From: bzs@world.std.com (Barry Shein)
Subject: Re: TALK
Organization: The World
	<MAPPLER.92Nov15211149@titan.ucc.umass.edu>
Date: Tue, 17 Nov 1992 04:26:04 GMT


>Well, for some there is no option, as telnet is the only way to enter
>some accounts.  What is the reasoning behind losing ones account for
>allowing someone else access?  The gain access only to your accuont,
>and you are responsible for waht occurs with your account.  I'm not
>flaming, >I'm just curious about the reasoning behind this.

Far be it for me to AGREE, but the typical reasoning is:

a) Resources are limited, if you let others use your account then that
just adds to the load, since 1. there must be some reason they don't
have an account (e.g. don't pay tuition or aren't enrolled in a course
that gets accounts) 2. assuming you're using all the cpu time etc you
need the other person must only be using additive cpu time (tying up a
modem, disk bandwidth, etc.) On loaded systems they're just adding to
the misery factor, not really fair to a student with bona-fide access
to the computer waiting for his/her homework to compile, etc. Does one
extra person matter much? Probably not. Does your entire fraternity
logging into your account for an all-night rogue-a-thon matter?
Probably quite a bit. Etc. So how do you make rules that separate out
all these cases?

b) If the other person does something untoward (cracking, harassing
other students on-line) it's generally impractical to hold the owner
of the acct responsible UNLESS it was made clear people cannot let
others use their account.

It's still impractical, few students accept the idea that something
they didn't personally do is their fault, when push comes to shove
(would you accept strong disciplinary action for the other person's
behavior? what if the other person wasn't a student? should the
university go chase the other person wherever s/he may be? Is that
practical or fair? Can the university even demand that the other
person show up somewhere to speak to him or her?) And often there is
just no leverage over the other person (e.g. you can't take their
account away for heinous acts, they don't have one! Kind of the
point.)

c) Similarly, having run student centers, it's not uncommon to have a
student come in, tail between his/her legs, asking for important files
to be restored that have "magically" disappeared when a little
investigation reveals that this other person, less aware of what was
important or how to use the system or whatever, even an honest error,
actually was the one who deleted them (hey, yer acct was out of disk
space, i thought that stuff was just old junk, er, sorry.)

But if *you* wouldn't have made that error the staff is still working
just as hard to support that person's error which they're not paid to
support, in some sense. Also, teaching you how not to make that error
may not help much to avoid that error if it's actually someone else
using your account who may have no contact with whoever is supposed to
be guiding you.

d) Similarly again, unless your activities are about identical to the
other person's activities the possibility of various resource demands
or errors etc increasing is somewhat more likely. Even if it's
something you might have also done, it's still pushing the envelope
that much further, and in many cases for no remuneration.


P.S. I would say (b) is the biggie on most computing centers' minds.

-- 
        -Barry Shein

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