On 12/1/12, Patrick W. Gilmore <patrick@ianai.net> wrote:
On Nov 30, 2012, at 20:25 , Randy Bush <randy@psg.com> wrote: As for "the legal crap", most of what is posted is not on-topic here. There are laws & legal implications which are operational, though. And even though I am not a lawyer, I need to understand them or I cannot do my job. My lawyer is not going to pick which datacenter to lease, even if he knows a
Laws and legal ramifications are a driving force impacting design and policy for network operations, because they have financial implications, and finance matters. For example, if you or your orgs' staff are denied access to your equipment or data and critical servers are seized or offlined, while a police investigation is ongoing, due to a breach of PII confidentiality (eg Stolen social security numbers of staff members used by an ID thief), for example, there is possible hardship for the org, even if you or your org fully exercised due care and went well beyond the minimum: with a responsible well-thought security program, and the offender is an outsider, you might soon not have a network, due to bankruptcy. In this case you might not have any "liability" or guilt for the breach, but you have major costs, regardless. Anyone, including people off the street, can have opinions about the Law, and opinions about networks. Would you be willing to rely some stranger off the street, with no qualifications, or positive background whatsoever, to start recommending a new network design, or give them a CLI with directions that they can start making whatever changes they like to your core router? Would you ask how to configure an AP to be secure, on a network law discussion list? Opinions are one thing; but a large amount of legal mumbo jumbo, and attempting to suggest you have exactly what a court would find, or what the exact and only issues are, that list members can't responsibly rely on anyways (DUE to its importance not its non-importance), is a waste of bits, and there might be a more appropriate place to discuss law itself. :) -- -JH