Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!clyde!rutgers!uwvax!oddjob!matt
From: matt@oddjob.UChicago.EDU (Keeper of the Sacred Tablets)
Newsgroups: news.admin
Subject: Re: Forgeries: a suggestion for bringing them under control
Message-ID: <14276@oddjob.UChicago.EDU>
Date: 25 Jan 88 19:48:39 GMT
References: <1861@epimass.EPI.COM>
Organization: Backwards R Us
Lines: 21

I don't think that Joe Buck's suggestions are entirely idiotic, but I
do have one additional drawback to mention.  If someone from my site
were to net-misbehave it is quite probable that they would be someone
that I do not have the authority to remove from my system.  (I run
these machines, but I don't own them.)  Does that mean that one user
can knock my system off the net?  (Assuming, of course, that all six
of my news-neighbors want it done.)  It would be no easier to cut a
potential forger off at the originating machine than anywhere else
down the line, without pulling his account entirely.

) ...  I don't see how
) anything less than the net equivalent of the death penalty is going
) to suffice considering how hard it is to catch someone.

I'm no expert on the penal system, but I had understood that
deterence comes not from the severity of the penalty but from the
certainty of its enforcement.  If that's correct then you are going
at the problem from the wrong end.
________________________________________________________
Matt	     University		matt@oddjob.uchicago.edu
Crawford     of Chicago     {astrovax,ihnp4}!oddjob!matt