[10106] in Commercialization & Privatization of the Internet
Re: If Orson Welles were only alive...
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Tom Fitzgerald)
Mon Feb 7 21:04:36 1994
From: Tom Fitzgerald <fitz@wang.com>
To: peterd@bunyip.com (Peter Deutsch)
Date: Mon, 7 Feb 94 21:02:12 EST
Cc: com-priv@psi.com
In-Reply-To: <9402052305.AA17912@expresso.bunyip.com>; from "Peter Deutsch" at Feb 5, 94 6:05 pm
> > Sounds like you want to control this list. You might try and convince the
> > folks who run bugtraq@crimelab.com to let you on their list. Of course,
> > if such a list denies someone access, & the list covers a problem that
> > affects the denied site/person, I think that such a situation is open for
> > litigation.
> Now even given that Americans seem pathilogically obsessed with suing each
> other, this seems a little hard for me to accept.
Probably so, but a minor variation makes it a lot more likely. Suppose
Karl sets up the list, denies a subscription request from a small-site
admin, and inadvertently subscribes a genuine cracker who breaks into the
small site and causes damage? Then he's not only refused to help a victim,
he's provided assistance to the criminal as well (active assistance, too,
since he must have gone to some effort to decide on each subscription).
The only defense I'd trust in a situation like this is to blindly subscribe
everyone who asks, to avoid making any kind of implicit statement that a
successful applicant is more trustworthy than a rejected applicant.
It's hard to imagine any way of keeping crackers off the list. All they
need is access to a single machine that the mail passes through, and they
can subscribe themselves and distribute it to all their friends.
I hate to suggest it, but I think anyone who considers starting such a list
should check with a lawyer.
--
Tom Fitzgerald Wang Labs Lowell MA, USA 1-508-967-5278 fitz@wang.com
Pardon me, I'm lost, can you direct me to the information superhighway?
