chip@ateng.ateng.com (Chip Salzenberg) (02/07/89)
[ Followups to news.groups ] According to brad@looking.UUCP (Brad Templeton): >Here are the concerns of mine that must be addressed: > >1) If members of a site [...] attack [r.h.f] and me, particularly in the >press with libel and misrepresentation, then I need: > A) Legal protection that ensures nobody complains that they were > offended without deliberately subscribing and/or decrypting Site admins bear the responsibility for the groups carried on their machines. > B) The right to say, "if all you're going to do is waste my time > complaining about how you don't like what you're getting for free, > then you're not getting it any more." This right is NOT a necessity. Gratifying, maybe, but not necessary. After all, by the time someone takes offense, it's too late. >2) If the newsgroup is to be picked up by Compuserve/Source/Genie/Delphi/Bix >[...] then *I'm* the one that arranges the link, and *I'm* the one who is >the official moderator on that service. Greed rears its ugly head. >3) I am legit in making the annual jokebook, and its compilation copyright >is OK. Its two ugly heads. >Now after examining these needs, I decided that a compilation copyright >with an unlimited electronic distribution and storage licence to free >usenet sites, with case-by-case permission to the borderline commercial >sites was the best answer. Now after examining Brad's "needs", I have decided that nuking r.h.f until Brad's departure is the best answer. >So if you want to hold a vote on the matter, then either you lose because >you don't get 100 more removal votes than keep votes (that was the criterion >other people established during the last such debate.) or you lose because >rec.humor.funny leaves usenet. R.h.f will return in some other form, because it fills a need. Brad, on the other hand, fills a much needed gap. The Usenet community flocked to support him during the JEDR controversy, and now he's trying to cover his behind with the skins of his defenders. We can find another moderator. We won't find another Usenet. Let's not throw away the free distribution of Usenet articles at the request of one frightened moderator. -- Chip Salzenberg <chip@ateng.com> or <uunet!ateng!chip> A T Engineering Me? Speak for my company? Surely you jest! "It's no good. They're tapping the lines."