Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!uwm.edu!linac!mp.cs.niu.edu!rickert From: rickert@mp.cs.niu.edu (Neil Rickert) Newsgroups: comp.admin.policy Subject: Re: RFC on my "abuse" Message-ID: <1991Jun25.200857.15553@mp.cs.niu.edu> Date: 25 Jun 91 20:08:57 GMT References: <1991Jun25.154257.7452@m.cs.uiuc.edu> <1991Jun25.173013.3784@mp.cs.niu.edu> <1991Jun25.192914.23335@cs.utk.edu> Organization: Northern Illinois University Lines: 33 In article <1991Jun25.192914.23335@cs.utk.edu> Dave Sill writes: >Attempting to anonymous ftp to random sites is, in my opinion, rude at >worst. But any site admin that freaks out over the occasional attempt >hasn't got a firm grasp on reality. Attempting to anonymous ftp to my site is rude at worst. Using my site to do something rude to another site is an abuse of privileges. If he wants to pay for his own computer and connection, the rudeness is his problem. Put it another way. I am pretty tolerant of users doing a lot of experimentation including some pretty dumb things, providing they have respect for other users. But when a user puts me in the position of having to explain to the administrator of some other site that he "was only experimenting and doing dumb things" he has gone too far. Yet, even then, if a user on my system tries to manually ftp to one or two other sites, and the administrator of those sites complains, I will defend my user to the hilt, even though he may have shown poor judgement. But when my user repeatedly makes a nuisance of himself or, worse still, automates the process his actions become indefensible. >What he did wasn't illegal, and wasn't "totally different" from the >expected usage of the net: communicating and sharing information. There are a lot of rude and offensive things people can do which are not illegal. And as far as I am concerned, they can do them as much as they like in their own house or on their own computer. If they do them in someone elses house or on someone elses computer they should expect to be kicked out. -- =*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*= Neil W. Rickert, Computer Science Northern Illinois Univ. DeKalb, IL 60115 +1-815-753-6940