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Date:	Wed, 1 Jan 2003 16:57:52 PST8
From:	"Dave Watson" <david.watson@earthlink.net >
Reply-To:	scoug-help@scoug.com
To:	<jrace@attglobal.net >
Subject:	SCOUG-Help: Re: OT Universal Standard for Duty of Care of Internet Resources (comment requested)

Content Type: text/plain

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Ambitious start for the new year. This probably doesn't belong on
scoug-help, but it's been quiet here and some folks have some interest in
this. I'll keep it short.

Jeffery, I'm not sure if you intend to legislate a solution or to offer
guidance for everyone to do the "right thing." Some folks will not do the
right thing even after substantial beatings. And legislation usually
creates unintended consequences most of us would sooner avoid. I don't see
any other way for your standard to succeed. Community standards assume
there is a community. The internet is bigger than any community.

The internet involves shared resources like bandwidth, and private resources
like my computer's download time and disk space and my time to deal with it.

The shared resources problem is down in the noise at present levels of
abuse. The DNS attack last year was fairly intense, but didn't affect
anyone. Spam and malicious attacks have negligible impact on the shared
resources. Bandwidth is plentiful and backbone services have proven quite
robust.

Private resources which might be targeted for abuse, including privately
owned parts of the backbone, our ISPs, and our private LANs and terminals
(including you and me), can protect themselves.

So, where's the problem?

It's kind of like policing the streets. We have laws that say you can't
kill me, but people get killed every day because some folks don't mind
breaking the law, and law enforcement can't guard all of us all the time.
So I keep my doors locked and my weapons handy.

Likewise with the internet. Economic incentives will keep the packets
moving, good ones and bad ones. We have laws to prosecute folks who attack
us if we can catch them. And we all have access to locks and weapons to
deal with packets we don't like coming into our computers. Standards for
internet posses won't add much protection.

Best wishes for your efforts to deal with antisocial activities. But I'm
afraid I can't think of any constructive comments on your proposal.

(P.s., the best way to eliminate spam is for no one to ever answer it.
About the same chance of that as getting people to stop sending it.)

(P.p.s., don't forget that some folks like spam. What right do you have to
coerce my ISP to prevent me from receiving these important messages?!)

(P.p.p.s., I wonder if this message would fall under the Unsolicited Bulk
Email category? I wonder who would decide?)

Happy new year to all!

----- Original Message -----
From: "Dr. Jeffrey Race"
To:
Sent: Wednesday, January 01, 2003 4:45 AM
Subject: SCOUG-Help: OT Universal Standard for Duty of Care of Internet
Resources (comment requested)

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