Path: utzoo!utgpu!attcan!uunet!husc6!mailrus!uflorida!novavax!proxftl!twwells!comparc
From: comparc@twwells.uucp (comp.archives)
Newsgroups: comp.archives
Subject: Sites that charge for access (was Re: From the moderator)
Message-ID: <155@twwells.uucp>
Date: 10 Nov 88 06:35:41 GMT
References: <132@twwells.uucp> <44436@beno.seismo.CSS.GOV>
Reply-To: comparc@twwells.UUCP (comp.archives)
Organization: None, Ft. Lauderdale
Lines: 37
Approved: bill@twwells.uucp (T. William Wells)

In article <44436@beno.seismo.CSS.GOV> rick@seismo.CSS.GOV (Rick Adams) writes:
: > : Consider first contacting the archive maintainer.  Archives are generally
: > : a free public service (not so for UUCP-UUNET, where it's what people
: > : pay for) and public lambastings will make folks very gun-shy about being
: > : nice any more...
:
: Note that the uunet archive ARE free.  We charge for access to the machine,
: not the archives. If you think its a petty distinction, the Internet folks
: can (and do) ftp all they want at no charge. It is analogous to paying
: a distribution fee for a tape that has "free" software on it.

Also, as per my stated intentions, I don't care whether the archive
site charges for access or not. All that I care about is whether the
archived material is freely distributable.  So I have no problems
accepting archive entries for uunet.

Of course, they will only be listed as an ftp accessible archive,
since that is the only way (that I know of) that one can access their
archives without registering with them.

Should uunet send in a site description, they can, and I think they
should, mention that their archive is available through uucp, if one
pays the access charges. Like I said, I don't care if the archive
site charges for access.

I might add one qualification to that: if an archive site charges for
anything other than the access to the archive, or charges for access
on a for-profit basis, they don't get listed.  That makes the archive
a commercial enterprise as far as I am concerned, and my understanding
of Usenet tells me that posting such would not be proper.

---
Bill
{uunet|novavax}!proxftl!twwells!bill

send comp.archives postings to twwells!comp-archives
send comp.archives related mail to twwells!comp-archives-request