I was recently asked
>Are there any issues of copyright that
>you have had to deal with in moving the data into USENET?
The freely-redistributable article generator currently under development
is strictly for use by an individual on that individual's own private
computer, using the cable (or satellite) decoder purchased by
that individual.
All X*Press articles are copyright.
This means that you are legally forbidden to republish them
without the permission of the copyright holder(s).
Putting X*Press articles in a publicly accessable Usenet News server
is a form of publishing. If you don't get their express (pun intended)
permission, you can get into a lot of trouble.
On the other hand, X*Press Information Services is quite willing
to provide permission for local republication for a fee.
A few years ago, they actually tried to get Cornell to do that,
but not enough people were interested.
Cornell University currently subscribes to ClariNet's Usenet news service.
ClariNet's service is quite extensive, providing local (state), national
and international news articles, and is oriented toward a much wider
audience than is X*Press. I assume it also costs a lot more.
This is in addition to the usual Usenet news groups to which any
individual can post messages. ClariNet Communications Corp. is located
in San Jose, CA, and can be reached at 408/296-0366.
(This is not intended to be an endorsement of ClariNet, just an example of
what is currently available.)
Usenet News format was chosen for the output of the freely redistributable
decoder simply because the original author understood it. It has the
advantage that a wide variety of News software packages are readily
available for article storage, management and reading.
Using publicly available News software also avoids reinventing many of
those wheels, as well as providing the user with lots of choices.
As a side effect, though, it means that a person planning to use
this software must be knowledgable about system management
and software development.
Selden