pn (04/21/83)
Well, despite all the debate, it appears that TWG is going ahead with forwarding MRs through their UUCP and USENET neighbors. I just found one lurking in my /usr/spool/uucp directory. I wonder if twg or their customers realize how public UUCP mail is. I also wonder if they expect their neighbors to foot the phone bills without complaint. >From burl!sb1!emory!emorycc!ospwd Wed Apr 20 17:01:36 1983 remote from amd70 >To: emory!sb1!burl!amd70!twg!anne >Subject: nohup MR >Cc: eunice km system > THIS IS A MODIFICATION REQUEST (MR) FORM TO BE SUBMITTED ON-LINE > VIA UUCP AND USENET PATHS TO THE WOLLONGONG GROUP (TWG). > All MRs must be submitted by the authorized technical contact, > with the TWG license number. To insure prompt and accurate <deleted>
perelgut (04/22/83)
If I may add my two-cents worth in to this debate. All system managers
should delete any uucp communications regarding these reports. Or change the
requestor's address, or hold them in a special directory and notify TWG that
you have them and will deliver them for a set fee. ($10/report, $100?)
Personally, I like the idea of just deleting the ones you notice since
it enhances the aura of mystery surrounding uucp.
Remember, you cannot transmit and then bill later. You must first get an
agreement in principle from TWG to accept the charges.dmmartindale (04/23/83)
I also think this was a very ill-advised thing for TWG to do. Many universities have to be particularly careful about how they spend their money because their major source of income is tax dollars. I don't think it's too difficult to justify forwarding mail from other universities and research labs because it's likely to be of general benefit to the academic community in the long run. But I don't think I'd try justifying spending public money on forwarding mail for such a wholly commercial purpose such as this. One suggestion: Someone write a shell file or program which intercepts all mail going to AND COMING FROM the Wollongong group and posts it to net.TWG, so that everyone (not just TWG customers) can benefit from the information which is being passed around with the aid of other people's money. Dave Martindale