From: mbarry@nyx.cs.du.edu (Marshall Barry)
Subject: Re: Pay for a BBS?
Keywords: bbs
Organization: IBECC - A Non-Profit Educational/Scientific Corporation
Date: Tue, 25 Aug 92 19:35:54 GMT


 
In article <1992Aug25.153514.15625@yenta.alb.nm.us> weenie@yenta.alb.nm.us (Dean
 Kerl) writes:
>mbarry@nyx.cs.du.edu (Marshall Barry) writes:
>>      The concept of paying for a BBS, as opposed to paying for a "service"
>>      is what is really at stake.  If all BBSes are "presumed" to be
>>      "for profit" or "requiring a fee", then entities such as the
>>      telephone company, IRS, etc. will ALSO presume such, and suddenly
>>      the BBS community will be ensnared in a mass of red tape, regulation,
>>      and so forth.  If the majority are "free", then it is more difficult
>>      to treat a BBS as a for-profit entity... and while it also means that
>>      they are not as "organized" as "fee" systems, it is easier to
>>      equate them with "pamphleteers" (to quote Dr. Pournelle) and entitled
>>      to "freedom of the press".
 
>I can more than vouch for the red tape since we are a for profit system!
>However, our right to freedom of the press cannot be denied because we
>are in it for the money. Most of the newspapers I know try to make a
>profit as well.
 
        Again, that's not a reason to deny freedom of the press... but,
        for example, there is a difference between the mentality of
        "this is a business" and "this is personal" - and this is where the
        hassle is occurring.  The fact that the "NEWS MEDIA" is protected by
        freedom of the press is historical.  The original newspapers and
        pamphleteers did not necessarily print to "make a profit" (tho,
        of course, they tried to avoid losing their lives and souls to
        it as well).  "Freedom" is almost a side-issue... but, by FOCUSING
        on the "profit" aspect, what we will get is REGULATION and
        LEGISLATION, LICENSING and "business rates for all".
 
        In a recent (several months ago) conversation at the Denver
        University, one of the more prominent constitutional law professors
        stated that BBSes are NOT protected by the US Constitution and,
        technically, by freedom of the press.  In fact, if anything, quite
        the opposite as there is NO case history which even implies such
        protection -- in fact, the best case would be to consider BBSes to
        be "periodicals" as opposed to "newspapers" with message areas
        considered to be "editorials" and "letters to the editor".
 
        Yet, this isn't the real point.  The point of worrying about business
        focus is the IMPLICATION of *ALL* BBSes being "business."
 
        The nightmare is JUST beginning.
 
>>      services, can (and will) ride over and destroy (or severely damage)
>>      the "free" or "non-profit" services -- as it is QUITE easy for a
>>      well-funded service to drive smaller systems or organizations right
>>      out of existance - especially if such is intended.
 
>How can a system like mine that charges 50 cents/hour possibly put a
>free system out of business?
 
        You have HOW many lines?  And what kind of financial backing?
        Please don't take this as a negative comment - as, again, there
        are MANY places a commercial entity should exist.  But, if you
        truly wanted to "put people out", the history of monopoly and
        business is well documented.
 
        Offer a service, in four colour glossy, for 50cents an hour...
        with functions that simply can not be duplicated, or which
        express or imply grandiose or incredible themes and such.
        Heck, even provide that service...
 
        You won't "put out" *ALL* the competition ... not so long as
        regulations, legislation, and licensing don't force the others
        out... there will always be small, "free", boards (just as there
        are small, "free", newspapers).
 
        Now make "putting others out of business" your INTENT.  You
        don't "care" about the little "one line BBSes" because they
        simply don't matter... if they live or die makes no difference.
 
        What DOES matter is "competition"... those BBSes that will try
        to provide for a "lower fee" (aka free) what you are trying to
        sell.  Without the financial resources to compete, and without
        the long-term stability of the "up front cash", there IS no
        competition, there is no survival...
 
        Again, the small system still stands a chance of survival, but
        only if it can provide something FREE and UNIQUE.
 
        The day they "license" BBSes, or "regulate" them in a business
        fashion - which the BIG BUSINESS BBSes and SERVICES would (in
        many cases) like to see happen (ref. the phone company can now
        be a service provider, and they are pushing to make all BBS
        systems pay business telephone rates... as a START), your business
        stays in existance - and can then charge whatever the traffic
        will bear... My "1-line" bbs goes down, because I can neither
        afford to pay the increased overhead, nor do I offer something
        "unique" enough to get people to be willing to pay for it at
        51 cents/hour as opposed to your 50cents....
 
        Note, again, that I do not say that YOUR system, which is very
        unique and reasonably priced, is the case in point.  But, there
        are many documented cases of companies with great funding and
        business orientation simply walking over anyone and everyone who
        gets in their "corporate" way.  Many laws exist to protect people
        from "unfair competition", but - laughably/pathetically - it often
        costs so much to fight, that it is easier to just give in, fold
        up and go away.
 
// Mb //
 
--
 <mbarry@nyx.cs.du.edu> is also <Marshall.Barry@f169.n104.z1.FidoNet.Org> 
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