Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!bonnie.concordia.ca!uunet!mcsun!ukc!dcl-cs!aber-cs!athene!pcg From: pcg@aber.ac.uk (Piercarlo Grandi) Newsgroups: comp.admin.policy Subject: Re: Community Standards (was Re: Possibly nefarious users) Message-ID: Date: 19 Jun 91 19:00:23 GMT References: <1991Jun7.184025.25010@eng.umd.edu> <44640@netnews.upenn.edu> Sender: aro@aber-cs.UUCP Organization: Coleg Prifysgol Cymru Lines: 43 In-reply-to: chip@eniac.seas.upenn.edu's message of 14 Jun 91 14:29:21 GMT On 14 Jun 91 14:29:21 GMT, chip@eniac.seas.upenn.edu (Charles H. Buchholtz) said: [ ... on the analogy about a networked computer with a passwordless guest account being like an unlocked house where you cannot enter anyhow ... ] chip> There is no simple rule about access to unlocked resources. We learn chip> a set of cues which tell us what's appropriate and what isn't. But there are different cathegories of unlocked resources. Some unlocked resources are meant to be enjoyed by the public. chip> In the Internet community, these standards are forming and are not chip> completely understood. In a sense, we're discussing whether we chip> want to live in rural Kansas or urban Philadelphia. Yes and no. Whether locked or unlocked, whether in Kansas or Philadelphia, a private house can only be legally entered with permission or in a few other cases. But we have yet to decide that a computer on the internet is a private house rather than a supermarket or an office building or a library. To me Internet machines are service providers, they are not private homes. If I see an interesting bookshop I don't have, as a rule, to ask permission to enter and have a look around. Normally when you walk along a street you know which are private homes and which are shops you may enter to browse in. On the Internet you have no visual cues; a passwordless account called 'guest' or 'anonymous' is an invitation to browse, I would surmise. If that's not the case, I wonder what would a cue be that the system welcomes the public. Now question time: if all Internet hosts, including those that have accounts called 'guest' and 'anonymous' without a password, are to be presumed private systems, should we get a registered mail letter giving explicit access permission from any FTP server before attempting to use? Because surely unless somebody is explicitly authorized in writing, attempt to use that computer is trespass. -- Piercarlo Grandi | ARPA: pcg%uk.ac.aber@nsfnet-relay.ac.uk Dept of CS, UCW Aberystwyth | UUCP: ...!mcsun!ukc!aber-cs!pcg Penglais, Aberystwyth SY23 3BZ, UK | INET: pcg@aber.ac.uk