[11272] in Commercialization & Privatization of the Internet
Re: Universities (was: What is an "Internet reseller"?)
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Glenn S. Tenney)
Mon Mar 28 04:55:00 1994
Date: Sun, 27 Mar 1994 01:12:25 -0800
To: francis@avalle.insoft.com (John [Francis] Stracke), com-priv@psi.com
From: tenney@netcom.com (Glenn S. Tenney)
At 5:26 PM 3/25/94 +0500, John [Francis] Stracke wrote:
>"Most"? I've never seen this. I *have* seen one university
>(uchicago.edu) where students were charged ($20/yr, I think) to
>connect their own computers to the campus LAN, but IP access wasn't
>separate; they were paying for the LAN infrastructure--and they could
>use the campus machines for free.
In the case you mention, the student (the company's customer ... er, the
university's customer) purchased "computer access". IP access was a part
of the for-fee service provided.
>Anyway, what's the difference between a university charging a student,
>who's using IP for schoolwork, and a company charging one of its
>departments, who's using IP for company work? In each case, a member
>of the institution is using IP for institution-related work; to say
>that the student isn't (necessarily) employed by the university is
>splitting hairs. The company charging its dept. is doing it to keep
A department of a company is still part of the company. The student is not
working for the university and is not doing the "company's" work -- the
student is the customer. It is NOT splitting hairs -- I don't know of ANY
company for which it's employees have to pay for the privilege of being
there.
Allow me an analogy: If I rent my apartment or office and IP access is
included, would you consider the person/company renting me the space to be
an ISP? If not, then fine. But, if so then you would have to come to the
same conclusion about any university that charged students for computer
access or net access or whatever.
>The real difference, IMHO, between a university and an ISP is that the
>university doesn't provide IP access to the public.
Then any tax supported university or junior college or whatever that is
required to be available to the public (for example, state universities) IS
providing access to the public.
Please do not misunderstand ---- I do not think that the CIX should
consider a university to be an ISP, but I don't think that a coop or my
home, or many other things should be either. However if the CIX decides to
follow my understanding of Karl's position, then any university charging
separately or itemizing computer access as part of the tuition *IS* an ISP.
---
Glenn Tenney
tenney@netcom.com Amateur radio: AA6ER
(415) 574-3420 Fax: (415) 574-0546
