nanog mailing list archives
Re: Hold on to your news servers
From: Karl Denninger <karl () Denninger Net>
Date: Mon, 16 Nov 1998 11:17:14 -0600
On Mon, Nov 16, 1998 at 11:45:21AM -0500, Nathan J. Mehl wrote:
You can try to claim that it is, but I suspect that we'll find out shortly whether there is any chance in hell of that succeeding - coming out of New York State.Funny thing that -- I would actually have pointed to the Vacco prosecutions as a primary example of why putting one's trust in CleanNews as a legal umbrella might not be the best idea. From all accounts, the two ISPs Vacco shut down in New York were making all of the usual efforts to cooperate in good faith with Vacco's office.
Uh, no. The reports I've read say that Vacco's office sent them a notice (from an undercover account) that they had the porn on their servers along with where it was, and asked for a response. They sent this to several ISPs (not just the two which were seized). Others pulled the groups. The two that were seized didn't, but they DID respond (negatively) to the request. I suspect this is an issue for the courts to sort out - did they or did they not have constructive notice of what was there. REGARDLESS, I would argue that acceptnig a *group* which by its name denotes illegal activity is begging for trouble. If I can see from nothing more than a FreeAgent group list as a user on your system that you're carrying groups which by their name denote illegal activity I think you've got a problem.
Unfortunately for them, it was an election year and Vacco was in a tight (indeed, still undecided) race, so he decided to play the "Internet child porn scare" card and raided them anyways: http://www.buffnet.net/ag/
Do you know if Buffnet is being completely truthful in that page? I don't.
Moral: acting in "good faith" is...an act of faith. It's no substitute for concrete legal protections.
Actually, I have spoken to the NYAG's office. They have indicated to me that if an ISP were accepting such a feed, they would not even consider prosecuting them for this kind of thing. They obviously decline to provide *blanket* immunity (what if the poster is on YOUR MACHINE?!) - good faith is as far as you're going to get when it comes to general protections against prosecutorial intervention.
[Full disclosure: I am a resident of New York State with a profound and repeatedly stated dislike for Vacco. The man is scum, and you can quote me on that.]One key when talking to lawyers, though, is to tell them the truth about what you do and what you need to do in order to implement something. Its very easy to get your shorts in a knot if you play coy with your counsel.Agreed and emphasized.
Yep. Like admitting that news server software comes with *zero* configuration out of the box, and that you have to *explicitly* set up the groups you accept and who you peer with (even if the list is "*") -- -- Karl Denninger (karl () denninger net) http://www.mcs.net/~karl I ain't even *authorized* to speak for anyone other than myself, so give up now on trying to associate my words with any particular organization.
Current thread:
- Re: Hold on to your news servers, (continued)
- Re: Hold on to your news servers John Gonzalez/netMDC admin (Nov 15)
- Re: Hold on to your news servers Edward S. Marshall (Nov 13)
- Re: Hold on to your news servers Karl Denninger (Nov 13)
- Re: Hold on to your news servers Derek Balling (Nov 15)
- RE: Hold on to your news servers Chris Mauritz (Nov 14)
- Re: Hold on to your news servers Paul Vixie (Nov 14)
- Message not available
- Re: Hold on to your news servers Jay R. Ashworth (Nov 15)
- Re: Hold on to your news servers Paul Vixie (Nov 14)
- Re: Hold on to your news servers Nathan J. Mehl (Nov 15)
- Re: Hold on to your news servers Karl Denninger (Nov 15)
- Re: Hold on to your news servers Nathan J. Mehl (Nov 16)
- Re: Hold on to your news servers Karl Denninger (Nov 16)
- Re: Hold on to your news servers Henry Linneweh (Nov 15)
- Re: Hold on to your news servers Karl Denninger (Nov 16)
- Re: Hold on to your news servers Karl Denninger (Nov 16)
- Re: Hold on to your news servers Karl Denninger (Nov 16)