🚀 go-pugleaf

Monty Solomon (monty@roscom.com) wrote:
: Begin forwarded message:
[...]
: Date: Sat, 7 May 1994 16:38:20 -0400
: Subject: Letter to NSF re: Internet Pricing

: TAXPAYER ASSETS PROJECT - INFORMATION POLICY NOTE
: May 7, 1994

: -    Request for signatures for a letter to NSF opposing metered
:      pricing of Internet usage

: -    Please repost this request freely

Because, what the hell, the taxpayers or somebody else is footing the bill!
Remember, if you had to pay for your excessive use of resources, you
might think twice about the content of the rest of this "letter."

: The letter will be sent to Steve Wolff, the Director of
: Networking and Communications for NSF.  The purpose of the letter
: is to express a number of user concerns about the future of
: Internet pricing.  NSF recently announced that is awarding five

Where do I sign up for a counter-letter?

: key contracts to telephone companies to operate four Internet
: "Network Access Points" (NAPs), and an NSF funded very high speed
: backbone (vBNS).  There have been a number of indications that
: the telephone companies operating the NAPs will seek permission
: from NSF to price NAPs services according to some measure of
: Internet usage.  The vBNS is expected to act as a testbed for new
: Internet pricing and accounting schemes.  The letter expresses
: the view that metered pricing of Internet usage should be
: avoided, and that NSF should ensure that the free flow of
: information through Internet listserves and file server sites is
: preserved and enhanced.

: Dear Steve:
None of this stuffy "Dear Mr. Wolff" for free-netters!

I will not include the rest of the letter, as it would be
a waste of resources. Someone else has already responded very
lucidly to this posting. But in the words of a man who I would
not mormally quote, Ronald Raygun, "Dammit, I PAID for this
microphone!" Well dammit, I PAID for this access! I know that
without government money, access charges would go up and I would
be happy to pay them since I know several things would occur: garbage
on Usenet would go down, access speed to valuable information
repositories would go up, and I would be happy to pay the price
for these benefits.

TANSTAAFL!