🚀 go-pugleaf

 shane> == shane alan johns <sjohns@mango.ucs.indiana.edu>

 shane> What I would like to know is whether or not MUDs actually are
 shane> forbidden by Internet.  If they ARE, then whether or not a
 shane> sys.admin believes it is educational is irrelevant!  What does
 shane> Internet have to say on the issue of MUDs?  Is it an improper
 shane> use of Internet?

Rule #1: The Internet is an extremely diverse network of networks.

Corollary: The only "laws" that can be applied to the entire Internet
are on the order of laws of nature, like "Follow the TCP/IP specs or you
won't be able to talk to anyone."

There could, certainly, be parts of the Internet that MUDs are forbidden
within; I can think of a couple university campus networks that fit the
bill without really trying.

There are, on the other hand, also portions of the Internet where MUDs
are explicitly *not* forbidden, or are even encouraged.  Certainly they
are not in contravention of the "acceptable use" policies, such as they
are, of the commercial IP providers.

On the third hand (hey, Zaphod Beeblebrox here), there are parts of the
network that may or may not prohibit MUDs, but haven't explicitly
decided one way or the other (like the NSFNET backbone).  The
educational value of a MUD is of importance in this case, since the
NSFNET acceptable use policy states that the network is for use in
support of research & education.

My personal feeling is that if it gets people who would otherwise never
touch a computer to start using them (I know people who wouldn't have
done anything more than word processing who learned how to use Unix just
to compile IRC clients), it's educational.  Of course, I don't run the
NSFNET, so I wouldn't count on that interpretation holding.
--
Christopher Davis <ckd@eff.org> |    ECONOMIC OBSERVATIONS DEPARTMENT
System Manager & Postmaster     |  "There's always something going out of
Electronic Frontier Foundation  |      business in Central Square."
+1 617 864 0665  NIC: [CKD1]    |   -Rita Marie Rouvalis <rita@eff.org>