational
exchange of information, to a more purely commercial attitude.

I suspect it won't be too long before y'all cut back on netnews
feeds, allowing just enough to satisfy your internal needs.
But I can understand this, since yours IS a commercial enterprise.
(I wonder if they took a nation wide vote on rescinding Judge
Green's order, what the public will would be.)

My comment is, thanks for the memories. Hope you make a buck,
(although it won't be mine). And also, I think you underestimate
the grit of the "net" to heal itself of lost limbs.