Date   : Fri, 20 Nov 1987 09:17:59 EDT
From   : "John S. Fisher" <FISHER@CICGE.RPI.EDU>
Subject: Re: Posting Binaries

I think it is really unfair to flame at Simtel20 and/or the internet
at large just because they have something and "you cannot get it".
The fact is that just about everything in the Simtel20 archives
(at least for CP/M) is available through alternate means.  There
are the public BBS's and the information network services and the
marketeers of public domain software collections.

Granted, those aren't quite free, but the cost is actually modest.
Mail over the networks isn't quite free, either, by the way.  You
may not see any direct chargeback for mail sent and received, but
some of us do.  And we all pay in some sense for any unnecessary
load placed on the networks.

Please do not construe my comments as "dog-in-the-manger"
(if that is the right analogy) just because I now have FTP access to
Simtel20 and you don't.  I joined this group before I had FTP and
before Simtel20 started the mail-based archive service.  I did not
think that I had any "inherient right" to be able to access the Simtel20
archives then, nor when the mail service was cancelled, nor now.

By the way, the file server at RPICICGE.Bitnet can also be addressed
via CICGE.RPI.EDU on the internet.  Eventhough targeted to service
the Bitnet Info-CPM people, mail requests from other networks are
supported as long as the server can figure out how to send back a
reply.  It won't work for everyone, but there are at least some
requests it has processed for people in UUCP-land and on mail-only
Arpanet sites.