alt.internet.services,alt.flame,alt.censorship,alt.wired,alt.2600,alt.activism,a 
lt.culture.usenet 
Date: Tue, 18 Jan 1994 08:26:28 UTC 
Subject: imminent drowning of the net in sticky brown liquid 
 
Contents: 
========= 
  1. Preamble 
  2. The Future History of PepNet 
 
 
1. Preamble 
=========== 
 
Fuck: 
  - EFF 
  - ClariNet 
  - Netcom 
  - the cypherpunk/objectivism/"free-speech" complex 
  - all other net.rapers and drones of the corporate greed fungus who refuse 
    to recognize the real threats to freedom of expression on the Internet 
 
 
2. The Future History of PepNet 
=============================== 
 
1994 
==== 
 
- July 1994: 
 
Pepsico Inc., makers of Pepsi-Cola, announces the creation of PepNet. 
PepNet will be a public-access network of BBSes, with nodes in most major 
cities, providing low-cost access to images, sounds, and text files.  The 
press release states that Pepsico will purchase files on a lump-sum basis for 
public domain distribution, and that Pepsico believes the cost to it of the 
network will be offset by the positive publicity generated. 
 
- December 1994: 
 
PepNet is up and running, with approximately 500 subscribers North 
America-wide.  The most popular download items are R-rated images  
purchased 
from Playboy, images and sounds from popular Paramount TV shows and  
movies, 
and the library of public-domain classics schnorred from world.std.com.  The 
fact that all of these are available freely elsewhere does not seem to faze 
the PepNet people. 
 
Pepsico announces the expansion of PepNet services to include Internet 
services, in particular the Usenet newsgroups, on some sites. 
 
1995 
==== 
 
- March 1995: 
 
PepNet is a standing joke on the Internet/Usenet, but its success proves that 
it will at least not be an embarrassment to Pepsico.  Pepsico starts heavily 
promoting PepNet in computer circles. 
 
Pepsi releases a general-broadcast TV ad which features two 1/2-second shots 
of young people laughing while looking at a computer screen and drinking  
Pepsi. 
 
- August 1995: 
 
In a major joint press release, Pepsico, Microsoft, and Apple announce the 
CyberSurfBoard, a low-cost computer specialized for connecting to nets such as 
PepNet.  Along with the low price for hardware and software, users get 1 month 
of free access and 1 hour of free download time on PepNet. 
 
- December 1995: 
 
CyberSurfBoard sales are brisk.  There are now approximately 20,000 
subscribers to PepNet, and nodes in every major city.  Magazines such as Time, 
Newsweek, Sports Illustrated, and Wired, and the four major US TV networks, 
have now jumped on the bandwagon and are releasing images and sounds.   
Various 
copycat services are starting up or in development by Philip Morris, GE, and 
Mitsubishi. 
 
The success of PepNet baffles longtime Internet users, since all the services 
it provides are provided better elsewhere.  This point of view does not get 
much coverage in the established media. 
 
PepNet begins providing very low-cost Usenet feeds to other sites. 
 
1996 
==== 
 
- March 1996: 
 
Coke releases an ad featuring young people talking and laughing while looking 
at a computer screen and drinking Coke. 
 
- June 1996: 
 
Pepsico and an unnamed Chicago BBS operator reach a quiet out-of-court 
settlement.  The sysop was sued for allegedly harboring and encouraging people 
who took images from PepNet and distributed them free on the Internet.  The 
sysop agrees to pay Pepsico $350,000 and to desist from operating a BBS for 
five years. 
 
- September 1996: 
 
PepNet subscribers are in the high hundreds of thousands. 
 
20% of all Usenet articles now flow through the sites uh-huh.pepnet.com  
and/or 
new-gen.pepnet.com (which are really virtual sites made up of dozens of 
machines each).  3% of all non-technical articles on Usenet come from PepNet 
sites. 
 
A flame war breaks out on several technical and non-technical newsgroups  
about 
whether the presence of things like "uh-huh.pepnet" and the line 
  Organization: PepNet (The Net for a New Generation) 
in the headers of Usenet messages constitutes advertising, and if so whether 
it subverts NSF Internet use policy. 
 
- October 1996: 
 
Pepsico announces "The PepNet Eloquence Awards".  The 10 people who write  
the 
most eloquent Usenet articles of the year (in PepNet's opinion) will receive 1 
year of free access and unlimited download time on PepNet. 
 
Time-Warner and Pepsico announce a long-term cooperative agreement on  
provision 
of images and services.  _Time_ gives exclusive rights to its electronic 
version to PepNet.  Paramount bites its lip but continues to provide images to 
PepNet, since it's the biggest thing going. 
 
