[10080] in Commercialization & Privatization of the Internet
Re: What goes around, comes around
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Sean McLinden)
Sun Feb 6 11:02:23 1994
Date: Sun, 6 Feb 1994 10:42:28 -0500 (EST)
From: Sean McLinden <sean@dsl.pitt.edu>
To: Karl Denninger <karl@mcs.com>
Cc: Dave Hughes <dave@oldcolo.com>, PAUL@tdr.com, com-priv@psi.com,
In-Reply-To: <m0pTBPr-000BZQC@mercury.mcs.com>
On Sun, 6 Feb 1994, Karl Denninger wrote:
> However, he didn't do that. Instead, he posted 5.5kb to 1500 newsgroups
> <one at a time>. That is, he consumed rahter more than 5.5kb -- in fact,
> he consumed somewhat over 5MB, or more than 10% of one day's normal
> newsflow.
>
> We got all 1500 copies. Even over a T1, it took a bit of time. For those
> paying by the hour, including some of our customers, it cost REAL money --
> THEIR money.
>
> Note that time, place and manner restrictions have been upheld as not in
> violation of the First Ammendment as long as they're reasonable and do not
> prevent the speech from taking place.
>
> You do NOT have the right to capriciously spend someone else's connect
> dollars on something like this, especially when you do so in a grossly
> inefficient manner.
Isn't that one of the core considerations of an "open society", that each
person's liberty costs all of us something.
Although I found myself irritated at the inappropriateness of the posting
I could not help but find wonder in the fact that at no time in our
previous history has an unknown individual had such power to speak to so
many people (except by killing a celebrity). It is also amazing to me,
that with nearly 20 million people having access to this media, incidents
like these are relatively uncommon.
Sean
