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Cyhist Sep. 18, 1997 B
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========================================================================= Date: Thu, 18 Sep 1997 00:47:34 -0400
Reply-To: "CYHIST Community Memory: Discussion list on the History of
Cyberspace" <CYHIST@MAELSTROM.STJOHNS.EDU> Sender: "CYHIST Community Memory: Discussion list on the History of
Cyberspace" <CYHIST@MAELSTROM.STJOHNS.EDU> From: Stephen Wolff <swolff@CISCO.COM>
Subject: Re: history of acceptable use policies
X-cc: David Smith <smithx@SFU.CA>
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Community Memory: Discussion List on the History of Cyberspace ______________________________________________________________________
>I'm trying to get a picture of the evolution of Internet acceptable use policies, particularly with respect to commercial use. As I understand up until about 1993 formally commercial use of the NSFNET was prohibited.
Use of the **NSFNET Backbone Service** for purposes not in support of R&E was prohibited. There were **no** restrictions placed on the NSF-(under)funded regional networks; they were only exhorted to adopt accounting practices that woiuld clearly show that their commercial operations were (at least) self-supporting, and that public funds were used only for support of their R&E functions.
>I guess that by that time this was pretty much a dead letter since it would have been impossible to stop commercial traffic over the backbone coming from other networks.
Networks were not permitted to exchange traffic with the NSFNET Backbone Service unless they agreed not to send in commercial traffic. This was of course in the strict sense unenforceable, but violations egregious enough to catch any whistle-blower's attention were - when details were given to the NSF - dealt with swiftly and on the whole successfully.
>...I read one source that said congress formally changed the NSF mandate in this regard in 1993.
Yes. The so-called "Boucher Amendment".
>I guess that now these kind of network wide AUP's are unenforceable. Were they ever formally abandoned, or did they just fall by the wayside?
To the contrary: the R&E networks of DARPA, NASA, and DoE still maintain and enforce very strict AUPs. The NSF/MCI vBNS has an AUP which has recently been modified to make it in fact easily enforceable. Write to <gstrawn@nsf.gov>.
Stephen Wolff
Division Director, Networking, NSF 1987-1995
______________________________________________________________________
Reply-To: "CYHIST Community Memory: Discussion list on the History of
Cyberspace" <CYHIST@MAELSTROM.STJOHNS.EDU> Sender: "CYHIST Community Memory: Discussion list on the History of
Cyberspace" <CYHIST@MAELSTROM.STJOHNS.EDU> From: Stephen Wolff <swolff@CISCO.COM>
Subject: Re: history of acceptable use policies
X-cc: David Smith <smithx@SFU.CA>
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"
______________________________________________________________________
Community Memory: Discussion List on the History of Cyberspace ______________________________________________________________________
>I'm trying to get a picture of the evolution of Internet acceptable use policies, particularly with respect to commercial use. As I understand up until about 1993 formally commercial use of the NSFNET was prohibited.
Use of the **NSFNET Backbone Service** for purposes not in support of R&E was prohibited. There were **no** restrictions placed on the NSF-(under)funded regional networks; they were only exhorted to adopt accounting practices that woiuld clearly show that their commercial operations were (at least) self-supporting, and that public funds were used only for support of their R&E functions.
>I guess that by that time this was pretty much a dead letter since it would have been impossible to stop commercial traffic over the backbone coming from other networks.
Networks were not permitted to exchange traffic with the NSFNET Backbone Service unless they agreed not to send in commercial traffic. This was of course in the strict sense unenforceable, but violations egregious enough to catch any whistle-blower's attention were - when details were given to the NSF - dealt with swiftly and on the whole successfully.
>...I read one source that said congress formally changed the NSF mandate in this regard in 1993.
Yes. The so-called "Boucher Amendment".
>I guess that now these kind of network wide AUP's are unenforceable. Were they ever formally abandoned, or did they just fall by the wayside?
To the contrary: the R&E networks of DARPA, NASA, and DoE still maintain and enforce very strict AUPs. The NSF/MCI vBNS has an AUP which has recently been modified to make it in fact easily enforceable. Write to <gstrawn@nsf.gov>.
Stephen Wolff
Division Director, Networking, NSF 1987-1995
______________________________________________________________________
