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From: rick@pcrat.UUCP (Rick Richardson)
Newsgroups: news.admin
Subject: Moderators Making Money Off the Net
Summary: Salary Needed
Keywords: Capitalism Moderator Ethics
Message-ID: <668@pcrat.UUCP>
Date: 6 Feb 89 11:59:40 GMT
References: <2712@looking.UUCP> <1449@papaya.bbn.com> <166@deltam.UUCP> <488@utoday.UUCP> <19979@agate.BERKELEY.EDU>
Reply-To: rick@pcrat.UUCP (Rick Richardson)
Distribution: na
Organization: PC Research, Inc., Tinton Falls, NJ
Lines: 43

In article <19979@agate.BERKELEY.EDU> Rob Robertson writes:
>
>Usenet is pretty much non-commercial, that's the beauty of it and one
>of the reasons alot of companies and networks subsidize the transport
>of it.  Were Usent to become a "commercial network", many sites/networks
>would probably consider dropping it.
>
> ...            What people are objecting to is the possibility that
>Brad may use a medium (Usenet) that THEY are providing (via connect /
>disk costs) to make money.  

I think that companies believe that Usenet contributes to
their bottom line either directly or indirectly.  I doubt
that many simply consider it an employee perk or a charity
contribution.

So, in reality, there are a lot of companies that are using
Usenet to make money.  Nothing wrong with that at all.
Blatant marketing hype is frowned upon, but reasonable
advertising pass with nary a whimper (The recent Uunet and
(every 3 mo.) Telebit announcements come immediately to mind).

However, even though few (one?) moderators were ever elected,
moderator is sort of like an elected position.  Making money,
other than a salary, from an elected position is pretty unethical
(unless you happen to be a member of the U.S. Congress :-( ).

In this case, the Usenet salary for a moderator is a big goose
egg.  This is something that should be changed.  I suggest that
the salaries come from a tax on pay access sites and _leaf_ sites
that don't pull their own weight.  This would include UUNET
(note my address), Portal, and others, as well as AT&T and other
_leaf_ sites.

The moderators would become employees of the Usenet Community Trust
(or whatever), and the Compilation Copyright for every group would
be owned by the Usenet Community Trust (or whatever).

-- 
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