[312] in Commercialization & Privatization of the Internet
one commercial site's interpretation of NSFNET restrictions
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Barry Shein)
Wed Mar 6 17:53:43 1991
Date: Wed, 6 Mar 91 17:32:46 -0500
From: bzs@world.std.com (Barry Shein)
To: steve@cise.nsf.gov
Cc: emv@ox.com, com-priv@psi.com, vjs@rhyolite.wpd.sgi.com
In-Reply-To: Stephen Wolff's message of Wed, 06 Mar 91 14:38:59 EST <9103061939.AA06239@cise.cise.nsf.gov>
What has always seemed confused to me is the notion that if I put
something in my anon FTP directory that has potential commercial value
then I have violated guidelines.
Isn't it the person who uses the net inappropriately to access this
material the one violating guidelines? By putting something on my disk
I don't move it across any network wires.
I suppose some warning in a README file might be a concession
("Warning: Transferring files from this directory across
non-commercial networks may violate your agreement with your network
provider".) Perhaps even a convention, like creating a file called
COMMERCIAL in the directory. Fair enough, whatever.
I'll avoid the issue of alternative routes as it only begs the
question, but it does crystallize the point: I'm on a private net, so
I could very well have bonafide "customers" for that file. It's an
existence proof of a need, anyhow.
In fact, as I understand some interpretations of the guidelines, the
same file can be both a violation and not.
If I am a research institution and transfer a patch or bugfix needed
for the smooth operation of my research, then the file was OK. If I am
a commercial organization simply avoiding some other method of getting
that fix then the file was not OK.
Something I could understand, along these lines, would be a vendor
providing some patch etc via an NSFnet connection but not providing it
in any similar, reasonable way via non-NSFnet routes.
At that point I could agree that they have created a temptation that
may be just too great ("flaunting" comes to mind).
But, as an example, putting the file on UUNET with their direct uucp
connections, 900 numbers, Alternet, etc would seem to leave the fault
for any abuse to the abuser since there were so many other bona-fide
ways to obtain the same exact materials.
In fact, this is one of the major values of the various commercial
providers to the research and academic networks, they create these
outlets. And that's kinda what this list is all about.
-b
