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From: jik@athena.mit.edu (Jonathan I. Kamens)
Newsgroups: news.misc
Subject: Re: The Rape of Usenet
Keywords: The wholesale capturing of Usenet by GEnie
Message-ID: <1989Dec22.011233.5791@athena.mit.edu>
Date: 22 Dec 89 01:12:33 GMT
References: <946@crash.cts.com> <1989Dec21.000041.6034@ns.network.com> <1989Dec21.020140.24067@athena.mit.edu> <6577@brspyr1.BRS.Com>
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Organization: Massachusetts Institute of Technology
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In article <6577@brspyr1.BRS.Com> tim@brspyr1.BRS.Com (Tim Northrup) writes:
>I still say that this link *can* represent a convenient way to diseminate
>a large volume of information to people who don't have access to Usenet.
>If you have a problem with GEnie doing it, then you could probably use
>the same argument against UUNet.  Do you?  SOMEBODY is making money
>over there (they do have employees that get paid), so whats the
>difference?

  Have you ignored everything I've said.

  UUnet allows people to whom they sell news to post news back through
them.  There is a TWO-WAY exchange of information.  The Usenet
benefits from what UUnet does, because UUnet's clients have the
ability to post news.

  I DO NOT OBJECT to GEnie's charging for Usenet access.  I object to
their doing so without giving the Usenet anything in return, because
the Gateway is one way.

  A two-way gateway means that the system supplying the gateway is
supplying a *service*.  A one-way gateway means that the system
supplying the gateway is *selling a product*.  I do not object to the
former, I object to the latter.

>>  I think it would seem obvious to anyone with half a brain that
>
>(can we stick to the issues, not the size of peoples organs please!)

  Yes, you're right.  Sorry.

>I think it is voluntary -- I don't believe there is any charter which
>states that "once you post to Usenet that message will stay exclusively
>on Usenet".  The messages go wherever they go, and whoever recieves
>them is going to do whatever he wants with them.  That is the nature
>of this beast.

  As I have pointed out in a previous posting, "status quo" does not
equal "the right thing."

  There is no "Usenet charter", or at least not one I have seen.
However, I simply do not believe that the purpose of Usenet is to give
GEnie something to sell to its users.

Jonathan Kamens			              USnail:
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