RelayNet (tm) International Message Exchange (RIME) BBS Network By-Laws Version 2 (09 September 1996) Draft A Copyright 1988,1989,1993 RIME BBS Network I. PREFACE. The RelayNet (tm) International Message Exchange (RIME) BBS Network (known hereafter as the "Net," "RIME," or "RelayNet) is a multi-tier telecommunications network comprised of one "Network Hub," or "NetHub", multiple "Regional Hubs" or "RHs," and "nodes." II. RIME is owned and operated as a private organization by a Board of Directors referred to as the "RIME Administrative Council," or "SC," whose membership is listed in Appendix A. The RAC reserves the right to admit or refuse any BBS SYSOP as a participating node or hub; the RAC further reserves the right to remove or suspend network access of any individual or sysop, whether they are a node or a hub for grevious misconduct considered detrimental to the spirit and intent of RIME and these bylaws. III. The RAC shall designate one of its members to act as Operations Officer to run the day-to-day operations of RIME and to coordinate node and RH membership applications. IV. RIME requires each participating node to provide to its end-users a common link which may be a conference, door, or other software device to ensure that all nodes have a common channel available throughout RIME. The RAC will define and provide the framework and access mechanism for this common channel. A BBS is not considered part of RIME until and unless it provides this common channel and notifies its users of the scope, intent, and any special rules of the common channel. However, "Administrative Nodes," i.e., nodes which are used soley for RIME's administration purposes, are exempt from carrying this common channel. Examples of administrative nodes are (a) the NetHub for maintaining a central file library, (b) a node that may be transferring messages between multiple networks (RIME Network and Metrolink Network), and (c) nodes whose sole purpose in RIME serve to provide "product/service support conferences," such as the USRobotics Conference sponsored by USRobotics. It is understood that RIME's overall objectives and goals are dedicated to provide an information service to its most important participant, the BBS user community. In addition there is a second required conference, RimeNews, which is required to be carried by each node on Relaynet. We ask that you specifically name this conference RIMENEWS and that you clearly inform your users that this is an announcement only conference and no posting of any messages is permitted except by designated individuals. While RIMENEWS is a public conference open to all users and sysops of the network, for reading purposes only, no users or sysops may post any messages whatsoever in this conference. All posting to the conference will be done by the RAC or the conference coordinators. Any replies to announcements can be made as routed and/or r/o messages in USERS, ADMIN or COMMON. Any replies placed in the Rimenews conference will be immediately moderated. The purpose of the Announcement Only conference is to provide the users and sysops of Relaynet a single channel in which to obtain all important network information. Announcements only will be placed in this conference. If you, as a sysop/conference host/co-sysop/user, wish to have a message placed in this conference, send the message (using any appropriate conference such as common, admin, hosts, users) to Garry Baker (BLAKGOLD 1279), and we will post it for you. V. SCOPE AND PURPOSE A. Purpose. The purpose of RIME is to provide participating hubs and nodes a means of communicating with each other through common conference areas which are "relayed" via the central NetHub. RIME's primary purpose is considered social in nature. B. Terminology. 1. "RH" and "Node" refer to specific Postlink software setups as used by BBS Sysops to participate in RIME. 2. "Relay" is used to describe the transfer of conference messages from one node (BBS) to another node via an RH. 3. Network. a. A "Regional Hub", or "RH is comprised of one Hub and two or more nodes. A BBS Sysop "hosts" an RH and this host BBS is one of the RH's nodes. To be considered an RH, a hub has to have at least two nodes "relaying" through it. b. The RAC is composed of 7 members or the number it decides. C. Size. The physical size of RIME may be no more than the number of nodes and RHs as prescribed by the RAC. Each RH may have non-RIME-relayed nodes (that use Postlink software). However, such nodes may be authorized to carry RIME's common channel. D. Software 1. All member nodes and RHs in RIME (including non-RIME- relayed nodes) need to use legally purchased relay software. 2. All member nodes and RHs in RIME need to use legally purchased, obtained, and/or registered BBS software. E. RIME maintains the capability and capacity to send and receive messages that are flagged as "Receiver-Only" or "Routed Mail." Messages so flagged are not to be considered by any user as actual "private" messages. The purpose of the "R/O" and "Routed Mail" flags are intended solely to provide a means to limit the possible number of nodes that may have access to the messages for display purposes. 