Path: utzoo!utgpu!watmath!clyde!att!osu-cis!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!rutgers!rochester!pt.cs.cmu.edu!nl.cs.cmu.edu!mjc
From: mjc@nl.cs.cmu.edu (Monica Cellio)
Newsgroups: news.misc
Subject: Internet rules and Usenet
Summary: be nice to the gateway sites; we're all benefiting from internet
Message-ID: <3731@pt.cs.cmu.edu>
Date: 30 Nov 88 22:29:46 GMT
Organization: Carnegie Mellon University
Lines: 19

While many sites don't benefit directly from Internet, a lot of Usenet's
traffic is gatewayed through the Internet.  No, a random usenet site isn't
going to get in trouble if one of its users violates Internet rules, but the
gateway sites *are* in danger when this happens.  That's why we should try 
to be reasonable with respect to Internet rules; if we lose the gateways 
because they're afraid of losing their Internet rights, where will we be?

How hard would it be to modify the news software at gateway sites to reject
a distribution field of, say, "usenet-only"?  No, I'm not a news hacker,
and I don't know how distributions are implemented in general.  But if such 
a thing is reasonably easy, it might be a way to make everyone happy -- go 
ahead and violate Internet rules if you like, *but* include the special 
distribution so no one has to get in trouble for it.
--
"As a description of a highly sophisticated technological achievement,
'Avon's gadget works' is somewhat lacking in class."

UUCP: seismo!cmu-cs-k!mjc
ARPA: monica.cellio@nl.cs.cmu.edu
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