On Sat, 27 Jan 2007 18:21:58 -0500, Bert Robbins
wrote:

Steve wrote:
On Fri, 26 Jan 2007 18:16:26 -0500, Bert Robbins
wrote:

Bill Kearney wrote:
There are knowledgeable and
published posters that read rec.boats and associated newsgroups that
stopped, on advice from their attorneys, posting to other web based
forums that had similar TOS.
Really? Cite examples.
I want to see the "TOS" for rec.boats or for any other USENET newsgroup.

Most USENET newsgroups have a charter that outlines what is and is not
acceptable to post in the group. Unfortunately, rec.boats does not
have a charter. So really, there is no such thing as an off topic
post in rec.boats. Anything goes.

How do you enforce acceptable and not acceptable for USENET charters
that were written and approved, by vote of the UUNet/Internet masses 20
years ago.

Do you remember the Richard Depew(sp?) incident of the early 90's?

Now, your ISP probably (most do) have a TOS that spells out a lot of
things you can't do. You should check your individual ISP's TOS.

Only if you are threatening someone. If you are just being an asshole
then they won't do anything.

Well, no. It's actually a lot more than that that can get you cut
off. It all depends on if enough people complain to your ISP that
you're breaking your TOS. As for what's in the TOS, check yours since
they're all different. I have Verizon, and here's mine:

http://www2.verizon.net/policies/tos.asp?

In particular, check out near the bottom, Attachment A, Acceptable Use
Policy, paragraph 3. Yours may be similar.

The people that continuously post "off topic" stuff in this newsgroup
are lucky there isn't a charter and that nothing is technically off
topic here. If they did that in a group that has a charter, like
rec.boats.cruising for example, and were Verizon customers, their
service could be cut because you are not allowed to "(g) to post
information on newsgroups which is not in the topic area or charter
(e.g. off-topic posting) of the newsgroup;".

Of course, I'm sure Verizon wouldn't do anything unless the violations
were frequent and flagrant. Then again, that describes some people
here.

Steve