Re: more Internic nightmare (fwd)

[Michael Dillon <michael@memra.com>]

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Tue, 23 Mar 1999 20:19:11 -0500
From: Nick Bastin <nbastin@rbbsystems.com>
To: NANOG
Subject: Re: more Internic nightmare


Randy Bush wrote: 
> i suspect they know who the slime are already.  the patterns must be rather
> clear.  the problem is legally enforcable prevention or punisment which does
> not also impact legitimate use.
> 
> e.g. folk railed against the current license-only access to zone files.
> but, imiho, it is better than the old-boys policy which preceeded it, which
> was better than the previous wide open policy.  what is a good solution?

I would suggest forcing people to register to use the whois database. 
Make it open to anybody, with free registration, but require
registration.  Then restrict users to, say, 250 queries per day, which
would radically slow the pace of mining, allow most people more queries
than they would ever use in a 24-hour period, and would make it hard to
resell the service.  Now, you'd probably need some kind of exception
program whereby with proper authorization, or something, certain users
would have the 250 query limit eliminated, but at least you'd know who
they were, and if they abused it, cut them off. 

-- 
Nick Bastin - RBB Systems, Inc.
The idea that Bill Gates has appeared like a knight in shining armour to
lead all customers out of a mire of technological chaos neatly ignores
the fact that it was he who, by peddling second-rate technology, led
them into it in the first place. - Douglas Adams