Checksum: 63042
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Path: utzoo!sq!msb
From: msb@sq.uucp (Mark Brader)
Date: Fri, 10-Feb-89 21:08:24 EST
Message-ID: <1989Feb10.210824.1579@sq.uucp>
Newsgroups: news.admin
Subject: Re: Protection Against Abuse of Messages
References: <2726@looking.UUCP> <7651@chinet.chi.il.us>
Reply-To: msb@sq.com (Mark Brader)
Organization: SoftQuad Inc., Toronto


> And networks like Compuserve, Western Union's FYI, Source, and others
> which get their $5-7 per hour from users reading data bases -- have for
> some time been hostile toward Fidonet and Usenet for 'stealing' users
> from them; people who have wised up to the fact that you don't have to
> spend $6 an hour to have a good time with your terminal and modem.

I don't really understand why Usenet people would object to something
being carried on, say, Compuserve, just because someone other than makes
money from it.  The point of posting something to the net is to achieve
wide distribution for it.  I say, the more distribution the better,
provided of course that that distribution is an appropriate one for
the individual message.

If Compuserve can make money by selling something which is available for
free elsewhere -- well, so ?  Perhaps what they're really selling is
something else -- a *convenient form of access* to the material.  Is there
some objection to that?

You can say right in your article, as I'm doing here, that if the reader
doesn't like paying Compuserve fees to read it, there are other places
where it's available.  The informed reader may choose to seek out other
places.  If they don't, then Compuserve must be adding value to it in
some way, and therefore earning their profit *from that*.

If you're now saying "but what about intellectual property" -- I'm not
opposed to control of one's intellectual property, nor am I saying that
net postings or compilations are not intellectual property.  Contrariwise.
But I am saying that posting something *to Usenet* carries certain
implications.  As it says the new users' postings, "Think about where
your article is going."  If you post it, you asked for distribution.

Mark Brader, Toronto	"Those who mourn for 'USENET like it was' should
utzoo!sq!msb		 remember the original design estimates of maximum
msb@sq.com 		 traffic volume: 2 articles/day" -- Steven Bellovin