>> Our company's product line includes [snip] These products can be used =
in the R&D
> process as well as in a full time manufacturing enviornment.
. Commercial postings of this kind are not allowed on bionet. See the =
extract below from the FAQ. If you wish to advertise your products on =
the net, I suggest that you either buy some web space or subscribe to =
something like biz-biotech.:
> WHAT ARE THE RESTRICTIONS ON COMMERCIAL ACTIVITIES IN THE BIOSCI/BIONE=
T
> NEWSGROUPS?
>>BIOSCI is funded in part by the National Science Foundation (NSF)
>which supports the Internet in the U.S. with U.S. taxpayer dollars.
>NSF is responsible for setting Acceptable Use Policy (AUP) for the the
>NSFNet backbone section of the Internet of which BIOSCI makes
>extensive use. Because of these reasons, BIOSCI users should adhere to
>the following guidelines.
>>Commercial activities on BIOSCI are in general prohibited except as
>noted below. People at for-profit organizations are free to read all
>postings made to the BIOSCI/bionet newsgroups, but must ensure that
>their postings to the newsgroups do not violate our guidelines.
>>Commercial organizations may post job openings on
>EMPLOYMENT/bionet.jobs subject to the format restrictions for that
>group. Commercial job posting format restrictions for the
>EMPLOYMENT/bionet.jobs newsgroup are described above under the
>question "Where should I post my messages?" Users who violate these
>format restrictions consciously risk losing their network access.
>>BIOSCI readers without any financial connections to a company or a
>product may discuss and/or post endorsements of a commercial product.
>However, it is standard Internet practice to include in the posting a
>disclaimer of any financial interest in the product/company. Note that
>postings to newsgroups are subject to libel laws. BIOSCI advises
>readers to think twice before taking potshots at products that they do
>not like.
>>BIOSCI users often post general questions about problems that might be
>solved through the use of a commercial product. It is EXTREMELY
>IMPORTANT, however, that such general questions *not* be answered by
>people affiliated with the product or company that might stand to gain
>a sale as a result. For example, user X may ask, "Is there a product
>that will allow me to separate protein A from protein B given the
>following properties ...?", but, if user Y works at company Z which
>sells a product that can accomplish this task, user Y does *NOT* have
>permission to respond to the question. Responses can only be posted by
>other scientists who might have experience in solving the problem in
>question and who do not stand to gain financially by promoting the
>product in question, i.e., they are not employees, consultants, or
>connected to the company via other financial ties. As noted above,
>postings endorsing commercial products should contain a customary
>disclaimer stating the absence of financial ties of the poster to the
>product/company.
>>Commercial companies MAY RESPOND to a public BIOSCI newsgroup if a
>BIOSCI user asks a question directly about one of their products,
>e.g., mentions it by name. The response should be limited to a factual
>answer of the question posed and should avoid any hint of advertising
>hype. Comparisons with competitors' products should be avoided
>completely.
>>Finally, as a general rule, if you are unsure about the
>appropriateness of your posting, before you post anything please send
>a copy of what you propose to post to the BIOSCI adminstrator at
>biosci-help at net.bio.net for review.
>>BIOSCI will takes steps to terminate network access to any reader who
>willfully violates our commercial use policies.
>>>
Dr Kevin O'Donnell
Diagnostics and Molecular Biology
Scottish Agricultural Science Agency
Edinburgh odonnell at sasa.gov.uk
