[754] in Public-Access_Computer_Systems_Forum
Re: service provision
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Lee Jaffe, McHenry Library, UC San)
Thu Jul 16 13:13:01 1992
Date: Thu, 16 Jul 1992 12:08:31 CDT
Reply-To: Public-Access Computer Systems Forum <PACS-L%UHUPVM1.BITNET@ricevm1.rice.edu>
From: "Lee Jaffe, McHenry Library, UC Santa Cruz, 408/459-3297" <jaffe@ucscm.UCSC.EDU>
To: Multiple recipients of list PACS-L <PACS-L%UHUPVM1.BITNET@ricevm1.rice.edu>
----------------------------Original message----------------------------
One more time:
There is Bitnet and there is the Internet. They are different.
The Internet is ... well ... hard to define, something like
an avalanche in motion, comprised of everything that it picks
up along the way. If I remember right, MCI and IBM were both
in on the creation and there is a whole subdomain for commer-
cial organizations.
Then there is Bitnet, which is a cooperative educational
network. Bitnet is much more well defined and has a clear
set of guidelines which, again if I remember correctly,
prohibits "commercial activity." That doesn't mean that
there aren't commercial users, though I don't think they
can join Bitnet or be a Bitnet node, but they can't do
business via Bitnet.
Listservers, such as those that support this discussion group
and others, are essentially a Bitnet technology. That's why
all those LISTSERV addresses are on Bitnet. Now, it has become
easier to port mail between Bitnet and Internet and a lot of
Internet users regularly participate in online forums. It is
even possible to address listservers via the Internet. So the
distinctions have blurred. However, if you are on the Internet
but you belong to a listserver group, you need to be aware that
your messages are being distributed by a Bitnet server and are
carried over Bitnet and therefor come under Bitnet guidelines.
I don't pretend to have an answer for this dilemma: what is
our responsibility if our messages are ported over to another
system with different rules? On the other hand, this confusion
about Internet and Bitnet has made for a lot of bold, but
unfounded, statements about what the rules are. You may have
a grasp on the Internet but if you are spouting about it on
a listserv list be aware that you are in Bitnet territory and
the rules are different.
-- Lee Jaffe, UC Santa Cruz
