[743] in Commercialization & Privatization of the Internet
Re: have your credit card number ready, operators are standing by [IGC]
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Edward Vielmetti)
Mon May 27 16:31:11 1991
To: alison@osc.edu
Cc: com-priv@uu.psi.com
In-Reply-To: Your message of Mon, 27 May 91 14:00:30 -0400.
Date: Mon, 27 May 91 16:30:01 EDT
From: Edward Vielmetti <emv@ox.com>
Alison, if I had to justify this , I'd put it this way:
- Users are responsible for the contents of their traffic, not network service
providers. There are too many rules out there for any one network
service provider to know whether what they are doing is OK on someone
else's subnet, so the burden of responsibility lies on the network user
except perhaps in the cases where there are serious side effects to the
community at large from the volume of traffic generated by e.g.
grainy scannings of copyrighted X-rated photos.
- The charge is not for the use of the long-haul network, it is for
access to the services on the system and the cost of the "local loop".
It is not the ``subsidized network'' that's being sold, but the
services and materials at the host.
- Alternative access methods over public data networks (sprintnet) are
available, so there's no question of forcing people to use the Internet.
RLN has been selling access to their services over the net for years.
--Ed
