Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!rutgers!rochester!kodak!swamps!val
From: val@swamps.UUCP (Val Christian)
Newsgroups: comp.sources.d
Subject: Re: Get shareware off the network
Keywords: You want to make money off of me?  Pay the rent!
Message-ID: <206@swamps.UUCP>
Date: 7 Mar 90 03:52:35 GMT
References: <1287@polari.UUCP> <34557@watmath.waterloo.edu> <4349@jhunix.HCF.JHU.EDU>
Reply-To: val@swamps.UUCP (Val Christian)
Organization: IIASA, Laxenburg, Austria
Lines: 23

In article <4349@jhunix.HCF.JHU.EDU> doug@jhuvms.bitnet (Douglas Wal) writes:
> In article <34557@watmath.waterloo.edu> bstempleton@watmath.waterloo.edu (Brad Templeton) writes:
> ->People, USENET is not unsolicited in any manner.  It's a private club.
> ->You can only join it with the permission of another member.  You can
> ->only join it and subscribe to its data flows through your own
> ->explicit acts.  It bears no resemblance to a book that the post office
> ->leaves on your doorstep.
> Funny, I seem to remember going out and *buying* a mailbox and erecting it
> according to post office regulations.  Does that mean that my mail is no
> longer unsolicited and people can now send me things through the US mails
> and demand payment?  Putting up the mailbox was certainly an explicit act
> to allow the mail to reach me.

True, this was an explicit act, similar to getting an account on a UNIX
system, which also allows mail to reach you. HOWEVER, in order to get
netnews, you also have to type "rn" or "readnews", and then subscribe
to the specific groups you want to read. THAT is like subscribing to
a paper or a magazine, and THAT'S why netnews is NOT unsolicited.
-- 
Wolf N. Paul, International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis
Schloss Laxenburg, Schlossplatz 1, A - 2361 Laxenburg, Austria, Europe
Phone: [43] (2236) 71521-465    BITNET: tuvie!iiasa!wnp@cernvax.BITNET
UUCP:   uunet!tuvie!iiasa!wnp   INTERNET: wnp%iiasa.at@uunet.uu.net