dick@slvblc.UUCP (Dick Flanagan) (04/30/88)
In article <20.UUL1.3#935@aocgl.COM> tmanos@aocgl.COM (Theodore W. Manos) writes: > *I* pay to cost for USENET here, equipment, connection charges, everything, > out of *MY* pocket. So do I. Got room on your cross for the rest of us? ;-) > I'd like to propose that the USENET go back to it's more original function, > which was *NOT* to provide advertisement free of charge to certain companies > or persons who are nothing other than leeches. At what point do those with just a PC, modem, and copy of UULINK become the leeches? Ever? Never? In a symbiotic environment such as Usenet, we are all "leeches" upon one another--each giving, taking, sharing to the extent we are able or willing to do so. If this were not so, the net would soon suffocate and die from its own weight. > I'd like to see the net allow > *only* Public Domain and Freeware software to be distributed over it. If > software is to be distributed over the net, free of charge to those who > distribute/author it, then it should be both fully functional and completely > free of usage charges to anyone who gets it from the net. I have read about an equal number of pro's and con's regarding the recent posting of PCSPICE. What strikes me as significant is that, because of its posting, it now resides in many school libraries and on even more student systems--places where it would not otherwise have been. How can you measure how many people will benefit from this? How many courses will now include it or even be built around it? How many teachers and students will it benefit? If you had your way, the answer would be "none." > Anything else is a > perversion of the function of USENET. I think what you propose would be the perversion. Dick -- Dick Flanagan, W6OLD GEnie: FLANAGAN UUCP: ...!ucbvax!ucscc!slvblc!dick Voice: +1 408 336 3481 Internet: slvblc!dick@ucscc.UCSC.EDU LORAN: N037 04.7 W122 04.6 USPS: PO Box 155, Ben Lomond, CA 95005