[9320] in Commercialization & Privatization of the Internet
The annointed
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Barry Shein)
Wed Dec 29 02:14:26 1993
Date: Wed, 29 Dec 1993 02:13:50 -0500
From: bzs@world.std.com (Barry Shein)
To: bmanning@is.rice.edu
Cc: marc@MIT.EDU, sdw@meaddata.com, steve@mon.cise.nsf.gov, com-priv@psi.com
In-Reply-To: William Manning's message of Tue, 28 Dec 1993 22:19:15 -0600 (CST) <9312290419.AA28712@brazos.is.rice.edu>
Re: The nbc.com / AUP comment...
The problem is not the facts, the problem is the perception.
People want to do the right thing, and thinking they can accidentally
do the wrong thing (particularly in regards to the law) without any
ill intent makes them anxious.
Pointing out that the example they gave does not violate AUP is not
really satisfactory, unless one really believes there exists no
similar examples that in fact do violate. I don't think that's true
(in fact, I give one later on.)
I think what some people are trying to say is that the current state
of the AUP implementation remains user-hostile.
People who want to do the right thing feel like they can't possibly
figure out how without understanding more of the net than is probably
reasonable to ask them to understand, since the type of information
needed (routing that will occur on a message sent) doesn't really come
up in any other context, nor are there even good ways to get the
information if you're not a network administrator.
So I don't think just saying that the particular example given doesn't
exercise the problem being alluded to is really a fair answer.
The real question is: Can one violate the AUP by merely typing "mail
someone@some.where"? And if they do so violate it what are the
consequences? And how can they know whether typing that mail message
will or will not violate it, in general?
So, as a perhaps better example, I am on a CIX-attached network. I do
a traceroute to SONY.CO.JP and it seems to indicate that this will go,
between two commercial entities, over the NSFnet backbone.
Is this a bug or a feature? If I send e-mail to someone there of a
commercial nature am I in violation? If it weren't someone like me who
can figure this out (heck, it probably wouldn't have occurred to me to
look) what's likely to happen? What, in theory, could happen (worst
case)? What am I technically in violation of? A law? A policy? What?
If it's all just a bad joke then let's say that out loud.
If it's not then I think people deserve some opportunity to know how
to do the right thing. Particularly when they ask how.
-Barry Shein
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