[ale] [WAY OT] Ethics Question

[da Black Baron]

On the ethics question, one has to wonder why the admin was reading his
lusers e-mail to begin with.  It's obviously not the policy of his
work-place to sneoop (and I consider that inappropirate, despite the
legal decisions currently in force concerning company snooping, just
because a group of lawyers feel that it's "right" doesn't make it so),
so why was he doing it?

Do you want the postman to read your mail just because it's passing
through his hands?  Do you want the fed-ex people to read your mail,
just because it's passing through their hands and it happens to be a
"private" distribution system?

The enitire notion of a sysadmin being responsable for, or reading
through, e-mail that happens to pass through his system is repugnant to
me- and to play into the clutches of the "law-and-order-before-privacy"
goons who want to hold sysadmins responsable for e-mails is not only
stupid (you want to spend all day screening e-mails for no-nos?) but
only tosses more dirt over the grave of the 4th amendment...

4th RIP...




On Mon, 2002-11-11 at 23:11, Chuck Huber wrote:
> On Mon, Nov 11, 2002 at 10:39:01PM -0500, Adrin wrote:
> > If someone is doing some illegal on a system you admin, and you
> > do nothing then you can be charged.
> 
> Close, but not quite precise.  You can be charged if it can be
> proven that you had knowledge of the activity.  (There are 
> other requirements about intent but not being a lawyer, I don't
> know what they are.)  There's lots of activity that goes on on your
> system that you have no knowledge about - especially transient
> traffic like email and such.
> 
> Think, for a moment, about porno sites.  The "illegal" activity
> in those cases would be distribution to a minor.  So the system
> admin as well as the content provider must exercise due diligence
> and reasonable effort to comply.  On the internet, it amounts to
> "Click here if you're over 18" kinda thing.
> 
> Also consider Napster.  They were proven guilty of copyright
> infringement because they had prior knowledge that their site
> was being used to illegally distribute copyrighted material
> and that they condoned the practice.  That's exactly what made
> that case such a milestone.
> 
> > You know if he wanted to make the teacher sweat a little bit he could cut part of the
> > email and let everyone know that this is not acceptable policy.
> 
> On the other hand, before you go pointing fingers and possibly
> destroying someone's career, you had better make sure your marbles
> are in a row and that there are no skeletons in your closet.
> For instance... when was the last time you took a toke off a joint?
> Do you think that the teacher's attorneys would never ever find
> out about that?  While I used that as an example, it could be
> anything that would discredit the witness.
> When someone's fighting for their life, they
> will use any means necessary to win, including destroying yours.
> 
> If this teacher has done this in the past and law enforcement
> already has an investigation underway, then an anonymous letter
> in the mail might be just what they need to get a warrant.  The
> admin, in this case, should also document the fact that his
> superiors took active measures to squash this.
> 
> i.e.  Have the admin send an email (something that can be
> traced and submitted as evidence) to his superior stating that
> he (the admin) doesn't think this is acceptable or lawful behavior,
> and ask the boss what he should do about it.  If the boss is really
> dumb, he'll reply back to the email.  If he's not so dumb, he'll
> contact the admin verbally.  In either case, it establishes
> the fact that the admin does NOT believe such activity falls
> within the limits of the law, AND that he took active measures
> to stop it.  That covers the admin's bases.  If the reply was
> to do nothing, then the boss is risking himself.  If the reply
> comes back in an email, then the boss just incriminated himself.
> If the reply comes back verbally, then it's his word against the
> admins.  He-said-she-said.
> 
> Hopefully, you'll get an email.  That in itself shows that 
> officials of the school system are allowing a culture of such
> activity to grow.  The ramifications trickle right on up to the
> county superintendant.
> 
> Of course, if the admin is *certain* such activity is going on,
> he could attempt to collect fruther evidence.  Perhaps another
> email, or some files in a home directory that just happen to get
> backed up.
> 
> Perhaps the best way to answer your question is to place yourself
> in the shoes of the recipient of the abuse.  Would you want
> this to go on?  Would you want someone with enough gonads to
> step in and have it stopped?
> 
> Hope this helps.
> 
> Enjoy,
>     - Chuck
> 
> -- 
> "The purpose of encryption is to protect good people
> from bad people, not to protect bad people from the government."
>      Scott McNealy, CEO Sun Microsystems
> "The best way for government to control people is to remain in
>    a constant threat of war." ---Karl Marx
> (18 USC 242), which applies to government agents overstepping their
> authority:
>   "Whoever, under color of any law, statute, ordinance, regulation,
>   or custom, willfully subjects any person in any State, Territory,
>   or District to the deprivation of any rights, privileges, or
>   immunities secured or protected by the Constitution or laws of
>   the United States, . . . shall be fined under this title or
>   imprisoned not more than one year, or both . . ."
> 
> ---
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> See http://www.ale.org/mailing-lists.shtml for more info. Problems should be 
> sent to listmaster at ale dot org.
> 
-- 
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mostly married each other.  And here I am"

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 Wylde Bill                                               ||||          
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