Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!uunet!motcid!peed
From: peed@cell.mot.COM (Andrew Peed)
Newsgroups: news.newusers.questions
Subject: Re: What constitutes abuse of the net?
Message-ID: <562@grape1.UUCP>
Date: 13 Dec 89 18:10:45 GMT
References: <37942@ames.arc.nasa.gov>
Reply-To: motcid!username@uunet.uu.net
Organization: Motorola Inc. - Cellular Infrastructure Div., Arlington Heights, IL 60004
Lines: 64

hettinger@krypton.arc.nasa.gov (Lawrence J. Hettinger) writes:


>	I have an issue that I've been dealing with for the past
>couple days that may merit discussion.  My apologies if this is
>an old, tired topic.

	It only becomes old and tired when you have two camps screaming at
each other instead of discussing the issues. I'll post my two cents now before
it degenerates into screaming.... (1/4 :-) )

>	In rec.humor I read a particularly brutal series of
>sadistic jokes dealing with child abuse and pedophilia posted
>by an individual who will go unnamed.  I have spent a little
>bit of time yesterday and today blasting this person via e-mail, 
>and I wrote to the system administrator at the University where
>the posting originated.  I basically just lodged a protest with
>the sysad, but also asked that consideration be made of terminating
>this individual's access to the net.

	Rec.humor is just that: humor represented in ALL it's forms. Granted,
some of those forms are bound to offend SOMEONE; I don't appreciate child
abuse jokes either, but I don't deny anyone the right to tell them. As far as
asking that the sysadmin consider terminating the individual's access, I think
you were WAY out of line, and I daresay that most people on the net will tend
to agree. In my somewhat limited experience with Usenet, I think termination
has pretty much been limited to cases of malicious intent.


>	Am I right or wrong?  What constitutes abuse of the net?

	You were wrong. Sorry to be so blunt, but there it is. In my book
(which I read extensively, even if no one else takes it off the shelf), abuse
of the net consists of things like:

	a) Massive crossposting of messages to newsgroups not concerned with
	   the contents of the message. 

	b) Forgery, malicious and otherwise.

	c) Use of the net for commercial gain. If corporations want to 
	   advertise on the net, let them support the cost of operating it.

	There are other abuses, but these are the main ones that come to my
mind right off the bat.

>I have no wish to infringe an individual's rights but

	Such a wonderful word -- "but," -- don't you think so?

>							 on the 
>other hand I feel compelled to take action, particularly when
>dealing with sexual abuse of children.

	If you want to take action, teach your children what to do in the
event someone makes sexual advances to them. In the meantime, all you can do
is wait for Mankind to evolve.


-- 
                Without waves, there is no tide and no change.

Motorola, Inc.							Andrew B. Peed
Cellular Infrastructure Division			  ..!uunet!motcid!peed