Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!ncc!lyndon From: lyndon@ncc.Nexus.CA (Lyndon Nerenberg) Newsgroups: news.misc Subject: Re: Not Basing Usenet Behavior on Property Rights (Re: Fascism Lives ...) Message-ID: <10219@ncc.Nexus.CA> Date: 9 May 88 15:22:16 GMT References:<3103@edm.UUCP> Reply-To: lyndon@ncc.UUCP (Lyndon Nerenberg) Distribution: na Organization: Nexus Computing Inc. Lines: 33 In article <3103@edm.UUCP> news@edm.UUCP (news software) writes: >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. Having an existing box with some disk space pick up a news feed isn't going to impact the operations of the business that much (the machine costs the same whether you run news on it or not). What's at issue here is the DIRECT cost to some sites of having a USENET feed - that cost being the long distance telephone charges incurred to bring in a feed. News on 'ncc' runs with the system administrators (my) blessing. HOWEVER, that's not to say that if the bean counters *really* know what our phone bills were all about that there wouldn't be some questions asked. I have a *rough* idea of what we spend on LD charges, but I'm sure as hell NOT going to go ask as I don't think I want to know what it really is... Yes, USENET is common knowledge to administrators. No, the *actual* costs are very rarely known to administrators. You would understand this better if you were paying LD charges to propogate news. >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. Don't be obtuse! The question at hand is: "What happens if/when the bean counters find out what the $xxxK per month under 'telecommunications' is *really* paying for?" -- {alberta,utzoo,uunet}!ncc!lyndon lyndon@Nexus.CA