Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!ames!ncar!boulder!sunybcs!bingvaxu!leah!itsgw!steinmetz!uunet!ficc!karl
From: karl@ficc.uu.net (karl lehenbauer)
Newsgroups: news.misc
Subject: Re: Adding commercial access to Usenet
Keywords: news BIX
Message-ID: <3079@ficc.uu.net>
Date: 13 Feb 89 22:35:33 GMT
References: <796@n8emr.UUCP> <4524@inco.UUCP> <206@bixpb>
Organization: Ferranti International Controls
Lines: 43

Dave Mack writes:
>And if The Source bought a full feed from
>uunet, I don't see that we could do anything about it.

>If someone is dumb enough to pay for something they could get for
>free, that's not my problem.

Agreed.  If the bigtime pay networks want to open the Pandora's box to get
access to that juicy 4 MB/day of traffic represented by Usenet, fine.
Once their news-oriented users find out they can get Usenet for less, or for 
free, they'll probably migrate away from the more expensive pay systems.

Let's hear from BIX: 
In article <206@bixpb>, bensmith@bixpb (Ben Smith) writes:
 
> It is true that BIX is considering posting some of the NetNews articles
> in a conference for just that purpose. The reasoning as follows:
>    (1) Many BIX users do not have access to UseNet but are interested
>        knowing what is going on.
>    (2) The articles are editited to include only valuable article of
>        interest to BIX readers (this may be considered either a service
>        or a limitation, depending on your point of view.

Ah ha, pre-edited in advance, that means (certainly a "limitation" in this 
spud's opinion) no Amiga/Ridge/Sequent/Sun/Cray/hockey/woodworking/scuba/bizarre
coverage, eh? ...and nothing sufficiently ugly, like your users finding out 
enough about Usenet to discover they could switch to it for less money.  

>    (3) NetNews may seem to be free, but someone is actually having to
>        pay the phone bills, the disk space, the administration time.
>        The idea that the news is free is very naive. BIX is actually
>        an inexpensive system for individuals.
 
Fine, owning your own Unix system and running it as a news site isn't free 
and may not be cheap compared to Bix.  However, news actually *is* free to 
a great many people, such as all the users of sugar, killer, and many other 
no-charge public-access systems, as well as to a lot of people whose employers 
pay for it, and nearly free to all the users of the flat-monthly-fee systems 
like Portal.  How can Bix compete with that? ... don't talk about it too much 
and just carry a "best of" section, I guess.
-- 
-- uunet!ficc!karl	"An expression of deep worry and concern failed to
-- karl@ficc.uu.net	 cross either of Zaphod's faces."  -- Hitchiker's Guide