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From: era@scdpyr.ucar.edu (Ed Arnold)
Newsgroups: rec.humor.d,news.misc
Subject: Re: Yes, I can sell a jokebook via USENET.
Message-ID: <1057@ncar.ucar.edu>
Date: 29 Nov 88 04:43:31 GMT
References: <2391@looking.UUCP> <79090@sun.uucp>
Sender: news@ncar.ucar.edu
Reply-To: era@scdpyr.UCAR.EDU (Ed Arnold)
Organization: Scientific Computing Division/NCAR, Boulder CO
Lines: 21

In article <79090@sun.uucp> chuq@sun.UUCP (Chuq Von Rospach) writes:
>
>On the other hand -- on the Internet, commercial activity is explicitly
>against the rules and CAN get you in trouble. Add that to the large number
>of Internet-based NNTP links and Brad's all-too-true statement above about
>it happening all the time, and ask yourself if USENET is violating Internet
>rules....
>
Maybe I'm dense, but I don't understand.

Brad's commercial activity is *overt*.  However, everytime I mail
Chuq at sun.com because my sun is broke and I want it fixed,
*that's commercial activity too* ... I'm quite sure that a lot
of sun customers (and apollo customers and mips customers and blah blah)
are using a lot of internet bandwidth to get their systems serviced,
albeit in a *covert* manner.  So, what's the real difference?  Isn't
this discussion just a lot of "angels on the head of a pin" silliness?
__________
Ed Arnold * NCAR (Nat'l Center for Atmospheric Research) * Mesa Lab
PO Box 3000 * Boulder, CO  80307-3000 * 303-497-1253 * 303-494-6949 (home)
era@ncar.ucar.edu [128.117.64.4] * {ames,gatech,noao,...}!ncar!era