Re: Renewed PEACE and HARMONY to the **Apple II** Community

["Ernest" <ernestls@home.com>]

**** **** <***@***.com> wrote in message ...
>Ernest,
>    A few thoughts I've given the subject. Suppose that you are relatively
>certain that there would only be a few individuals who are busybodies
enough
>to try and shut such a site down. We could make some guesses about who they
>are, but... Anyway, what if hypothetically, you were to claim that such
>people were harassing you, even stalking you over the net? Even before you
>start anything. Then, when they do try and shut the site down, and say a
big
>VIP comes to you, wanting to know what is going on, you say "I've been
>hosting a small computer enthusiast site, and for whatever reason, there is
>this guy who has been harassing me no matter what I do. He has called the
>FBI claiming that I'm a terrorist, his local cops claiming I've threatened
>to murder him, and had my hobbyist site shut down on false pretenses every
>place I've hosted it. I'm in the process of getting a restraining order
>against him...". At that point, the busybody probably isn't going to sue
>themselves, though they would sic the SPA or whatever on you. Keeping the
>SPA should be easy, and it boils down to your word or theirs. Before such
>actions were criminalized, they could subpoena the computers files, for a
>civil case, but now, I would think they'd have to show probable cause,
>especially if the witness were only harassing someone. Just some thoughts
>anyway.
>
>Thanks,
>John


To tell you the truth, I'm not sure how the whole complaint and site
shutdown works. I always just assumed that someone would contact the hosting
site, and tell them that a site that they host is distributing pirated
software, and then the host would shut it down after being threatened by the
complainer. How does that all work, anyway?

Hopefully, the FBI et al would not be involved but even I would cave in if
they were. I don't really want to get to far in over my head, since this
really is just a fun hobby for me, by making up stories or something like
that. I get the gist of what you're saying, about discrediting them before
they get started but I don't really want to go there. Someone else might be
interested in your idea though. Really, all that I want to do is have an FTP
site that most people can get to, that will serve as a repository and
distribution channel for this old software, and I believe that my idea of a
private FTP site seems like the most trouble free way to do it but I don't
have a lot of experience dealing with the complainers, and how they operate,
so I could be wrong.

I've been thinking about this more (trying to talk myself into it) and I
think that it could work. There would be an area where anyone can upload
files at any time, assuming that it doesn't become a bandwidth problem, but
to download files, you would send me an email, and I would set up a
temporary user account that would only work at a specific time on a specific
day, and then it would expire.  I would set up user accounts each morning
before work, and keep a log of who gains access, etc. Someone else would
have to do most of the file testing and maintenance but I could run the
site. If it turns into a lot of work, then I would look into other options
but hopefully, it would turn into an easy routine that would not require an
unreasonable amount of administration time for me. I don't know how many
people would normally visit a site like the Asimov A2 area, so I don't
exactly know what I would be in for but all of this is just an idea right
now.

Does anyone have any relevant experience's that they could share with me
about hosting this kind of FTP site, just to give me an idea of how many
visitors I should expect, etc.?

E