Hot Line and e-mail

[Rayan Zachariassen]

baskett%forest at SGI.COM writes:

>At the moment we are not sure how to restrict
>people from using the Internet for a commercial purpose such as an
>e-mail Hot Line.  So we don't have an e-mail Hot Line.  Our use of the
>Internet is supposed to be for research and educational purposes.

To quote from the acceptable-use document from the Federation of American
Research networks (FARnet):

	    Traffic between mid-levels should be restricted to 
	research or academic purposes, or to direct 
	administrative support of such efforts. Organizations 
	whose connection to the internet is sponsored by a 
	FRICC agency can use the network in support of the 
	sponsored activities. Traffic whose content is solely 
	commercial is not acceptable. ...

In other words, traffic in support of sponsored activities (that's R&D)
is allowed.  It doesn't matter what the endpoints of the traffic are,
just that one of the parties is participating in the traffic to support a
"sponsored activity" (which in many R&D labs is a euphemism for "breathing").

Although there may be gray areas, it seems generally accepted that
anybody with an Internet connection has some (at times flimsy) reason
for having one and as long as you don't do commercial EDI or
non-focused activities (e.g. advertising) over the Internet that all is
ok.  How many SGI machines on the Internet are *not* used for some form
of R&D (aka "sponsored activity")?

This of course doesn't allow you to use the Internet as a third-party
network, which means you still need to maintain UUCP (or other) connectivity
to talk to non-Internet sites... but that's another matter.

Bottom line is that what may look like a commercial activity to you looks
like a we-needed-this-a-year-ago facility to many Research and Academic
Internet member organizations.

rayan