Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!aplcen!uakari.primate.wisc.edu!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!sol.ctr.columbia.edu!IDA.ORG!roskos
From: roskos@IDA.ORG (Eric Roskos)
Newsgroups: news.misc
Subject: Re: The Rape of Usenet
Keywords: The wholesale capturing of Usenet by GEnie
Message-ID: <1990Feb12.141605.29340@IDA.ORG>
Date: 12 Feb 90 14:16:05 GMT
References: <946@crash.cts.com>
Organization: IDA, Alexandria, VA
Lines: 39

canada@crash.cts.com (Diane Barlow Close) writes:

>The more Usenet becomes publicized, the greater the danger of someone in
>political power becoming ``concerned''.  Perhaps concerned enough to pass
>legislation like that currenly up for review in New York:  a sysop must
>validate each and every *message* that is posted to his BBS and must also
>guarantee privacy of the message and guarantee that the message NOT appear
>on any other service.  

I certainly agree with you on this latter.  Although I have objected to
the commercialization of the Usenet (without result) in the past, I
continue to agree that the Usenet should not become entangled with
commercial enterprises.  (That is one of the reasons why I have resisted
substantial pressure to sign up with UUNET.) Subscribers to the PRODIGY
service are well familiar with the extent to which the operators of a
commercial service can go in asserting their legal right to censorship,
as evidenced by the recent eradication, without prior discussion, of the
entire "health" topic area on PRODIGY after one of the users complained
that he didn't want his children reading discussion (other than his)
about AIDS there.  (He had previously posted statistics on the subject
which some of the other participants maintained were invalid.) One can
imagine that subscribers to a commercial service might similarly object
to the Usenet's diverse topic areas, and, on a similar moral crusade,
set out to force elimination of Usenet topic areas. 

Of course, this is not that likely here, though possible.  But it does
seem that the Usenet's support of a free exchange of ideas, originating
in the academic and research community (which has regrettably already
withdrawn somewhat from the Usenet), is something that is not often
found on the commercial boards.  It seems unwise to allow people to
profit from the Usenet's particular mix of participants unless the
majority feel that they are willing for it to do so.  But this is just
my personal opinion; yours may differ. 

-- 
Eric Roskos (roskos@IDA.ORG or Roskos@DOCKMASTER.NCSC.MIL)

	"Some countries maintain `fast time' throughout the year, in which
	 case it becomes `standard time'." -- DMA World Map 1150 (USGS)