[9994] in Commercialization & Privatization of the Internet
Re: ba.com and some thoughts on the ethics of choosing host
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Glenn S. Tenney)
Wed Feb 2 16:16:13 1994
Date: Wed, 2 Feb 1994 11:31:32 -0800
To: com-priv@psi.com, telecomreg@relay.adp.wisc.edu
From: tenney@netcom.com (Glenn S. Tenney)
At 7:30 AM 2/2/94 -0800, Gordon Cook wrote:
>... I thought they were Bell Atlantic employees. ...
and later
>I have now received satisfactory direct private assurance that ba.com *is* a
>host owned and controlled by Bell Atlantic.
I did too, especially since Erik listed himself as "Bell Atlantic". When a
press release comes out from a PR/Advertising firm if a person from the PR
firm is listed as a contact person, the release ALWAYS indicates that the
person works for the PR firm. Every indication from the ba.com postings
was that all of the information came from BA and that the person posting
them (Erik) was a BA employee.
Just because the ba.com is owned by BA does not preclude the possibility
that people using it are not employees of BA. Many companies, for example,
allow ex-employees to retain userids on their machines...
At 12:53 PM 2/2/94 -0600, MICHAEL SPENCER OF CIT wrote:
>...I never did think I was going to use ba.com
>messages to hold Bell Atlantic's feet to the fire. ...
>Otherwise, let the buyer (or in this case, reader) beware! Use all
>proper procedures for verifying the source and authenticity of material
>before relying on it.
Mike, then it would be alright for me to setup any domain name myself --
how about "NSA.Gov" or "DoJ.gov" or maybe "NYUniv.edu" (to pick a domain
that is likely NOT already in use with that exact spelling) or whatever?
If the domain name does not bear some legal relationship with the
person/group setting up the domain, then no one (and no routers!) should
make any assumptions and the domains are worthless for any purpose other
than identifying nodes at that domain.
---
Glenn Tenney
tenney@netcom.com Amateur radio: AA6ER
(415) 574-3420 Fax: (415) 574-0546
