On  Thu,  28 Oct  1993  09:14:51  EDT  "John  Alam (University  of  South
Carolina)" <[log in to unmask]> said:
 
>There  are commercial  companies that  pay a  fee to  be a  part of  the
>Internet. Why should they not be a  part of this enterprise. I have this
>gut feeling  that businesses also pay  taxes, some of which  are used to
>subsidise the costs of the Internet.
 
It is a very  complex issue, which I have become a  lot more sensitive to
with this L-Soft business. L-Soft sells  products that, while useful on a
single system, are  meant to be used on a  wide-scale network. People who
buy these  products don't want  me to mail them  a tape with  fixes: they
want the fix  sent over the network  so they get it right  away and don't
need to go to the tape vault and  all that. Not only that, but they don't
want me to snail contracts, information  or even price lists either! They
want everything sent  to them over the network, because  it is faster and
more convenient. They see this as  part of the service they're paying for
when they  connect to  the Internet.  It helps them  get their  jobs done
faster and save time for their employer.
 
Now, what should a company do when  it is faced with that problem? If you
insist on  snailing the legal/commercial information,  the customers will
assume that you will do the same  with fixes, that they will have to type
problem reports and FAX them to you,  in other words, that you work for a
stone-age-mentality company  with which they  don't want to  do business.
Given the existence  of companies that accept to use  the network, you're
out of  business unless your  product is significantly better  or cheaper
than  the competitors'.  With DEC,  Microsoft and  other major  companies
making  fixes available  on the  network, people  are just  not going  to
understand why one wouldn't accept to  use the network for this. Yet when
you check  the acceptable use policies,  this inevitably falls in  a grey
area - not directly disallowed, but  not clearly allowed either. It would
be extremely helpful  if the governing bodies were to  state clearly what
can and cannot  be done. Of course, since they're  afraid to lose federal
funding if  they open up  even a little bit,  this is unlikely  to happen
until federal funding is gone anyway :-)
 
  Eric