1. Therefore, pursuant to the Electronic Communications Privacy Act of 1986, 18 USC 2510 et. seq., all BBS SYSOPs participating within RIME must be aware that there are no facilities provided by RIME for sending or receiving confidential electronic communications. 2. All participating node and RH SYSOPS need to agree, as a condition of network membership and participation, that they will notify anyone reading or exchanging messages within all RIME conferences on their BBSs of all applicable by-law and conference rules and that RIME has no facilities for exchanging confidential electronic communications. A suitable bulletin and/or news display should be placed in a prominent place within the the individual RIME BBS indicating that there are no confidential communications capabilities within RIME. 3. All messages posted in relayed conferences are deemed to be public. All nodes and RHs shall deem all messages posted within RIME's conferences to be readily accessible to the general public at all times. If any person posts a message within any RIME conference, his/her acceptance of this policy is heretofore implied. 4. RIME and all member nodes and RHs assume absolutely no accountability or liability whatsoever for any violations of this policy by any and all users of RIME. VI. AUTHORITY AND RESPONSIBILITIES A. The individual node SYSOP is responsible for enforcing the rules as set forth in our RIME(tm) Users Manual (contained in a file called RIMEMAN.TXT) or our RIME(tm) official conference rule file (contained in a file called *RIMEMAN.ZIP) These files MUST be made available to every user on your system who access the RIME(tm) network as either a download or a bulletin. While it is not the intent of RIME or the RAC to interfere with any SYSOP's authority on his/her own BBS, all "relayed" conferences on nodes and RHs are considered subject to the jurisdiction of these rules. B. The Regional Hub (RH) SYSOPs have the freedom to solicit, but not grant RIME membership, to prospective nodes within their region. 1. RH SYSOPs who solicit prospective nodes need to advise applicants: (a) of RIME's basic rules (b) That the RH SYSOP will provide to the RAC an admission application form which details the the applicant's particulars such as: applicant's name, voice and BBS telephone numbers, address, BBS name. 2. The RHs are responsible for enforcing these by-laws within their region. An RH must relay mail a minimum of five times a week unless it is technically not feasible to do so. The RAC will resolve any problems regarding the potential overlapping of regions. No RH should intentionally shut down for more than 24 consecutive hours without first making provisions for the continued relaying of it nodes. 3. RHs should make every feasible effort to accommodate all conference requests for their nodes as their equipment and configuration allow. 4. When an RH has been notified by the RAC to remove the access of a node, the RH should remove the node's access as quickly as possible. In the event that the RH does not comply with an SC-directed node-access-removal request, the RH's access may be removed at the NETHUB level. 5. The RH has the authority to remove the access of one or more of its nodes for one day if the situation warrants such action. Immediately following any access removal, the RH needs to notify a SC member by voice. C. Conference Coordinator(s) (CC) and Conference Hosts (CH). 1. The Conference Coordinator is the SC's designated representative. Duties include: (a) administrate conferences and designates Conference Hosts, (b) maintain conference lists, (c) advise the RAC regarding conference problems. The RAC will appoint the Conference Coordinator for any length of term. The Conference Coordinator job may be split among several persons, such as a Coordinator in charge of Conference Moderations, a Coordinator in charge of Conference Setups, a Coordinator in charge of Marketing and a Coordinator in charge of Statistical Analysis. 2. Conference Hosts are designated by the Conference Coordinator. Conference Hosts are responsible for their conferences and guide the discussion areas. Their duties include: (a) provide bulletins to nodes carrying their conference for the purpose of clarification and/ or information; (b) define what should and should not be discussion areas within the conference; and (c) provide guidance to all concerned with legal responsibilities and/or disclaimers. The Host may be responsible for providing to the Conference Coordinator a description of the conference, it's aims, and the scope of the conference. D. NetHub Operations. 1. The NETHUB equipment and the trademarks "RelayNet" and "RIME" are the property of the members of RIME's RAC. 2. The RAC will make available a conference for the general administration affairs of RIME. This conference is open to sysops, working co-sysops, the Conference Coordinators and conference hosts. 