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As far as I understood, Aaron Swartz was also not given access to the MIT network. I.e. he was kicked off of two different nets, MIT's and JSTOR's.

by mpyne 14y ago

nitrogen 14y ago
"Kicked off" can mean many things. I'd be less sympathetic if a human being actually delivered an English language notice to Aaron, but AIUI they just stopped routing his packets. This could easily be misinterpreted as tripping an automated throttling system, in which case the message would be, "Slow down, try again," not, "Stop!"
- mpyne 14y ago
  > This could easily be misinterpreted as tripping an automated throttling system He walked into the server closet covering his face with a bicycle helmet. Whatever improvements MIT might be able to make to the message of "you're not welcome on this net", Aaron definitely received it loud and clear.
lawnchair_larry 14y ago
Everyone has access to the MIT network. There is an open guest wifi network, with a captive portal asking you to provide a name/email to register. He put a fake name (Gary Host) and a throwaway mailinator address (and was charged with wire fraud for doing so). JSTOR provides unlimited access to MIT and many other schools. Anyone on the MIT network had access to JSTOR. He was not on a JSTOR network. When JSTOR saw that one user was requesting a lot of files, they assumed a bad motive, and banned the IP address. After he got a new IP address, JSTOR contacted MIT about it, and they banned the MAC address from their wifi network.
- mpyne 14y ago
  > Everyone has access to the MIT network. There is an open guest wifi network, with a captive portal asking you to provide a name/email to register. He put a fake name (Gary Host) and a throwaway mailinator address (and was charged with wire fraud for doing so). That's just it though, that's not correct. What you might have meant was: Everyone starts off with access to the MIT network. It is not MIT's obligation to continue to provide network services to anyone that they have a previous contract for. And even for those with contracts, it would almost certainly include boilerplate to the effect that services will be terminated for abuse of the network. > When JSTOR saw that one user was requesting a lot of files, they assumed a bad motive, and banned the IP address. > After he got a new IP address, JSTOR contacted MIT about it, and they banned the MAC address from their wifi network. So you yourself admit: aaronsw started off with access to both JSTOR and MIT networks, and was explicitly kicked off of them both. What steps did Aaron take to ensure that he was welcome on the networks again when he later tried to connect?

As far as I understood, Aaron Swartz was also not given access to the MIT network. I.e. he was kicked off of two different nets, MIT's and JSTOR's.

by mpyne 14y ago

As far as I understood, Aaron Swartz was also not given access to the MIT network. I.e. he was kicked off of two different nets, MIT's and JSTOR's.

nitrogen 14y ago

"Kicked off" can mean many things. I'd be less sympathetic if a human being actually delivered an English language notice to Aaron, but AIUI they just stopped routing his packets. This could easily be misinterpreted as tripping an automated throttling system, in which case the message would be, "Slow down, try again," not, "Stop!"

mpyne 14y ago
> This could easily be misinterpreted as tripping an automated throttling system He walked into the server closet covering his face with a bicycle helmet. Whatever improvements MIT might be able to make to the message of "you're not welcome on this net", Aaron definitely received it loud and clear.

lawnchair_larry 14y ago

Everyone has access to the MIT network. There is an open guest wifi network, with a captive portal asking you to provide a name/email to register. He put a fake name (Gary Host) and a throwaway mailinator address (and was charged with wire fraud for doing so). JSTOR provides unlimited access to MIT and many other schools. Anyone on the MIT network had access to JSTOR. He was not on a JSTOR network. When JSTOR saw that one user was requesting a lot of files, they assumed a bad motive, and banned the IP address. After he got a new IP address, JSTOR contacted MIT about it, and they banned the MAC address from their wifi network.

mpyne 14y ago
> Everyone has access to the MIT network. There is an open guest wifi network, with a captive portal asking you to provide a name/email to register. He put a fake name (Gary Host) and a throwaway mailinator address (and was charged with wire fraud for doing so). That's just it though, that's not correct. What you might have meant was: Everyone starts off with access to the MIT network. It is not MIT's obligation to continue to provide network services to anyone that they have a previous contract for. And even for those with contracts, it would almost certainly include boilerplate to the effect that services will be terminated for abuse of the network. > When JSTOR saw that one user was requesting a lot of files, they assumed a bad motive, and banned the IP address. > After he got a new IP address, JSTOR contacted MIT about it, and they banned the MAC address from their wifi network. So you yourself admit: aaronsw started off with access to both JSTOR and MIT networks, and was explicitly kicked off of them both. What steps did Aaron take to ensure that he was welcome on the networks again when he later tried to connect?