For my two cents: I also agree with John. I think the current system where 'civic-saviors' protest spams to the spammers' provider works fairly well. It works as a pressure to resist spamming. The only thing I don't like about it are the militant-son-of-spams. If the current unstructured system stays, I think there should be a simple addition to govern son-of-spammers to prevent the kind of frontier justice used on those lawyers. I myself will usually forward the complaint on to the spammers. After 2 complaints I add that they need to stop the activity, but sometimes it's simply a lag-time or long time-to-live on a spam that keeps complaints coming in long afterward. ... ---------------- Brian Curnow -------------- On Sun, 15 Oct 1995, Tim Bass wrote:
John Curran and I are in total agreement on John's premise that any Post NSF AUP is either a) unenforceable or b) subject to abuse. I suggest that for the moment, that we agree with John that any AUP is both:
a) Unenforceable; b) Subject to abuse; and c) Virtually impossible to authenticate.
Giving the above, the question still remains and the original motion is still valid for this reason.
If we define a Post NSF AUP, then at least everyone who uses the Internet will have had the opportunity to have read and understood what the current Internet AUP describes.
It is possible that having a clearly defined AUP will not stop spam and other unacceptable uses of the net, and clearly an AUP is not enforceable ( and for IP security reasons should not be enforced without absolute authentication as John correctly points out).
On the other hand, having a clearly defined AUP may discourage potential spammers and child pornographers, etc. (not that we consider spammers and child pornography peddlers in the same vein..). Also, having a clearly defined Internet AUP will send a signal to the news media and government officials that the providers of Internet services are capable of formulating policy in an area that, without self-regulation, has a strong potential to continue degenerating.
Is a self-formulated Post NSF AUP, without enforcement, still a good idea?
The answer, I suggest, is not obvious, but a debate on the subject does have considerable merit, given the events of the past week or so.
Tim
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