On 18 Mar 2005 01:16:50 -0500, (DoN. Nichols)
wrote:

For that matter -- you *can* lose your account by posting binary
files to a discussion newsgroup -- but you probably won't for a one-time
offense. Posting copyrighted stuff is more likely to get their
attention.

Another offense that most are not aware of is posting ebay auctions on
usenet ng's. It's against ebay's TOS to do so and they can/will take
measures against members who do so. That can range from a warning to
losing ones membership entirely:
http://pages.ebay.com/help/usenet_policy.html

Quoted from above:

"UseNet Policy
eBay users may not post on Usenet groups (Internet newsgroups) to
advertise eBay or an eBay listing that is inappropriate or violates
the Usenet board policy. If Usenet abuse is reported to eBay, we may
among other remedies) remove the listing, issue a warning, temporarily
suspend or indefinitely suspend the offender's eBay account."

Granted, there would have to be a number of formal complaints about
the offending poster before any action would be taken, but that's
relatively easy to do. All it takes is a few ****ed off ng patrons to
get that ball rolling.

Where this gets iffy is if the specific ng doesn't have a no ebay ads
clause in their charter, but many don't as they were formed long
before ebay was conceived. That said, I've seen numerous cases where
people spamming ng's with ebay auctions had both their ebay
memberships pulled as well as their ISP accounts, in ng's that do bot
have that specific clause. Ebay tends to err on the side of usenet.

Bottom line is if one thinks he's angered a few folks in any ng, or is
posting ebay ads in ng's they aren't familiar with, they're flirting
with a potential problem... especially if they've got a well seasoned
account with 100% feedback.

As far as posting FA or FS notices, what I've seen repeated in the
ng's I frequent is it's generally acceptable if done occasionally by
regular participants of that ng. It's when someone who's never
contributed to a ng, and is clearly just tryin' to make a quick buck,
that the **** hits th' proverbial fan.

Rightfully so IMHO.