Path: utzoo!attcan!lsuc!ncrcan!hcr!mnarayan
From: mnarayan@hcr.UUCP (Michael Narayan)
Newsgroups: news.admin
Subject: Re: Changes to the monthly postings (for rec.humor.funny)
Summary: Chill out, everyone.
Keywords: administivia
Message-ID: <4984@hcr.UUCP>
Date: 9 Feb 89 00:27:50 GMT
References: <2706@looking.UUCP> <2844@epimass.EPI.COM> <2714@looking.UUCP> <2847@epimass.EPI.COM> <2718@looking.UUCP>
Reply-To: mnarayan@hcrvx1.UUCP (Michael Narayan)
Organization: HCR Corporation, Toronto
Lines: 44

I'm relatively new to Usenet, so please bear with me.

I can't find anything wrong with Brad's claim to the COMPILATION of articles
in rec.humor.funny. This is because articles are submitted to him for the
purpose of creating a compilation and distributing it. The rights to the
individual articles remain with the author. (Note that he could not use
someone else's material unless he was given permission, or their copyright
was no longer valid.) Brad also has the right to distribute the compilations
as he sees fit.

It appears that the spirit of Usenet is to provide "free" access to the
information on the network, and IMHO, Brad quite rightly (and I applaud him
for doing so) is trying to prevent sites from selling this information.
In the case of CompuServe getting a feed, I think that if they want to provide
their users with Usenet access, then this is fine, PROVIDED that CompuServe
doesn't charge its users anything more for the service than its standard
connection charges, whatever those might be. After all, a wider distribution
benefits everybody. Also, CompuServe users may find out that Usenet is free,
and try to get access to it from public access machines instead of through
CompuServe. (Let market forces decide how much people can be charged for
something they can get for free :-)

Brad appears to be trying to protect himself from people selling
his work, and that of his contributors. I think that if
CompuServe does try to impose a "value-added" charge on its Usenet feed,
then they may be on shaky legal ground to begin with anyways.

With regards to this JEDR that every keeps mentioning (who is (s)he, and
what did they do ?), if someone is upset with something that they read,
well too bad (nyah, nyah, nyah ... :-). They don't have to read the group,
there is something called freedom of speech in most of the countries
where Usenet is available, and most offensive material is rot13. This is
about as silly as opening your television set, disregarding the warning,
getting shocked, and then blaming the manufacturer for allowing high
voltages across the components !

Anyways, I hope I haven't offended anybody too badly. I read r.h.f
regularly and enjoy it, and I stand behind Brad.

Michael J. Narayan
HCR Corp.
uunet!{utcsri,utzoo}!hcr!mnarayan

Clearly, nobody else could have opinions like mine :-)