Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!shadooby!samsung!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!mips!colossus!kevin From: kevin@mips.COM (Kevin Kuhn) Newsgroups: news.misc Subject: Re: The Rape of Usenet Keywords: The wholesale capturing of Usenet by GEnie Message-ID: <33939@mips.mips.COM> Date: 22 Dec 89 23:57:51 GMT References: <946@crash.cts.com> <1019@wsu-cs.uucp> Sender: news@mips.COM Reply-To: kevin@mips.COM (Kevin Kuhn) Organization: MIPS Computer Systems, Sunnyvale, CA Lines: 27 I think this whole situation is a lot like sattelite technology. Any business owner is free to purchase a sattelite dish and show pay channels in their bar or restaurant, as long as the sattelite owner doesn't use a descrambling device to decode information. USENET is like the sat broadcaster sending out signal into the public domain. GEnie is the bar owner who buys the equipment to receive these signals. As the bar owner everyone who patronizes my business can see the sat programs. I make profits selling liquor and food. However I'm not allowed to charge an admission or a fee to see the programs, or as you here at the end of every sports cast "is intended solely for the non commercial use...." If GEnie is using the information in a way that they do not charge a premium over their current connect rate (the normal cost for their service) then they are doing nothing wrong. If they charge a premium for access to USENET data, or or use USENET in a commercial way to enhance their product (the same way a bar can't advertise the fact they will be showing a boxing event off their sat dish to attract customers to their business) then their is probably someway to stop them, but it would probably take a lot of time and money. -- =========================================================== Kevin Kuhn kevin@mips.com MIPS Computer Systems {ames,decwrl,prls,pyramid}!mips!kevin