On Thu, 26 May 1994 09:54:38 EDT you said: > I have just had a great suggestion from a subscriber on another >list concerning the flood of commercial messages (greencard lawyers, >thigh-cream) on the internet. > It is this: can we legally play the capitalist game the way it >should be played? Our subscribers are clearly a demographic group >desirable to advertisers. We (list owner/moderators) are presumably >like the publishers of a paper and we can determine the value of our >subscribers. Is there any reason why, if an advertiser like the >greencard lawyers can claim to make a profit from our lists, we >cannot? > Therefore, I suggest we list owners post immediately our rates. >For Journet, I will invoice any unsolicited commercial posters the >token sum of Nice idea, but its illegal for many Listserv sights. As a non-profit institution, Temple is not allowed to generate revenue from our academic computer systems. I think this is also a condition of the license agreement with L-Soft, the group that publishes Listserv software, but I am not possitive about that. Even if this were legal for all sites, its damned hard to implement from a technical standpoint. I would not be suprised if the cost for billing these companies outweighed the money earned from them. Stan Horwitz Internet: [log in to unmask] Bitnet: STAN@TEMPLEVM Temple University -- Senior Consultant (My views are all mine!) Manager of the Help-Net and Suggest lists and Listserv Postmaster. Stan Horwitz Internet: [log in to unmask] Bitnet: STAN@TEMPLEVM Temple University -- Senior Consultant (My views are all mine!) Manager of the Help-Net and Suggest lists and Listserv Postmaster.