Note: responses to multiple messages appear below:
 
   Date: Fri, 27 May 1994 08:46:19 -0400
   From: Paul di Virgilio COMPUMED <[log in to unmask]>
 
      I concur with Eric. As I was reading your description, I thought
      that except for the instruction and case study opportunities I do
      the same thing for a government and university environment. Why
      would they pay you?
 
For control over their mailing list subscription.  Perhaps you LSTOWN
people are spoiled, but try getting on a busy Internet mailing list
that's controlled by a person who's just gone off for vacation.  Or a
funky listserver that you can't figure out how to operate.
 
And, for the right to complain.  NO ONE has that right over you
(except perhaps for local users who help pay your salary).
 
      If I discovered that you were gating my list to difficult
      participants, I would delete you.
 
With no notification?  Certainly that's your right (see previous
paragraph), but if my users wanted to be on a mailing list and you
were uncooperative, I'd start my own parallel list.  That would be
unattractive, but who am I to tell my customers what they can and
cannot talk about?
 
 
   Date: Fri, 27 May 1994 10:26:12 EDT
   From: Stan Horwitz <[log in to unmask]>
   Organization: Temple University Computer Services
 
   The idea of selling access to a Listserv subscription service such
   as the List I run doesn't sit well with me. For one thing, speaking
   as a Listserv postmaster, my system is run by a state funded
   non-profit university and our computer equipment cannot legally be
   used to help someone gain a profit, but I am not sure that in this
   case, there would be a problem in that regard since I am not a
   lawyer.
 
If you have any .COM addresses on your list, then you are likely
already helping someone gain a profit.  I don't imagine the state
auditors expect you to find out whether .COM addresses are users who
happen to be subscribed at their business address, or whether they are
users of an Internet access provider.  I don't believe it's a
significant issue.
 
HOWEVER, that might not be the only reason you are not comfortable
with the ideaa, and I don't mean to diminish or dismiss your feelings.
 
   If you provide the access to these lists from a single source to
   your paying customers, there will indeed probably be reduced fewer
   for a list's owner if you carry that list. If, however, you allow
   various users to post and read the list from their own accounts,
   than probablems such as closed accounts and such will invariably be
   sent to the list's owner
 
I will rewrite the sender field.  That should cause bounces (from
compliant software anyway--ask Eric how much of it is broken) to come
back to me.  And in any case, I want to pick up on a closed account
because that means either a lost customer or failing mail.
 
   In short, I am not entirely sure what you're doing is legal and I
   am not sure it will be advantageous to users.
 
It probably holds no attraction to users who are solely subscribed to
LISTSERV lists.
 
   Sorry to say it, but what you might be doing (in light of recent
   discussions) is inadvertantly providing yet another gateway to
   Listserv and other lists for abuse by certain greedy people who
   want cheap advertising.
 
Now I'm appalled by that as much as most are.  I will probably set all
my lists to private.  That doesn't stop anyone from attempting to send
mail directly to the list itself, but that's the status quo regardless
of what I do with EMList.
 
   Date: Fri, 27 May 1994 10:44:10 -0400
   From: Mario Rups <[log in to unmask]>
 
   Forgive my obtuseness, but -- you would, then, check every new applicant
   out with the listowner in question?  Sounds like a lot of extra fuss and
   pother all around.
 
I'll probably send an advisory note saying "I have subscribed Random
User to your list; please tell me if you want her removed."
 
   Date: Fri, 27 May 1994 20:59:56 -0400
   From: Murph Sewall <[log in to unmask]>
 
   On Thu, 26 May 1994 23:51:00 EDT, Russell Nelson wrote:
   >What I *want* to do is sell a service that adds value to mailing
   >lists.
 
   If you could offer a service that would let individuals subscribe
   (send and receive) to SPECIFIC news groups that for whatever reason
   aren't crossed to the LISTSERV system--at some cheap rate, say only
   $1 per month per group--you probably could clean up to beat the
   band.
 
That's one of the services I plan to offer.
 
   >I'm "making money off your efforts"...
 
   Perhaps, perhaps not.  News clipping services also make money in a similar
   way.  Nothing you do prevents anyone from net access from learning to
   subscribe directly to most lists, and MANY people already pay for access to
   lists (through portal, the Well, and others).  Your offer of "one stop list
   browsing" might fly.
 
Yup, yup, yup.  Only way I to really tell is to offer it and see who buys.
 
   You might also think of running an "automated" clipping service.
 
Well, that falls under the general category of mail filtering.
Subscribe to a mailed Usenet group and run it through a filter.
 
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