[1624] in Commercialization & Privatization of the Internet
interpreting the new ANSnet policy
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Edward Vielmetti)
Sat Dec 7 13:41:42 1991
To: com-priv@uu.psi.com
Date: Sat, 07 Dec 91 13:38:04 -0500
From: Edward Vielmetti <emv@msen.com>
The most benign interpretation that I can come up with about the new
ANSnet policy is that organizations which have not signed up with ANS
will not be allowed to access Dialog. This need not be phrased as a
matter of national policy; there are other organizations which have
applied routing filters locally to ensure that traffic from inappopriate
networks (e.g. those networks with commerical use restrictions) will
not go to that site.
The phrase "cutting off your nose to spite your face" comes to mind;
since some of the more interesting and forward-looking work in information
retrieval is being done at commercial sites, it appears that a strict
reading of this policy will block Dialog employees from collaborating
with those efforts. That's a shame, but at this point in the evolution
of hte Internet I'm not sure that it's possible to maintain full
connectivity and open exchange of ideas while simultaneously generating
interest from large players.
I happen to think that it's important to national policy not to put up
overwhelming financial and regulatory burdens on small firms to provide
commercial services on the Internet; it's hard enough to get the
technology and theuser interfaces up to speed without having to constantly
worry about being cut off from the net by some outside force.
--Ed
Edward Vielmetti, vice president for research, MSEN Inc. emv@msen.com
