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From: nerd@percival.rain.com (Michael Galassi)
Newsgroups: comp.org.eff.talk
Subject: Re: Student suspended for distributing /etc/passwd
Message-ID: <1991Jun12.145613.3329@percy.rain.com>
Date: 12 Jun 91 14:56:13 GMT
References: <31124@hydra.gatech.EDU>
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ccastmg@prism.gatech.EDU (Michael G. Goldsman) writes:

>the file is readable by the world after all.
>The uga student was not the one who broke in.

I beg your pardon? It is readable by anyone who has a login on the
machine, this is NOT the same as the whole world (though it may seem
so to an "exam-week-weary" person).  The twirp apparently mailed the
file off-campus, a different (and better) world you will find when
you recover from finals :-).

>I have some serious problems with UGA supending him.
>I am a little too "exam-week-weary" to articulate my feelings well,
>but I thought that you guys should know about this.

Being the asshole I am I would have expelled him, we need some examples
on a cross to help discourage others.

>What if a student runs cops on /etc/passwd... would this
>be considered intent to break into a system and could he thus
>be suspended?

Intent...  hmmm...  I think that has to be a judgement call, s/he could
be interested in security for legitimate reasons.  Have to take this
on a case by case basis.

>Well, you guys can mull it over today, I need some sleep.

Good luck with finals Mike.
cheers,
-m
-- 
Michael Galassi				| nerd@percival.rain.com
MS-DOS:  The ultimate PC virus.		| ...!tektronix!percy!nerd