Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!ucbvax!husc6!popvax!kovar
From: kovar@popvax.uucp (David C. Kovar)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac
Subject: Re: 6.0.5 by ftp only (was Re: Thank you, Apple! (for again singling out 'the rest of us'))
Message-ID: <2544@husc6.harvard.edu>
Date: 12 Apr 90 12:32:26 GMT
References: <1990Mar25.125336.8932@uwasa.fi> <2314@tellab5.tellabs.com> <1990Apr7.235132.15047@uokmax.uucp> <14964@cbnewsc.ATT.COM>
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In article <14964@cbnewsc.ATT.COM> stuart@cbnewsc.ATT.COM (S. D. Ericson) writes:
>I believe the issue was one of being able to track who gets the software.
>They were finally able to convince the lawyers that ftp tracks (logs) the
>connections and thus they would know who got the software.

  Sounds like they snowed their lawyers very well. FTP logs where the
connection came from and who logged in. The login is almost always
"anonymous" so there goes any chance of knowing who the actual person
is. The address of the connection is an IP address (128.103.1.1 for 
example) which can be resolved into a name that should include the
institution that the connection came from. Alas for Apple and their
lawyers, I can easily make most any machine use most any IP address
and pretend to be any machine I want. (There are some complications due
to gateways, other machines, and the like but in general those are
easily overcome.)

  So, in short, they have very little knowledge of who is picking up
their software and no current method for limiting it to the people
they want it to go to. If they lawyers believed that they know
who is getting their software, they're deluded.


-David C. Kovar
	Consultant				ARPA: kovar@popvax.harvard.edu
	Eclectic Associates			BITNET: corwin@harvarda.bitnet
	Ma Bell: 617-646-0428			MacNET: DKovar

         "It is easier to get forgiveness than permission."
[All opinions expressed are my own. Noone else assumes responsibility for me.]