Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!ncc!alberta!access!edm!news From: news@edm.UUCP (news software) Newsgroups: news.misc Subject: Re: Not Basing Usenet Behavior on Property Rights (Re: Fascism Lives ...) Message-ID: <3103@edm.UUCP> Date: 9 May 88 05:25:31 GMT References:Distribution: na Organization: Unexsys Systems, Edmonton,AB. Lines: 35 From article , by webber@constance.rutgers.edu (Bob Webber): > In article <70@dcs.UUCP>, wnp@dcs.UUCP (Wolf N. Paul) writes: >>... >> Further, while there may be freedom of speech, USENET also involves the >> privilege of using other people's material resources for free, and anytime >> you use somebody elses resources in the exercise of your rights, the owner > > While you are correct that Usenet involves the use of property and hence > its customs legally are doubtless controlled by property rights, this is > not a good base for grounding Usenet behavior. The reason is quite simply > that historically (and even today) a very large number of Usenet news > operations are run in complete ignorance of the property owners. I.e., > the people that actually pay the bills are quite often completely unaware Well, either things are a LOT different in your area of this continent, or Edmonton is a WEIRD city (Ok. so we've got a man made waterfall and WEM, but still...:-) Just about everybody I know of in Edmonton who has a usenet feed has it legitimately (with the knowledge, and often the WISHES of the system owner). To be more precise, although the companies/organizations don't usually budget for a standalone USENET machine, the existence of the link tends to be open knowledge at the very least. (I mean: I'm not going to go to premier Getty just to get an OK for putting news on one of the Alberta Hospital machines, but I have also been paid (as an external consultant) for my efforts in getting usenet running on a machine.) Just because there isn't a item labeled 'USENET' in provincial/state /national budgets doesn't mean that it isn't officially accounted for at some level. -- ------------- Stephen Samuel {ihnp4,ubc-vision,vax135}!alberta!edm!steve or userzxcv@uqv-mts.bitnet