Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!iuvax!maytag!looking!brad From: brad@looking.on.ca (Brad Templeton) Newsgroups: news.misc Subject: Re: The Rape of Usenet Keywords: The wholesale capturing of Usenet by GEnie Message-ID: <65746@looking.on.ca> Date: 22 Dec 89 07:07:52 GMT References: <946@crash.cts.com> <1989Dec21.000041.6034@ns.network.com> <1989Dec21.020140.24067@athena.mit.edu> <6577@brspyr1.BRS.Com> Organization: Looking Glass Software Ltd. Lines: 25 Class: discussion Aside from the pragmatic reasons (no E-mail yet, GEnie mentality of not using E-mail even when it's there) I have another question. Has it become illegal to be a leaf node all of a sudden? To dare to read a group without posting to it? Is this immoral? GEnie provides a service, which their customers like enough to pay for. That service includes setting up a computer system (something that costs money, hard as that is to believe) and giving people a way to get at all sorts of freely distributable data -- USENET postings, PD software, shareware etc. This is immoral? Their compilation copyright doesn't change the USENET material one whit. A compilation copyright doesn't affect the things that make it up and what may be done with them. My compilation copyright doesn't affect at all what you can do with the individual PD jokes in rec.humor.funny, and GEnie's does not affect the distributability of the USENET material on it. So why is it such a crime to read and not post. We got too many posters as it is. Let's here it for more people who read and don't post! (Snide comment ahead-- is there some problem with people named Jonathan from project Athena, or is it just me? :-) :-) :-) ) [ No offense to Athena, it's a fine project with great people. ] -- Brad Templeton, ClariNet Communications Corp. -- Waterloo, Ontario 519/884-7473