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Network Working Group Internet Activities Board Request for Comments: 1087 January 1989

                      Ethics and the Internet

Status of this Memo

 This memo is a statement of policy by the Internet Activities Board
 (IAB) concerning the proper use of the resources of the Internet.
 Distribution of this memo is unlimited.

Introduction

 At great human and economic cost, resources drawn from the U.S.
 Government, industry and the academic community have been assembled
 into a collection of interconnected networks called the Internet.
 Begun as a vehicle for experimental network research in the mid-
 1970's, the Internet has become an important national infrastructure
 supporting an increasingly widespread, multi-disciplinary community
 of researchers ranging, inter alia, from computer scientists and
 electrical engineers to mathematicians, physicists, medical
 researchers, chemists, astronomers and space scientists.

 As is true of other common infrastructures (e.g., roads, water
 reservoirs and delivery systems, and the power generation and
 distribution network), there is widespread dependence on the Internet
 by its users for the support of day-to-day research activities.

 The reliable operation of the Internet and the responsible use of its
 resources is of common interest and concern for its users, operators
 and sponsors.  Recent events involving the hosts on the Internet and
 in similar network infrastructures underscore the need to reiterate
 the professional responsibility every Internet user bears to
 colleagues and to the sponsors of the system.  Many of the Internet
 resources are provided by the U.S. Government.  Abuse of the system
 thus becomes a Federal matter above and beyond simple professional
 ethics.

IAB Statement of Policy

 The Internet is a national facility whose utility is largely a
 consequence of its wide availability and accessibility.
 Irresponsible use of this critical resource poses an enormous threat
 to its continued availability to the technical community.

 The U.S. Government sponsors of this system have a fiduciary
 responsibility to the public to allocate government resources wisely

Internet Activities Board [Page 1]  RFC 1087 Ethics and the Internet January 1989

 and effectively.  Justification for the support of this system
 suffers when highly disruptive abuses occur.  Access to and use of
 the Internet is a privilege and should be treated as such by all
 users of this system.

 The IAB strongly endorses the view of the Division Advisory Panel of
 the National Science Foundation Division of Network, Communications
 Research and Infrastructure which, in paraphrase, characterized as
 unethical and unacceptable any activity which purposely:

    (a) seeks to gain unauthorized access to the resources of the
        Internet,

    (b) disrupts the intended use of the Internet,

    (c) wastes resources (people, capacity, computer) through such
        actions,

    (d) destroys the integrity of computer-based information,

 and/or

    (e) compromises the privacy of users.

 The Internet exists in the general research milieu.  Portions of it
 continue to be used to support research and experimentation on
 networking.  Because experimentation on the Internet has the
 potential to affect all of its components and users, researchers have
 the responsibility to exercise great caution in the conduct of their
 work.  Negligence in the conduct of Internet-wide experiments is both
 irresponsible and unacceptable.

 The IAB plans to take whatever actions it can, in concert with
 Federal agencies and other interested parties, to identify and to set
 up technical and procedural mechanisms to make the Internet more
 resistant to disruption.  Such security, however, may be extremely
 expensive and may be counterproductive if it inhibits the free flow
 of information which makes the Internet so valuable.  In the final
 analysis, the health and well-being of the Internet is the
 responsibility of its users who must, uniformly, guard against abuses
 which disrupt the system and threaten its long-term viability.

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