🚀 go-pugleaf

>Back when NNTP was brand new (three, four years ago?), there was a lot of
>concern about this. It was generally accepted that some day, in the indefinite
>future, USENET would lose its privilege of running across the research Inter-
>nets, perhaps very soon. Not only hasn't that happened, but if anything USENET
>is more accepted now than then. There was a lot of concern that DARPA, CSNet,
>and other "officials" allowed USENET traffic simply because they didn't know
>what it was. When we were considering joining CSNet, I asked them about USENET
>traffic. They understood exactly what I meant, and had no objections at all.

It hasn't happened but it IS still seriously today not only
by the people who run/own national backbones, but by the managers of
regional networks.  These regional network managers still
talk about stopping it because it is considered "inappropriate use".

>For the paranoid types, the solution is commercial internets, instead of re-
>search. Nysernet is offering a commercial IP network around New York, and the
>UUNet AlterNet service is now coming on line. Expect others in the future.

Not quite accurate, PSI (which now owns and runs NYSERNet) offers a commercial
Internet service throughout the Mid-Atlantic (CAPNet) and NorthEast (NYSERNet),
and it actually exits (T1's, routers, local dialup connections) today.  And
as for "paranoid", I think that is too strong, different groups have legitimate
concerns vis a vis their charters, since they own and support their portion
of the internet, they should self determine what they want to do.


-- 
Martin L. Schoffstall
Performance Systems Internationl Inc.
Reston Virgina, US
schoff@psi.com