From: mnc@engin.umich.edu (Miguel Cruz)
Subject: Re: Network Use
Date: Thu, 09 Apr 92 16:16:36 EDT
Organization: Campus Computing Sites, University of Michigan
Summary: NSFNET Acceptable Use Policy
Keywords: NSFNET, network

I don't know if this has been posted before; I suspect it has not since it
just came out, but forgive me if it has. This is the New NSFNET Acceptable
Use Policy, announced April 1992.

General Principle:
* NSFNET Backbone services are provided to support open research and
  education in and among U.S. research and instructional institutions,
  plus research firms when engaged in open scholarly communication and
  research. Use for other purposes is not acceptable.

Specifically Acceptable Uses:
* Communication with foreign researchers and educators in connection with
  research or instruction, as long as any network that the foreign user
  employs for such communication provides reciprocal access to U.S.
  researchers and educators.

* Communication and exchange for professional development, to maintain
  currency, or to debate issues in field or subfield of knowledge.

* Use for disciplinary-society, university-association, government-advisory,
  or standards activities related to the user's research and instructional
  activities.

* Use in applying for or administering grants or contracts for research
  or insturction, but not for other fund-raising or public-relations
  activities.

* Any other administrative communications or activities in direct support
  of research and instruction.

* Announcements of new products or services for use in research or
  instruction, but not advertising of any kind.

* Any traffic originating from a network of another member agency of the
  Federal Networking Council if the traffic meets the acceptable use
  policy of that agency.

* Communication incidental to otherwise acceptable use, except for illegal
  or specifically unacceptable use.

Unacceptable Uses:
* Use for for-profit activities (consulting for pay, sales or administration
  of campus stores, sale of tickets to sports events, and so on) or use by
  for-profit institutions unless covered by the General Principle or as a
  specifically acceptable use.

* Extensive use for private or personal business.

This statement applies to use of the NSFNET Backbone only. NSF expects that
connecting networks will formulate their own use policies. The NSF Division
of Networking and Communications Research and Infrastructure will resolve any
questions about this Policy or its interpretation.

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I don't know how exactly this differs from the interim policy which was
released in March 1990, because I can't find a copy anywhere.

I don't know if this is a stupid idea or not, but people advertising
MUDs may want to issue a "call for subjects" in an study in social inter-
action via electronic media, or somehow related to an academic discipline.
Nowhere does it specify that the research must be grant-related or even
sponsored by an academic institution. I know of graduate students here
(University of Michigan) who have done work on gaming, game theory,
artificial social environments, etc., which could have (or did) make use
of MUDs or similar programs.

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Incidentally, to determine whether or not your path to a particular MUD
involves the NSFNET, you can use the traceroute command in unix. I'm not
aware (not to deny their existence; I simply have no clue) of analogues
on VMS or other systems. Here's an example of its output which shows that
a connection from my desktop to Caltech would pass through three networks:
Merit (local to Michigan), NSFNET (nationwide), and CERFnet (west coast).
 
 1  E-CSS-CC.SEB1.UMNET.UMICH.EDU (141.211.182.1)  7 ms  3 ms  4 ms
 2  o-ccampus.cc3.umnet.umich.edu (141.211.254.4)  5 ms  5 ms  4 ms
 3  nsfnet-gw.merit.edu (35.1.1.125)  16 ms  7 ms  7 ms
 4  t3peer.merit.edu (35.1.1.33)  5 ms  20 ms  7 ms
 5  enss.merit.edu (35.1.1.1)  11 ms  11 ms  9 ms
 6  t3-2.cnss41.t3.nsf.net (140.222.41.3)  30 ms  28 ms  33 ms
 7  t3-3.cnss40.t3.nsf.net (140.222.40.4)  34 ms  26 ms  15 ms
 8  t3-2.cnss24.t3.nsf.net (140.222.24.3)  34 ms  23 ms  103 ms
 9  t3-1.cnss8.t3.nsf.net (140.222.8.2)  70 ms  70 ms  76 ms
10  t3-0.cnss16.t3.nsf.net (140.222.16.1)  80 ms  76 ms  86 ms
11  t3-0.cnss17.t3.nsf.net (140.222.17.1)  81 ms  78 ms  80 ms
12  t3-0.enss135.t3.nsf.net (140.222.135.1)  88 ms  85 ms  77 ms
13  hang-sdsc.cerf.net (134.24.99.2)  101 ms  92 ms  150 ms
14  cit-sdsc.cerf.net (134.24.102.102)  121 ms  144 ms  170 ms
15  hamlet.caltech.edu (131.215.139.3)  527 ms  131 ms  116 ms

In this case my traffic is technically bound by the lease common denominator
of the acceptable use policies of all three networks.

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miguel cruz (Waldo on Hero 2 and elsewhere)
mnc@umich.edu
Newsgroups: rec.games.mud