3. The NETHUB Sysop coordinates the primary mail exchange time for each RH connected to the NETHUB. Each RH has this primary time to ensure that all routine mail exchanges are accomplished in a timely manner. The NETHUB Sysop publishes the primary mail exchange times to ensure that no RH deliberately intrudes during another RH's primary mail exchange time-window. Only RHs may relay through the NetHub. E. Ammendments 1. Though the RAC is ultimately responsible for implementing changes to these by-laws, any RIME node or RH Sysop, Co-Sysop, Conference Host or the Conference Coordinator may petition the RAC for by-laws changes at any time. However, such requests and petitions and any and all discussions thereof MUST be conducted in the designated general RIME adminsitration conference, as specified in subparagraph 2, paragraph D, section VI above. VII. RULES AND REGULATIONS A. All node sysops must adhere to the general principle that NO illegal activities, which includes promotion of illegal acts and promotion of software copyright infringement, will be allowed on RIME. Such activities constitute a grievous reason for the potential removal of the node from RIME, and may necessitate compensatory action against the violator for any legal liabilities such activities may cause RIME. B. All rules contained within the Conference Rule and RIME(tm) Users manual are to be considered rules of the network and are to be enforced on a local level. Flagrant continual disregard for the conference rules of the network constitute a grievous reason for possible removal of that node. C. It is RIME's understanding that each node SYSOP is responsible for the names used on his/her own BBS. If the SYSOP grants a user the right to use an alias, for what the SYSOP deems is a valid reason, such as security, and that alias is not apparently an alias (such as Dr. Midnight, which is) then there is no need to inform RIME of that alias. Duplicate names within RIME, such as three John Smiths, will be handled by the node SYSOPS of the involved boards in a manner which would not cause an alias to be relayed (example, John Smith, Johnny Smith, J. Smith or Johnnie Smith) D. Although Postlink software may allow the "file send" feature without RH control, unauthorized "sends" of files by a node -- especially global file-sends -- is prohibited. Every RH within the chain between nodes which either "sends" or "receives" a file should approve such actions. An exception list (with official items that are considered network files and as such must be permitted to be sent is provided in Appendix B.) E. There are some National Conference Names (such as COMMON) which needs to be used on all participating nodes to prevent possible confusion. The current list of conferences which must be called by their National Conference Name is contained in Appendix C. F. Messages contained in conferences relayed through the NETHUB are considered in the public domain. However, the RAC needs to authorize the "sharing" of conferences with non-RIME-participating BBS systems. A "shared" conference is one that is relayed to or between other networks or BBS systems that have the capability of responding to such "shared" conference mail. G. It is understood that node and RH SYSOPS take vacations. RIME requests that a vacationing SYSOP delegate to another responsible Sysop the ability to monitor the BBS in his/her absence. In the event that any node does not relay within 3 consecutive days, the RH may decline to hold mail until the node SYSOP has contacted the RH. It is also understood that users may commit violations of RIME's rules in the absence of a full time SYSOP and that immediate action may not be able to be taken by the appointed SYSOP. This type of event does not constitute a grievous reason for removal of a node. H. Conference message bases may not be sent to non-RIME-relaying nodes without the permission of the RAC. I. From time to time the RAC may authorize the sending of files, other than those listed in Appendix B, through RIME from authors and/or vendors in support of their programs. This will be done with the advance consent of all RHs involved. VIII. MISCELLANEOUS A. No node may charge its users specifically for access to individual RIME conferences beyond whatever subscription rate, if any, they generally charge. No RH may charge a node for admission to the RIME Network. No RH may require that a node be a regular subscriber to the RH's BBS. A RH is however free to split the phone bill costs with their nodes, using any viable scheme that does not result in a profit to the RH sysop. Appendix A RIME Administrative Council Members as of 08-15-1996 Site Number Don Barba 35 Rex Hankins 5 Garry Baker 1279 Sue Moore 5012 Bob Sasso 35 Roy Wilson 35 Rick Cowles 5690 Appendix B Authorized "Send" List The following files may be transmitted unsolicited to RHs, by designated individuals only, using the Postlink software's "send" feature: Conference lists and nodes such as YYMMRIME.ZIP BBS instruction lists such as RIME-BBS.ZIP Monthly RIME(tm) newletter such as RIMEYYXX.ZIP Publicity packets such as RELAYNET.ZIP Conference Host instructions such as RIME-CHS.ZIP Users manuals such as *RIMEMAN.ZIP Appendix C National Conference Names That Must Be Used On Participating BBSs COMMON UPLINK RIMENEWS ============================== END OF BY-LAWS =========================