Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!bloom-beacon!apple!epimass!jbuck
From: jbuck@epimass.EPI.COM (Joe Buck)
Newsgroups: news.misc
Subject: Re: Adding commercial access to Usenet
Message-ID: <2869@epimass.EPI.COM>
Date: 10 Feb 89 17:52:49 GMT
References: <796@n8emr.UUCP> <4524@inco.UUCP>
Reply-To: jbuck@epimass.EPI.COM (Joe Buck)
Organization: Entropic Processing, Inc., Cupertino, CA
Lines: 24

In article <4524@inco.UUCP> mack@inco.UUCP (Dave Mack) writes:
>If someone is dumb enough to pay for something they could get for
>free, that's not my problem.
>
>Of course, if CIS were to start charging a fee for reading articles
>originating there, I would feel a bit differently about it. Particularly
>if they started doing a monthly sendsys worldwide to determine who to
>bill.

Oh, come on, Dave.  Let's say CIS did such a thing and mailed you a
bill.  Would you pay it?  Of course not.  None of us signed anything
when we joined Usenet.  We are under no obligation to pay up on dubious
claims.  The act of posting an article gives that article to every site
on the net, period, whether CIS posts it or Brad posts it or whatever.

The pay services can attach to Usenet if they want, as long as they
realize we're not going to pay them.  It's up to them to decide who
they want to bill.  Just as long as they don't pretend they own what
they do not own.
-- 
- Joe Buck	jbuck@epimass.epi.com, or uunet!epimass.epi.com!jbuck,
		or jbuck%epimass.epi.com@uunet.uu.net for old Arpa sites

Life is not a dress rehearsal.