netiquette & zone transfers

[Barry Margolin]

In article <38da5585.12731384 at nntp.jaring.my>,
Lincoln Yeoh <lyeoh at pop.jaring.nospam.my> wrote:
>On 22 Mar 2000 10:46:41 -0800, Barry Margolin <barmar at bbnplanet.com> wrote:
>
>>In article <38d8d347.538453 at nntp.jaring.my>,
>>Lincoln Yeoh <lyeoh at pop.jaring.nospam.my> wrote:
>>>Just wondering, how do you tell whether you are authorised to transfer
>>>zones or not? I mean if ls -d works, aren't you authorised to do it? e.g.
>
>>It's like a door that says "Authorized entry only."  If no one ever told
>>you that you're authorized, you can usually assume that you're not.
>
>Ah but the point is - there's nothing that says "authorized entry only".

Why does there have to be?  You don't have to have a "no trespassing" sign
on your lawn to prohibit trespassers.

>I suppose it could come under the various computer laws - unauthorised
>access to info. However, if we paint with such a broad brush then Microsoft
>and a whole bunch would be guilty as well. e.g. M'softs registration
>wizards, so on and so forth. 

IANAL, but I suspect you'd have a hard time getting the computer trespass
laws to apply to zone transfers.  I *don't* think they're illegal, they're
just inappropriate.

There are lots of things that are legal, but still wrong.  IMHO, this is
one of them.  And if someone complains about your behavior, stop doing it.

-- 
Barry Margolin, barmar at bbnplanet.com
GTE Internetworking, Powered by BBN, Burlington, MA
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