Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!cs.utexas.edu!uunet!shelby!polya!shap From: shap@polya.Stanford.EDU (Jonathan S. Shapiro) Newsgroups: gnu.gcc Subject: Re: info-gcc is not a common carrier Message-ID: <9599@polya.Stanford.EDU> Date: 31 May 89 07:06:45 GMT References: <8905310246.AA00550@sugar-bombs.ai.mit.edu> Sender: Jonathan S. Shapiro Reply-To: shap@polya.Stanford.EDU (Jonathan S. Shapiro) Distribution: gnu Organization: Stanford University Lines: 55 In article <8905310246.AA00550@sugar-bombs.ai.mit.edu> rms@AI.MIT.EDU writes: >The GNU mailing lists are not an open forum for all purposes. Bullshit. >We set them up to promote free software and that is all they should be used >for. Any other advertisements of proprietary software, or activities >in support of monopolies on software, is also misuse of the list. We >certainly would take steps to prevent persistent, deliberate misuse. [... context removed in which it becomes clear that the author is talking abuot info-gcc ] First, financially I have as much right to use the info-gcc mailing list as you do. You simply don't have a leg to stand on, because you have no right of ownership on the mailing list in question. More to the point, if I post something to the netnews group gnu.gcc, and it gets cross posted to info-gcc (which I am doing right now), it is *your* fault, not mine. >However, Apple's freedom of speech does not mean we are obligated to >republish whatever Apple wants to say. If you were a publishing agency in the first place, this argument would have some merit. Since you aren't, it doesn't, and the group's interaction with public forums such as netnews renders the argument largely vacuous, even if you were a private publishing agency. My damn tax dollars payed for your machines at MIT. > FSF is not obligated to lend its mailing lists to hostile purposes. FSF doesn't own the mailing list. > >However, if you do disapprove of us for considering "censorship", I do >wish to hear from you. Even though I think you are mistaken, I still >want to know how many of you there are. Likewise, if you disapprove >more of Apple than you did two weeks ago, then I wish to hear from >you. I submit that you are exercising the same sort of fascism that Apple is. It isn't helpful to Apple, to David Berry, or to FSF. FSF gets a lot of rope on it's image as "the good guy" in this whole mess. This sort of crap, if it continues, may destroy that image, and it is particularly dangerous now that the media has caught on to FSF. Just think about it, and if you must make proprietary arguments about FSF, ground them in fact instead of fantasy. If you want to be fascist, that's up to you, but don't be fascist about things that *my* tax dollars are ultimately paying for. Jon