Path: utzoo!censor!geac!torsqnt!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!mailrus!iuvax!watmath!bstempleton
From: bstempleton@watmath.waterloo.edu (Brad Templeton)
Newsgroups: comp.sources.d
Subject: Re: Paying for Shareware (Was: Re: v09i070: newsclip 1.1...)
Message-ID: <34812@watmath.waterloo.edu>
Date: 4 Mar 90 19:23:18 GMT
References: <14010@s.ms.uky.edu> <125816@midas.UUCP> <635@magnus.Hotline.Com> <34720@watmath.waterloo.edu> <639@magnus.Hotline.Com>
Reply-To: bstempleton@watmath.waterloo.edu (Brad Templeton)
Organization: U. of Waterloo, Ontario
Lines: 27

If I said "USENET is a commercial" network I went a bit beyond what I meant.
What I thought I said was that USENET is not non-commercial, in that commercial
traffic is not barred -- or even discouraged in many cases -- on this network.

I don't have to provide documentation on a claim as to what USENET is not.
What has to be shown is that USENET is any particular thing.  The burden of
proof is on somebody who makes an assertion about what is, not on somebody
who denies it.

You can quote from news.announce.newusers all you like.  I wrote some of that
stuff directly, and helped in the writing of other parts of it.  Quote my
own stuff if you like.  It doesn't define what USENET is.  Those files are
simply volunteer works that a few people liked and turned into regular postings.
That's all.  I know, I was there.  They aren't official in any way, they were
never "approved."

Dozens of commercial activities take place on USENET.  Job postings, Ads,
announcements, tech support, people asking for help in their work, cars for
sale, rooms for rent, software updates and yes, shareware and lots of it
(with effectively no complaint prior to this debate.)  The burden of proof
lies with those who would argue that USENET follows their particular
ideology.  It's a tough burden, because USENET has no ideology that I have
seen in my 9 years on it -- other than that derived from the laws of the
nations it is in.

-- 
Brad Templeton, Looking Glass Software, Waterloo, Ont. (519) 884-7473