Popular Free Newsgroup Service Switches To Fee-Based Censorship
chief-t...@gay-bible.org
Germany, [ news.individual.net ]. As of April 1 this year, all members
must pay a fee. After reading one of their user agreements, I decided
to forego using their service any more.
--Here's the e-letter I just sent them:
Date: Sat, 2 Apr 2005 14:55:20 -0800
From: Zeke <chief-t...@gay-bible.org>
To: ne...@individual.net
Subject: I decline to subscribe, sorry.
I've immensely enjoyed several years free use of your news server. So I
thought about your charging a fee now, and
concluded "Still a great deal, and you deserve my 10 measly euros per
annum." But when registering, I decided to read each of your user
policies; in particular, "Rules of Usage", wherein the following is
written:
"No Redistribution of News Articles
Messages downloaded from this server may not be redistributed to third
parties and may not be made available to third parties otherwise.
Family members are excluded from this restriction. Any other exceptions
(e.g. school classes, and the like) need explicit and prior approval by
us."
That is shocking; it is Hitleresque (damned Austrian)! First of all,
many people who post to newsgroups, give freely of their ideas, which
includes permission to repost their articles anywhere online OR
offline. Yet YOUR rule would SUPERSEDE the individual freedom of any
and ALL netizens.
Sorry, but I'm NOT supporting such a fascist tidbit of complete
censorship. What the heck is going on over there? I thought you Germans
became way-evolved beyond such a horrid era, and that here, Amerika, we
have the new dictator. This is SO disappointing.
Zeke Krahlin
former happy member of news.individual.net
Username "thracian"
Password "jaenaeru?
Userid: 91911
--
Lavender-Velvet Revolution
http://www.gay-bible.org
P.S.: Please say "April Fool"! :(
--end of my letter