[dns-operations] DNS zone transfers are now illegal in North Dakota?

[Edward Lewis]

For some reason I'm preoccupied with this message and topic.  I agree 
with what Paul wrote but in the essence of trying to rip out the 
emotion over spam, I replaced the personally identifying references 
to se how this reads.

>negative: since zone transfer is not necessary for normal internet access
>to the mr. jones' servers, there is no reason for mr. smith to fetch the zone
>other than to violate mr. jones' privacy.  this is no different from port
>knocking.  by analogy, just because i leave my car unlocked and my keys on
>the seat doesn't mean i invite unknown third parties to drive my car around.

[1]

>positive: since every name server implementation published since 1989 has
>had the means to restrict zone transfer to authorized parties, and since mr.
>jones did not avail himself of this feature, mr. smith could reasonably
>assume that mr jones was willing to participate in internet research and
>surveys that use zone transfers to gather data.

Hearing that, I'd side with the negative unless it was proven that 
mr. smith was participating in internet research and survey activity, 
as opposed to, say, investigation.

Where I fail as a lawyer is that I might argue with "reasonably 
assume."  I don't know how to interpret/evaluate that in a court of 
law.

I'm not an advocate of spam activity.  But I also am against posse 
and mob justice.  We don't need any Dirty Harry's, whether or not 
they are right.  (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dirty_Harry)

[1] unless it's like this: 
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Smelly_Car.  Watch the ending of the 
episode.
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Edward Lewis                                                +1-571-434-5468
NeuStar

Think glocally.  Act confused.