In response to Chris Craddock's stricture about the disclosure of the contents of fetch-protected storage Peter Relson wrote
<begin extract> This is not necessarily a violation of the IBM statement of integrity. It depends on whose data is being copied. I am allowed to put my own non-sensitive data into fetch-protected storage and copy it to non-fetch protected storage if I so choose. The requirement is that I not allow the unauthorized user to access something he should not be given access to. Fetch protection is just one tool in the bag of tricks. The owner of the data is typically the one that decides what the access limitations are to be. <end extract/> To borrow one of Chomsky's distinctions, this is true, but it is not interesting. I may of course do anything I like with something I myself put into fetch-protected storage. Moreover, I can know, locally and procedurally, when I can do so; but most of the time I am dealing with someone else's fetch-protected storage; and for it the only proper rule is non-disclosure to the unauthorized. An exact, entirely correct description of every action that constitutes a breach of integrity at some time T may just be achievable; but if it is achieved it will be obsolescent when it is achieved; and it will resemble a contract drawn up by an attorney not to inform but to protect a client from hostile litigation. It will not, that is, be at all helpful or even intelligible to any but the already well-informed. Integrity remains a crucial goal. Practices that clearly put it at risk must be avoided, and breaches must be closed as they are detected. (Disagreeable as this sounds, 1) we now learn chiefly from these breaches; and 2) there will be more of them.) ROTs simplify reality, and they thus always entail overkill, but they are useful to people who lack the experience to make subtle distinctions. John Gilmore, Ashland, MA 01721 - USA ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@bama.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
