IRC and Security

[Dan Bernstein]

In article <1991Mar13.232433.3162 at athena.mit.edu> jik at athena.mit.edu (Jonathan I. Kamens) writes:
>   During Desert Storm there Israelis on IRC during many of the bomb attacks,
  [ etc. ]
>   I don't consider that "entertainment," I consider it an integral part of the
> "electronic community" for which I think we should be striving.

You can toss around ``considerations'' all you want, but it is generally
illegal to do anything on the academic networks that isn't for research
or instruction. People can argue that IRC contributes to research and
instruction, but it *does* carry a very large amount of traffic that
would be exceedingly difficult to classify that way.

Such use of academic networks is almost certainly illegal.

I'm not saying that IRC should be demolished just because it appears to
contribute so strongly to illegal behavior: any communications medium
will suffer some amount of abuse. However, a sysadmin paid to maintain
computers for instruction and research is perfectly justified in cutting
off the entire IRC system rather than trying to weed out the valid use
from the chaff. On USENET it's at least practical to carry only comp.*
and news.*; IRC has no comparable ability.

You may argue that it's not your responsibility to worry about illegal
behavior. You just shouldn't criticize those who do.

---Dan