1997 
==== 
 
- January 1997: 
 
The "advertising" flame war is being won by Pepsi.  Many university 
administrators, alerted that PepNet offers outrageously cheap Usenet feeds, 
have switched to PepNet feeds.  Now about 35% of Usenet articles flow through 
PepNet sites. 
 
- April 1997: 
 
The PepNet Eloquence Awards are announced.  Five US college students, 
including two who argued vociferously in support of PepNet, are among the 
winners. 
 
JetStream (Philip Morris's copycat network) and Spectrum (Mitsubishi's  
copycat 
network) now route about 8% of Usenet articles. 
 
1998 
==== 
 
- January 1998: 
 
The number of articles per day on Usenet is now about 30 times what it was 
five years ago. 
 
PepNet, JetStream, and Spectrum now route 80% of Usenet articles.  15% of 
articles on technical newsgroups are posted from sites on these three nets. 
This is attributed to companies and universities cutting back on direct Usenet 
feeds because of good group PepNet rates. 
 
Pepsico announces a modest downturn in profits. 
 
- February 1998: 
 
Pepsico announces cuts to its Advertising and PepNet divisions.  Further 
financial review is undertaken. 
 
PepNet modestly increases its user fees. 
 
- April 1998: 
 
_Time_ runs an article on how the three major Usenet providers are losing 
money on their networks. 
 
Pepsico makes its full financial report for the fiscal year.  It seems that its 
profits have dipped more sharply than it had previously announced. 
 
Pepsico floats a modest proposal on the net.  Either: 
 
(a) It can increase its user fees by 50% in order to save PepNet, or 
(b) It can drastically reduce the Usenet feeds it provides, or 
(c) It can add the header 
      Sponsored-by: Pepsico, makers of Pepsi-Cola 
    to all articles it routes, and the header 
      X-Advertising: You got the right one, baby! 
    on all non-technical articles it routes, and cut its advertising division 
    instead. 
 
- May 1998: 
 
PepNet proponents have the edge in the resultant massive flame war.  Several 
people claim that the addition of advertising to Usenet was Pepsi's intention 
from the start.  They are labelled paranoids, and their credit records are 
somehow revealed via an anonymous server in Venezuela. 
 
- August 1998: 
 
Brad Templeton, the Undersecretary of Science and Information Technology in 
President Quayle's administration, announces a major shift in NSF policy. 
Advertising on NSF sites, "within acceptable limits", is explicitly allowed. 
Cuts to financial support for university computer networks are made. 
 
1999 
==== 
 
- March 1999: 
 
Pepsico announces an upturn in profits.  Joel Furr, the head of PepNet since 
its inception, is credited with the success. 
 
2000 
==== 
 
- January 2000: 
 
PepNet has 10 million subscribers worldwide. 
 
95% of Usenet articles have at least 3 lines of "sponsorship" or advertising 
messages. 
 
50% of Usenet articles have at least 8 lines of advertising. 
 
10% of the total messages on Usenet, in every newsgroup, are ads for 
non-computer-related products and services. 
 
The ailing Coca-Cola Company is taken over by Philip Morris Inc. 
 
2020 
==== 
 
Furr retires from Pepsico at age 45, with a generous pension, after numerous 
accolades on his brilliance.  An unauthorized biography of him, written by 
Moon Unit Zappa, is released. 
 
The biography gets great attention on the Internet... which is now generally 
known as PepNet. 
 
== 
This article brought to you by 
SALT MERCHANT                   "hope you like jammin too" 
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From: vimrich@athena.mit.edu (Vernon R Imrich) 
Newsgroups: 
alt.internet.services,alt.flame,alt.censorship,alt.wired,alt.2600,alt.activism,a 
lt.culture.usenet 
Subject: Re: imminent drowning of the net in sticky brown liquid 
Date: 21 Jan 1994 19:05:52 GMT 
Organization: Massachusetts Institute of Technology 
References: <195648Z20011994@anon.penet.fi> 
 
Your history ends too soon... 
 
>==== 
> 
>- January 2000: 
> 
>PepNet has 10 million subscribers worldwide. 
> 
>95% of usenet articles have at least 3 lines of "sponsorship" or  
>advertising messages. 
> 
>50% of Usenet articles have at least 8 lines of advertising. 
> 
>10% of the total messages on Usenet, in every newsgroup, are ads for 
>non-computer related products and services. 
> 
 
==== 
 
- Feb 2000: 
 
Tired of viewing an ever increasing stream of advertisements, several 
software moguls begin to offer "Adviertising Free" service for  
nominal fees, mostly to their old friends and computer buddies who 
long for the old days.  
 
==== 
 
- June 2000: 
 
FreeNet becomes an underground wonder.  "Apparently, the market for  
advertising-free service was totally untapped," suggests the WSJ  
analyst for computer services start-ups. 
 
FreeNet subscribers flood the network, prompting the admins to purchase 
several more servers to handle the load.  FreeNet stocks jump remarkably. 
 
