Roy Smith writes:
>> The feds may SUPPORT the bionet newsgroups in the sense that they
>give Dave Kristofferson grant/contract funds to run biosci, and they run
>the NSFNet over which a good deal of the bionet traffic happens to flow,
>but the sure don't OWN bionet! It may very well be INAPPROPRIATE to lobby
>for or against political candidates on bionet.general, but the federal
>government sure can't dictate what I'm allowed or not allowed to say in a
>public forum. They may decide they don't like what's going on in the
>bionet groups and yank their funding, but that won't make bionet cease to
>exist and it won't prevent me from saying what I want to say.
>
The Federal Government owns the NSFnet, over which most BIONET traffic
flows, and funds the BIONET groups directly. Therefore, they are free to
determine how they may be used. This is *not* a public forum. This is a
communications system intended to foster biological research.
Let me make this more concrete. Using the BIONET groups for any purposes
other than what the Government has defined them to be is as illegal and
wrong as using your NIH grant money to take a trip to Venice. Or to use
it to campaign for Bill Clinton. Remember, it is forbidden for USENET
to carry commerical traffic. Try posting an ad on one of the comp.*
groups and see how many people jump down your throat.
I realize that foreigners read this group as well, but since their
governments aren't paying for it, they have to abide by the rules estab-
lished by the government that is.
>There, I've just used a bionet group to lobby against a political
>candidate.
Grow up.
--
John Kuszewski
johnk at jhunix.hcf.jhu.edu
I'm not an idiot, but I play one on USENET
