home *** CD-ROM | disk | FTP | other *** search
- Path: senator-bedfellow.mit.edu!bloom-beacon.mit.edu!newsfeed.stanford.edu!nntp.cs.ubc.ca!news.killfile.org!not-for-mail
- From: tskirvin@killfile.org (Tim Skirvin)
- Newsgroups: news.admin.net-abuse.bulletins,news.admin.net-abuse.usenet,news.admin.net-abuse.sightings,news.admin.net-abuse.misc,news.answers
- Subject: Cancel Messages: Frequently Asked Questions, Part 3/4 (v1.75)
- Supersedes: <cancelfaq20030915050002$19d1@news.killfile.org>
- Followup-To: news.admin.net-abuse.usenet
- Date: Sat, 15 May 2004 00:00:01 -0500
- Organization: Killfiles, Unlimited
- Lines: 574
- Approved: news-answers-request@mit.edu
- Expires: Sat, 26 Jun 2004 05:00:01 GMT
- Message-ID: <cancelfaq20040515050001$6630@news.killfile.org>
- Reply-To: tskirvin@killfile.org
- X-Trace: victor.killfile.org 1084597205 26756 216.43.25.138 (15 May 2004 05:00:05 GMT)
- X-Complaints-To: usenet@killfile.org
- Summary: This is a list of Frequently Asked Question about cancel messages
- on Usenet. It mainly discusses how cancels work, who issues
- them, their history, and what to do about them. It is more of
- a general purpose FAQ than anything else; it's not required
- reading anywhere, just more of a reference.
- X-Auth: PGPMoose V1.1 PGP news.admin.net-abuse.sightings
- iD8DBQFApaPSv1i8LqUfqQURAo75AJ9+XGVOAEO+XOANuwvrgUcR2SUUuACdFD4T
- RLJ4YIp+doXTbucz97nlvZw=
- =Htbs
- Xref: senator-bedfellow.mit.edu news.admin.net-abuse.bulletins:34807 news.admin.net-abuse.usenet:610098 news.admin.net-abuse.sightings:1406499 news.admin.net-abuse.misc:222754 news.answers:271285
-
- Archive-name: usenet/cancel-faq/part3
- Posting-Frequency: monthly
- Last-modified: 1999/09/30
- Version: 1.75
- URL: <URL:http://www.killfile.org/faqs/cancel.html>
-
- Cancel Messages
- Frequently Asked Questions
- Part 3/4
-
- This document contains information about cancel messages on Usenet, such
- as who is allowed to use them, how they operate, what to do if your
- message is cancelled, and the like. It does not contain detailed
- instructions on how to cancel a third party's posts. It is not intended
- to be a fully technical document; its audience is the average Usenet user,
- up to a mid-level administrator.
-
- This document is not meant to be a comprehensive explanation of Usenet
- protocols, or of Usenet itself, but a basic knowledge of these concepts
- is assumed. Please refer to news.announce.newusers, RFC1036, and/or
- RFC1036bis if you wish to learn them.
-
- Disclaimers: The information contained within is potentially hazardous;
- applying it without the permission of your news administrator may cause
- the revocation of your account, civil action against you, and even the
- possibility of criminal lawsuits. The author of this document is in no
- way liable for misuse of the information contained within, nor is he in
- any way responsible for damages related to the use or accuracy of the
- information. Proceed at your own risk.
-
-
- Table of Contents > = In other parts of the FAQ
- ================= * = Changed since last update
- >I. What are cancel messages?
- >II. How do cancels work?
- >III. So your post was cancelled...
- >IV. What does it take to cancel messages?
- >V. That idiot forge-cancelled my posts!
- >VI. What moral issues are involved with cancel messages?
- VII. What's going to happen to cancels in the future?
- A. What are authenticated cancels?
- B. Are there any other Usenet methods to delete messages?
- C. Why are some people turning off cancels altogether?
- D. What is NoCeM?
- E. What is PGP?
- VIII. What about these other things?
- A. What is Lazarus?
- B. What is Dave the Resurrector?
- C. What was the Judges-L mailing list?
- D. What is the UDP?
- IX. What are the current cancel issues?
- A. What are the cancel-on-sight rules?
- B. Are HTML postings cancellable?
- C. What happened to copyright cancels?
- D. What should be done about unaccountable spam cancellers?
- E. What should be done about open news servers?
- F. How should hierarchies opt out of spam cancels?
-
- Changes
- To Do
- Contributors
- Pointers
-
- >Appendix A: Dave the Resurrector
- >Appendix B: Retromoderation
-
-
- VII. What's going to happen to cancels in the future?
- =====================================================
- A. What are authenticated cancels?
