Robbin Murphy's postings about the GIF controversy -- whether Compuserve and Unisys should be allowed to charge for it -- make me wonder if some sort of law defining illegal online marketing practices, similar to or a stretched version of Robinson - Patman, might not be needed? To offer something for free, and then land established users with a surprise charge -- after the fact (not clear that it's being done on purpose in this case, but it would be in others) -- smacks of "bait and switch" and some of the old "used car salesman" tactics which were outlawed long ago by price - fixing and Uniform Commercial Code legislation. There are special "open systems / open platforms" considerations for the nets, though: what about freeware, shareware, any not - yet - commercialized code, any "trial balloon" -- it will be some trick to establish a social policy which will continue to promote these while forbidding sharp practices in the commercializing which inevitably will have to pay for them. Jack Kessler [log in to unmask]