From: forda@gtephx.UUCP (Andrew Ford @ AGCS, Phoenix, Arizona)
Subject: Re: NetNews/CD - USENET News Available
Organization: gte
Date: Thu, 13 Aug 1992 17:18:04 GMT

In article <23401@alice.att.com>, jj@alice.att.com (jj, curmudgeon) writes:
> In article <1992Aug6.203729.15507@murdoch.acc.Virginia.EDU> gsh7w@fermi.clas.Virginia.EDU (Greg Hennessy) writes:
> >In article <23398@alice.att.com> jj@alice.UUCP (jj, curmudgeon) writes:
> >#Pay for Read sites are NOT part of USENET, and have
> >#never been part of USENET.
> 
> >Says who?
> Says everyone who built up the network, says the network documents,
> and says custom.

As to those who built the network, I don't know them, but what I've seen
from them indicates that usenet is constantly growing and changing: 
something you don't seem to like and are trying vehemently to deny.

As to the documents, please be kind enought to post specific references
to these "documents" and how I can read them.  (Actually, it'd be nice
if you quoted the relevant sections in your post -- someone might 
actually believe what you are writing!)

As to custom, the biggest custom in netnews is that it is constantly
changing, expanding and moving to new areas and no-one is in control 
of it!

> >#USENET is bulletin-board like in that
> >#it doesn't charge money for its contents.  (a site might
> >#charge for using a computer, and make a profit. so what?)
> 
> >And a site might charge for its contents, so what?
> Pardon me?  It matters a great deal if they charge more for
> say, rec.audio than they do for alt.flame, which is not
> part of USENET.

Please enlighten me as to why the alternate hierarchy is not 
part of netnews (obviously, rec.xxx isn't part of usenet either
except in the sense that netnews is transmitted over usenet).

> >Who are you to say that one is "usenet" and the other is not? 
> Someone with a LOT of experience.

Gee, and I though usenet was a basic anarchy with no-one in control
of more than his own site.  


#DEFINE HUMOR SMART*SS
> >Both quack like the same duck.
> The only bird here is the one you're flipping me.

Well, you asked for it!

                                             
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#DEFINE HUMOR OFF
                                             
                                             
>  Bush    *Copyright alice!jj 1992, all rights reserved, except transmission
>    vs       *by USENET and like facilities granted.      Said permission is
>  Clinton  --    *granted only for complete copies that include this notice.
>  Just Say !NO!       *Use on pay-for-read services specifically disallowed.

The cute thing here is that, in a legal sense, most usenet and like facilities
are pay-for-read services: do you think we pay to see somone else's computer?
You are playing silly semantic games in trying to say that somone charges for
access time only: nobody pays for access time!  Even though the charges may
be based on access time, the access time is based on what the person is reading
and the person is therefore paying to read (access time charges are a convenient
way of measuring how much is read, or is there something else that people use
that access time for, like maybe seeing what kind of machine they are using, 
just to make sure it didn't change -- or maybe they're checking to see if the
software got updated since yesterday -- then again, maybe they're just logging
in to read something of interest!).

-- 
"25 States allow anyone to buy a gun, strap it on, and walk down the street with
no permit of any kind: some say it's crazy.  However, 4 out of 5 US murders are 
committed in the other half of the country: so who is crazy?"   -  Andrew Ford
gtephx!forda@enuucp.eas.asu.edu  OR  !uunet!samsung!romed!enuucp!gtephx!forda
Newsgroups: news.admin,comp.org.eff.talk,misc.legal.computing