Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2 9/18/84; site brl-tgr.ARPA Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!allegra!bellcore!decvax!genrad!teddy!panda!talcott!harvard!seismo!brl-tgr!tgr!whh%jhu.csnet@CSNET-RELAY.ARPA From: "W.H. Huggins"Newsgroups: net.unix-wizards Subject: Re: AT&T and Unix Message-ID: <7380@brl-tgr.ARPA> Date: Tue, 15-Jan-85 19:55:21 EST Article-I.D.: brl-tgr.7380 Posted: Tue Jan 15 19:55:21 1985 Date-Received: Sun, 20-Jan-85 05:52:43 EST Sender: news@brl-tgr.ARPA Organization: Ballistic Research Lab Lines: 25 In your recent comments, you write: >What I got out of his message was "AT&T is doing you all a big favor, so why >are you biting the hand the feeds you?" My point is that AT&T isnt doing me, >and other hackers like me, any favors with their pricing structure. I'm upset >that Lauren makes it sound like AT&T is being nice to everybody, when in fact >they are only doing favors for educational institutions. A point that has not been adequately recognized in this debate is that Educational institutions traditionally enjoy a priviledged status in society because they contribute in ways vital to its well-being. Schools are exempt from taxes and rely on gifts and contributions from individuals, corporations, foundations, and other organizations for the support needed to fulfill their functions. The tuition that you paid to your university covered only a small fraction of what it cost the school. Most schools desparately need such support. Have you made any donations to your school recently? Perhaps someday, society will come to appreciate that hacking is the priviledged activity that you seem to believe, and declare that contributions to hackers should similarly be tax deductible. But from the many reports that appear daily in the news media linking hackers to computer fraud, the most applicable exemption would be exemption from the law!