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Path: utzoo!utcs!mnetor!clewis
From: clewis@mnetor.UUCP (Chris Lewis)
Newsgroups: net.flame
Subject: Re: Is anyone else offended.....
Message-ID: <1106@mnetor.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 27-Jun-85 21:52:02 EDT
Article-I.D.: mnetor.1106
Posted: Thu Jun 27 21:52:02 1985
Date-Received: Thu, 27-Jun-85 23:31:43 EDT
References: <266@timeinc.UUCP>
Reply-To: clewis@mnetor.UUCP (Chris Lewis)
Organization: MYCROFTXXX Inc.
Lines: 36
Summary: 

In article <266@timeinc.UUCP> greenber@timeinc.UUCP (Ross M. Greenberg) writes:
>...
>I feel that a SA should only control their machine.  They shouldn't
>try to control what *I* read.

I am ONLY trying to control OUR machine.  

But, we're running out of disk space, CPU cycles, modem bandwidth, and
the telephone bills are going up.  Not to mention that nobody
down-stream of us would particularly miss net.flame and some of the
other newsgroups either.

Netnews is a public service, brought to most free by SA's that put in
long hours of unpaid overtime to keep the whole thing from falling
apart and companies that pay the bills.  We do it primarily for the
technical material and partially for mail access to the world, and
sometimes for some light entertainment.  But, the cost of carrying
material that is at best in poor taste, and frequently legally
actionable is getting MUCH too high.  Management is starting to put
pressure on too.

As another point, pulling the plug on net.flame would not be
controlling what YOU read - only where you get it from.  Just like if
someone refused to lend you a book that they owned, you are perfectly
free to get it (a book or a netnews feed) from somewhere else.

SA's or the companies that support feed sites are under no obligation,
legal or otherwise, to forward anything, let alone material that
borders on being illegal.  If we pulled the plug on all our USENET 
traffic tomorrow, our downstream sites would have no right to complain.  
SA's and feed sites owe netnews readers (in general) nothing.  They're
paying for the material - most netnews readers don't.

Give 'em h** Chuq!
-- 
Chris Lewis,
UUCP: {allegra, linus, ihnp4}!utzoo!mnetor!clewis