Re: The Internet and the Anti-net

Tony Sanders (sanders@BSDI.COM)
Tue, 02 Aug 1994 01:17:26 -0500


Nick Arnett writes:
> holds. Two distinct, interconnected publicly accessible digital
> internetworks are likely to emerge, which is surely better than just one.
The Internet is already thousands of distinct networks, all interconnected
(public and private). There are even many commercial networks in that bunch.

So, while the history of the printing press is very interesting you failed
to differentiate your scheme from what we already have.

> cable and broadcast industries. The "Anti-net" will rely on advertising
But if they are interconnected then what is to prevent the advertisements
from going to the non-commercial Internet? The commercial customers that
do the spamming, post to the non-commercial resources on purpose because
they can get away with it; that is the problem. If they would stick to
their own playgrounds then I think everyone would be happy now.

The best solution I see is simply for service providers to write appropriate
use policy into their contracts and filter out packets from providers with
unacceptable policy or enforcement. Unsolicited email or advertising in
non-business areas should be part of that policy--spamming should be the
death penality (i.e., being disconnected and/or paying severe penalties).
I have no problem with commercial use, but I do have a problem with misuse
(commercial and non-commercial) and I believe that it is the right and
responsibility of the service providers to deal with it.

Most importantly though, the rules of the game must be clearly written.

--sanders