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From: dpassage@soda.berkeley.edu (David G. Paschich)
Newsgroups: comp.admin.policy
Subject: Re: RFC on my "abuse"
Message-ID: <DPASSAGE.91Jun26125640@soda.berkeley.edu>
Date: 26 Jun 91 20:56:40 GMT
Article-I.D.: soda.DPASSAGE.91Jun26125640
References: <1991Jun25.213406.18977@cis.ohio-state.edu>
	<25.Jun.91.180934.68@cogsci.cog.jhu.edu>
	<1991Jun26.043640.19539@ms.uky.edu>
	<1991Jun26.052725.14920@mp.cs.niu.edu>
	<1991Jun26.134621.15275@ms.uky.edu>
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In-Reply-To: sean@ms.uky.edu's message of 26 Jun 91 13: 46:21 GMT

In article <1991Jun26.134621.15275@ms.uky.edu> sean@ms.uky.edu (Sean Casey) writes:
   In article <mumble>, rickert@mp.cs.niu.edu (Neil Rickert) writes:
   |In article <1991Jun26.043640.19539@ms.uky.edu> sean@ms.uky.edu (Sean Casey) writes:
   |>
   |>This <BANG> "Stop or I'll shoot." mentality isn't very mental.

   | Where did you get this "stop or I'll shoot" business.  It certainly was
   |nowhere stated.

   They turned off his account! In computer terms, that's the same as
   shooting someone.

No, in computer terms, that's the same as turning off his account.
Let's remember that there's more to real life than the net.

The only thing I disagree with about the administrator's actions in
the original post is that he didn't send mail first.  (Or, at least,
the user never read mail.)  That to me is crucial: make sure that the
person knows that what he's doing isn't kosher before you zorch him.
Pulling something and stopping when you're told it's bad is one thing.
Continuing on is quite another.

BTW, at my site, whenever I'm forced to turn off a user's account, I
always do it by changing their shell to a program that tells them why
their account has been turned off, and I always make them able to
extract their files via FTP, or some other solution if they don't have
other net access.  I consider that information their property and I
don't have the right to keep them from accessing it.

--
David G. Paschich	Open Computing Facility		UC Berkeley
dpassage@ocf.berkeley.edu
Go Colorado Rockies -- Opening Day, Mile High Stadium, April 1993