Aucbvax.1893
fa.works
utzoo!duke!decvax!ucbvax!Joe.Newcomer@CMU-10A
Tue Jun 23 17:46:32 1981
Re: Arpanet usage
Lars,
Whether or not people at PARC wear n-piece suits (for various values
of n), there is a set of rules which govern ArpaNet usage.  If these
rules were absolutely strictly enforced, most of the really
productive use we make of the ArpaNet would not be possible, because
it does not /directly/ bear on line items in Arpa contracts.  While
DCA is willing to tolerate a lot of the "irrelevant" usage because
they recognize what really happens in these conversations (we all are
more productive, learn more, etc.), some things cannot be tolerated.
One of them is any usage of the ArpaNet which is construable as
"commercial".  Since, in fact, the pressure would ultimately come
from Congress and the media, neither of which is technically
qualified to make most evaluations of this nature, it is important
that we try to stay as far as possible away from strictly commercial
traffic.  Discussions of Xerox products, independent of the usage of
the ArpaNet, could already cause a lot of problems (you are, I trust,
quite familiar with the laws and precedents in this area...starting
with the (in)famous Consent Decree between IBM and the Justice
Department back around 1956...and if you're not, I suggest you study
just exactly how much trouble a company can get into before making
unnecessary noises).  If, in addition, the problems arise because of
usage of the ArpaNet, such nasty things as having Xerox lose their
IMP could follow, as well as stricter monitoring of ArpaNet usage,
and all sorts of really nasty bureaucratic nonsense which would
/really/ destroy the utility of the ArpaNet for all the rest of us.
Dave Liddle acted quite responsibly in emphasizing what everyone
should already have known...you can't use the ArpaNet for commercial
purposes, and that having any Xerox employee discuss the Star system
is trivially construable to be precisely that. (And, if keeping Xerox
on the ArpaNet is "miserliness" then I say, be miserly).  Don't
forget...the ArpaNet is not a right, but a privilege, and at many
sites the usage of the ArpaNet is severely restricted and monitored
(for example, I heard that one ArpaNet site monitors all incoming and
outgoing mail!)  I do not want to open the "appropriate usages and
mission of the ArpaNet" discussion in this group, so I would
appreciate if nobody bothered to reply to this message.  There was
such a discussion about a year ago, and I recommend that anyone who
wants to flame about it go back and read the MsgGroup or Human-Nets
archives before contributing further to the discussion (and do so on
some other discussion group list).
                               joe



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