Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!uunet!sco!seanf
From: seanf@sco.COM (Sean Fagan)
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: <5125@scolex.sco.COM>
Date: 9 Mar 90 09:53:02 GMT
References: <1287@polari.UUCP> <34557@watmath.waterloo.edu> <4349@jhunix.HCF.JHU.EDU> <206@swamps.UUCP>
Reply-To: seanf@sco.COM (Sean Fagan)
Organization: The Santa Cruz Operation, Inc.
Lines: 24

In article <206@swamps.UUCP> val@swamps.UUCP (Val Christian) writes:
>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.

No, it's more like opening a package that was delivered to you.  Unless you
are the sysadm, you made not motion, external to the system (your house, in
the USPS analogy) to get "the stuff."  When you subscribe to a newspaper,
you fill out forms or call the paper; when you subscribe to a newsgroup, you
just type a seemingly-random bunch of characters, somewhat akin to opening a
box or envelope.

Or are you arguing that, if someone sends you source code to System V UNIX,
you should also be fined the, what, $50000 / copy?  Or better, if it gets
posted to comp.sources.d, then everybody who reads the group should have
their belongings confiscated by the FBI (sorry; I've been reading
comp.dcom.telecom, and getting paranoid 8-))?

-- 
Sean Eric Fagan  | "Time has little to do with infinity and jelly donuts."
seanf@sco.COM    |    -- Thomas Magnum (Tom Selleck), _Magnum, P.I._
(408) 458-1422   | Any opinions expressed are my own, not my employers'.