Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.1 6/24/83; site ru-cs44.UUCP Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!allegra!mit-eddie!genrad!teddy!panda!talcott!harvard!seismo!mcvax!ukc!ru-cs44!west From: west@ru-cs44.UUCP (west) Newsgroups: net.news.stargate Subject: Re: Need for Stargate screening? Message-ID: <877@ru-cs44.UUCP> Date: Fri, 18-Jan-85 10:35:18 EST Article-I.D.: ru-cs44.877 Posted: Fri Jan 18 10:35:18 1985 Date-Received: Mon, 21-Jan-85 02:45:15 EST References: <494@vortex.UUCP> <702@cbosgd.UUCP> <831@hound.UUCP> Reply-To: west@ru-cs44.UUCP (Jeremy West) Organization: Reading Univ. UK. Lines: 54 Summary: Not all Usenetters pay for their use In article <831@hound.UUCP> rfg@hound.UUCP (R.GRANTGES) writes: >What is this stuff about the people who pay the bills having the say? >Of course that's true. But who are these people? As I understand it, >they are we. Each of us has an account with our comp center. Ultimately >that account is billed to some other account belonging to some corporation >or gov"t agency or whatever. We have an amount authorized for our >account over some period of time, like a year. One of our supervisors >has approved that amount. We ourselves are intrusted with how we go about >spending the account and for what. This is not so for two major groups of users, firstly and most obviously, the Universities and other academic institutions. Students tend to be fairly cavalier in their attitudes (present net company excepted :-}) and most certainly have no say in the financing of their department or university facilities. In the UK, at least, many academic sites are only now receiving Usenet through a (govt funded) X25 network, Usenet being previously regarded as of insufficient value to justify expensive phone bills at a time of cost-cutting. Secondly, not all corporations bill individual users, writing general costs off as 'overheads'. These sites may include the most important 'backbone' sites which are the only source for many other sites who then only pay for local phone calls. Massive long distance phone calls are a sure way to bankrupt many small companies or individual users (and several 'fred@home' sites have appeared on the net.) I believe that StarGate will arrive (and welcome) and that as a broadcast medium it will suffer from the strait-laced oppression of a hypocritical society. Thus it will HAVE to be moderated to get off the ground (pardon the pun) -- but, let's face it, how much of the current input to the Net is actually libelous, obscene or an incitement to crime? The seperate problem of "one voice reflecting an organisation's views" will be with us even after StarGate has proved the success I hope it will. An individual may not like the idea that what they say may not be broadcast, but until society as a whole accepts the right to say what you like to whom you like (and with all the consequences that may entail) StarGate will have to be moderated. Of course, there's no need to create a StarGate if sites are prepared to stump up the cash. Unfortunately, sites have already said that either costs come down or they will leave. This includes at least one major 'feed' site on whom many others rely. In a fight between Money and Principle, I know which one I'd back. -- Jerry. !ukc!ru-cs44!rdg-cs!west