Re: dumb robots and xxx
Jim Ausman (ausman@wired.com)
Fri, 12 Jul 1996 17:17:31 -0700
>> There are basically 2 opinions here:
>>
>> 1) robot owners should follow guidelines and respect site ownsers choice
>> of what should be hit automatically and what shouldn't.
>>
>> 2) robot owners can do whatever they damn well feel like and it's the
>> job of a site owner to build a fortress of safety systems to prevent
>> the robots from causing damage or denial of service.
>
>I can't believe that any responsible person on this list could support
>item 2). Why should I have to invest my time and materials to defend
>against robots who refuse to conduct themselves responsibly?
>
>In my neighborhood, denial of service attacks are against the law.
>
Well, I'd say that both of the above are correct, as well as Mr. Terbush.
Robot owners "should", they "can", and the law passes rules all the time.
But being in charge of security at various sites has proven to me that
even though plenty of things are illegal, you had better protect yourself
against them if you want your site to stay up.
I think this discussion is valuable insofar as it helps us to agree upon
a common set of guidelines for self-policing. If we can do that, hopefully
with the input of web site maintainers, none of us will have problems like
this and we can keep the law out of it. Hopefully. At least until they
are a little bit better informed about the issues.
Oh, and if anyone cares, I think the site admins at xxx are twinks. Sort
of what you would expect from the bomb makers. Didn't these guys dream
up MAD as a policy for defending Europe? I guess it worked though, didn't it?
Jim Ausman
Systems Administrator
HotWired
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I don't speak for Wired and they don't speak for me.