Amhtsa.126 net.news,net.unix-wizards utcsrgv!utzoo!decvax!ucbvax!mhtsa!mjs Tue Jan 19 11:16:56 1982 Marketing Research? I just got a copy of Bill Shannon's DECnet survey, and can't help but wonder if the user community (of netnews) really wants such companies using the net for commercial marketing research. I don't know the answer, but I think it is an issue which should be decided post haste! Until we have a clear charter as CSNET does, we will certainly be confronted with similar issues. I don't mean to knock Bill's survey (I believe its intent to be worthwhile to the community, though others may not), but there are probably legal issues involved, as well. Are there any corporate lawyer types reading? Perhaps they might shed some light on the matter. In the mean time, I reccommend that we hold back on such news items until the matter is decided (by either consent or decree, preferably the former). In the ensuing discussion, which should be held exclusively in newsgroup net.news, I ask that participants keep flames OUT. This is not a simple case of preferences (in fact, preferences may be irrelevent due to the legal answers I hope to see appear). There ARE legal questions to be answered. Let us please show more maturity than we (the network(s)) have show in the past. Marty Shannon, Jr. Bell Labs, Murray Hill, NJ (201) 582-6272 P.S. I apologize for the tone of the 2nd paragraph above, but I believe this is a very important issue to the continuance of USENET/netnews/whatever. Marty ----------------------------------------------------------------- gopher://quux.org/ conversion by John Goerzen of http://communication.ucsd.edu/A-News/ This Usenet Oldnews Archive article may be copied and distributed freely, provided: 1. There is no money collected for the text(s) of the articles. 2. The following notice remains appended to each copy: The Usenet Oldnews Archive: Compilation Copyright (C) 1981, 1996 Bruce Jones, Henry Spencer, David Wiseman.