🚀 go-pugleaf

On 14 Jun 91 14:29:21 GMT, chip@eniac.seas.upenn.edu (Charles H. Buchholtz) said:

	[ ... on the analogy about a networked computer with a
	passwordless guest account being like an unlocked house where
	you cannot enter anyhow ... ]

chip> There is no simple rule about access to unlocked resources.  We learn
chip> a set of cues which tell us what's appropriate and what isn't.

But there are different cathegories of unlocked resources. Some unlocked
resources are meant to be enjoyed by the public.

chip> In the Internet community, these standards are forming and are not
chip> completely understood.  In a sense, we're discussing whether we
chip> want to live in rural Kansas or urban Philadelphia.

Yes and no. Whether locked or unlocked, whether in Kansas or
Philadelphia, a private house can only be legally entered with
permission or in a few other cases.

But we have yet to decide that a computer on the internet is a private
house rather than a supermarket or an office building or a library. To
me Internet machines are service providers, they are not private homes.
If I see an interesting bookshop I don't have, as a rule, to ask
permission to enter and have a look around.

Normally when you walk along a street you know which are private homes
and which are shops you may enter to browse in. On the Internet you have
no visual cues; a passwordless account called 'guest' or 'anonymous' is
an invitation to browse, I would surmise. If that's not the case, I
wonder what would a cue be that the system welcomes the public.

Now question time: if all Internet hosts, including those that have
accounts called 'guest' and 'anonymous' without a password, are to be
presumed private systems, should we get a registered mail letter giving
explicit access permission from any FTP server before attempting to use?

Because surely unless somebody is explicitly authorized in writing,
attempt to use that computer is trespass.
--
Piercarlo Grandi                   | ARPA: pcg%uk.ac.aber@nsfnet-relay.ac.uk
Dept of CS, UCW Aberystwyth        | UUCP: ...!mcsun!ukc!aber-cs!pcg
Penglais, Aberystwyth SY23 3BZ, UK | INET: pcg@aber.ac.uk