[dns-operations] Documenting root slave operation Re: The (very) uneven distribution of DNS root servers on the Internet

[Andrew Sullivan]

On Thu, May 17, 2012 at 02:09:46PM -0700, David Conrad wrote:

> This implies you believe slaving a root is (or should be) illegal. I
> would be surprised if you actually believed this. 

No; that's why I picked parking as one of the examples.  I think that
people spending a lot of resources avoiding paying for parking is
socially harmful, but there are perfectly legal ways to do it.

> sense to at least document the pros and cons, provide warnings on
> what to do and not do, etc.

Since I'm not the boss of anyone, I obviously can't stop people from
putting up a web page saying, "Here's how you do $this_thing," whether
$this_thing is 'load your foot-gun for bear', 'anonymously run a copy
of the root zone for your customers', or 'create world peace'.  I was
merely arguing that one shouldn't mirror the root zone anonymously,
because I believe that the operational harm is considerably greater
than the benefit, and also that the harm is as likely as not to be
visited on someone other than the person who obtains the benefit.  I
base this belief on previous experience I have had, though they are an
admittedly imperfect analogy.  I am in general opposed to activities
that create externalities the costs of which are possibly borne by me
or my employer.

Best,

A

-- 
Andrew Sullivan
ajs at anvilwalrusden.com