RE: Yet another thread on the legality of port scanning

["Shawn Jackson" <sjackson () horizonusa com>]

> > The "reasonable man" hypothesis applies to connecting to a system to 
> > which authorization is in doubt.  Would a reasonable man conclude
that 
> > http://www.cnn.com is an acceptable connection in the absence of 
> > explicit permission?  I would say yes, he would. Would a reasonable 
> > man conclude that ftp://www.cnn.com is an acceptable connection in
the 
> > absence of explicit permission? I would argue no, he would not.
What's 
> > the difference?  HTTP is generally accepted to be a public
connection, 
> > in the sense that it is intended as a shared resource, to be 
> > accessible to all.  FTP is not generally accepted as such, regardless

> > of what electronic storefront happens to be offering the service.

> That's simply not true.

Agreed, it's not true. FTP is a standard, well known protocol for
transferring files.
Are you saying that website that link to ftp servers to download files,
like the
protocol was intended to do, is in fault? FTP is as much as accepted as
HTTP, seaming
they are 'generally' accepted to be a part of the TCP protocol stack.

Shawn Jackson
Systems Administrator
Horizon USA
1190 Trademark Dr #107
Reno NV 89521

www.horizonusa.com
Email: sjackson () horizonusa com
Phone: (775) 858-2338
       (800) 325-1199 x338

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