PepNet announces a new letter format.  25% of each non-scientific post 
will contain Pepsico slogans.  The new startup is dismissed as "as 
fad, people don't want to pay for what has always been free." 
 
==== 
 
- July 2000: 
 
FreeNet announces a team up with HBO Media.  "They said people wouldn't 
pay for free TV 25 years ago," says the HBO team, "the explosion of 
ad-free information will make the cable TV explosion look like a  
minor pop."   
 
PepNet lawyers meet with Congressman Ed Markey over possible "obscene" 
material being distributed over FreeNet.  Possible Anti-Trust violations 
are also considered. 
 
==== 
 
- October 2000: 
 
FreeNet captures more than 30% of the information services sector. 
 
Several commercial users are using FreeNet feeds "to decrease the 
bandwidth associated with `unnecessary data' on PepNet posts." 
 
PepNet awards cermonies fail to increase subscriber rates for first 
time since their inception. 
 
==== 
 
- November 2000: 
 
Ed Markey wins a landslide election, attributed to his campaign  
"war chest" and thorough understanding of the information  
dissemination techniques. 
 
==== 
 
- January 2001:  
 
The first of several federal indictments are placed on FreeNet-HBO Media 
Systems.  Included are charges of non-compliance with  the Information 
Accessability Commision (IAC) guidlines for "universal accessability." 
 
"By charging a fee," sites Mr. Markey, "FreeNet is creating the divisons 
of information "have's" and "have-not's" that the IAC was created  
specifically to prohibit.  Al Gore would turn over in his grave, if 
he knew the level of abuses the IAC has had to put up with from  
this ironically named `FreeNet'."   
 
==== 
 
- July 2001: 
 
Subscriber feeds from all FreeNet servers are "electronically siezed" 
as evidence for the ensuing legal battles. 
 
FreeNet innovators testify before congress "about the good old days 
when this was just for a few friends."  Chairman Markey admonishes 
the "information elites" for stratifing the market. 
 
==== 
 
- February 2004: 
 
After nearly three years of litigation, the FreeNet-HBO Media Systems 
Inc. declares its liqidation.  "We just can't go on paying our bills," 
says the CEO, "Without any services to provide to our subscribers,  
they can't be expected to keep paying our fees." 
 
PepNet announces it can easily handle former FreeNet users. 
 
==== 
 
- November 2004: 
 
Speaker Markey wins a narrow election to U.S. President on the back of 
his "dramtic use of the electronic media." 
 
PepNet is granted offical immunity from Anti-Trust legislation for 
"its continued dedication to providing universal access to ALL the 
people." 
 
==== 
 
- February 2007: 
 
Public outcry swells over the "information crisis" plaguing the nation. 
 
"Advertising has choked bandwith up to 50% in some systems!" shouts 
an angry Joe Kennedy.  "We cannot rely on the free market any longer 
to provide such essential services."  Markey supporters disagree. 
 
"Its the regulation thats keep the bandwidth down at all, thanks to 
President Markey's Bandwidth Control Act of 2006." a spokesman says.    
"What we need to do is shore up the loopholes that have allowed some 
ads to stay largely immune from regualtion." 
 
One Libertarian Congressman, Nancy Lord, points to excessive regulation  
choking out information competitiors, but is quickly dismissed by 
media analysits: 
 
They point to the FreeNet service years ago.  "They tried to offer ad-free  
service years ago but couldn't make it work." 
 
"It's clear," they say, "the market cannot be relied upon for such  
important services." 
 
==== 
 
- August 2008:  
 
The National Information Network  NIN is passed by a narrow majority 
of both houses.  PepNet's challenges are refused. 
 
"This is a clear victory for President Kennedy," says a spokesman, "and 
a clear victory for the American people." 
 
==== 
 
- December 2013: 
 
Ending a brutal first year of his second term Kennedy takes a well 
deserved rest for Christmas break. 
 
"The American people need to realize that we can't sit back anymore." 
says his NIN chief.  "We cannot afford to debate the merits of higher 
taxes on our economy in the face of such severe foreign competition." 
 
"We've already lost the wireless node technology to Singapore," he goes 
on, "without a drastically increased source of revenue, we won't have 
the research funding necessary to make NIN competitive for the future." 
 
Repbulicans lament "twelve years of Democratic leadership" and promise 
to "cut off the `dumping' of cheap foreign electronics technology on 
the US Market.  "No one argues with the need for NIN," says an aging 
Newt Gingrich, "We should have known not to trust the management of such 
a vital department to a bunch of Democrats.  If we'd left PEPSICO in 
charge, we'd have been much better off." 
 
Strangely a large `donation' for Newt's burgeoning campaign for high 
office is made that same day.  Pepsico reports a reactivation of  
some of its former PepNet division managers, without apparent reason. 
 
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