-
- Usenet was not built with security in mind; the fact that it's
- relatively simple to forge a cancel proves this.
-
- As time goes on, though, the need for security is becoming more
- and more obvious. One way of making this security would be to change
- the software to only accept cancels that include verification of a match
- between the poster and the canceller; such verification might take the
- form of a PGP-signature or some other similar method.
-
- There have been many methods proposed to accomplish this; at
- this point, none are in wide use. If anyone would like to write some
- software to accomplish this, please do so, and discuss it on news.admin.
- misc; the CancelMoose has a few suggestions for authenticated cancels on
- his web page at <URL:http://www.cm.org/>.
-
-
- B. Are there any other Usenet methods to delete messages?
-
- Of course.
-
- 1. How does the Supersedes: header work?
-
- Commonly used for periodic postings and other information
- updates, the Supersedes: header replaces an old message with a new one.
- It is especially useful for FAQ maintainers, who use it to replace old
- versions of the FAQ with more up-to-date ones - this FAQ, for example,
- uses it. To replace the message <4b6uce$ou7@vixen.cso.uiuc.edu>, you would
- want to add the header:
-
- Supersedes: <4b6uce$ou7@vixen.cso.uiuc.edu>
-
- The use of Supersedes: is otherwise basically the same as a
- cancel message, and third-party superseding should be treated the same
- as third-party cancels.
-
- 2. How does the Expires: header work?
-
- By adding the Expires: header to your post, you can override the
- standard expiration time on most systems and make your message be deleted
- from most systems at a time of your choosing. This is especially useful for
- time-dated information and FAQs which are meant to be reposted on a regular
- basis. If you want your message to expire at 7:50:06pm (PST) on 2/11/96, add
- the following header (the format must be followed exactly):
-
- Expires: Sun, 11 Feb 1996 19:50:06 PST
-
- Your message should expire by this date. It may expire earlier,
- depending on the system setup and expiry times.
-
- 3. What is the Also-Control: header?
-
- The Also-Control: header acts just like a standard Control:
- header, except that the post is also filed in whatever groups it was
- posted to, as opposed to being filed in control. Otherwise, the two are
- interchangeable, though the former is very rarely used.
-
-
- C. Why are some people turning off cancels altogether?
-
- Until authenticated cancels catch on, there are no options to
- avoid forged cancels and allow unforged ones. One option, advocated by
- a few, vocal people that don't want to allow such forgery, is to not
- accept cancels at all. If you want to do so, you're welcome to, but it
- probably isn't the best option, at least in the near future.
-
-
- D. What is NoCeM?
-
- NoCeM, pronounced "No See-Umm", is a piece of news software
- written to mostly replace cancel messages. Instead of deleting the
- messages automatically, NoCeM works by allowing anyone to send out a
- message that basically states "you don't want to read this". Indiviual
- news systems or users may then act on these messages as they see fit,
- from deleting the messages or marking them as read, to merely ignoring
- the advice altogether, to even marking those messages to be read as soon
- as possible. The idea is being hailed as a worthy replacement for
- third-party cancels by many news administrators, and it is slowly gaining
- support.
-
- CancelMoose (moose@cm.org) authored the client software, which is
- currently available for most Unix clients that can use PGP (VII.E).
- news.lists.nocem has been created for the distribution of NoCeM
- messages; discussion of the protocol belongs in news.software.misc. For
- more information on NoCeM, refer to the Moose's homepage at
- <URL:http://www.cm.org/>.
-
-
- E. What is PGP?
-
- PGP stands for "Pretty Good Privacy", and is a greatly heralded
- encryption program made for everyday use. It is at the heart of most
- authenticated cancel schemes, NoCeM, and much other Usenet software.
- Unfortunately, the import and export laws regarding the software vary,
- making its availibility questionable in countries other than the USA.
-
- PGP is a topic on its own, and as such has several FAQs of its
- own, as well as several newsgroups. For more information, I recommend you
- read one of these FAQs, such as the comp.security.pgp FAQ (availible at
- <URL:http://www.pgp.net/pgpnet/pgp-faq/>).
-
-
-
- VIII. What about these other things?
- ====================================
- A. What is Lazarus?
-
- Lazarus is a program written for use on alt.religion.scientology
- by Homer Wilson Smith (homer@light.lightlink.com). It monitors control
- and posts a message to a.r.s whenever it finds a message relating to the
- group. The basic effect of this is that all cancels are *very* visible.
-
- For more information on why this was necessary, refer to Ron
- Newman's "The Church of Scientology vs the Net" page, at <URL:http://www2.
- thecia.net/users/rnewman/scientology/home.html>.
-
-
- B. What is Dave the Resurrector?
-
- Dave the Resurrector is a program run in news.admin.* and several
- other newsgroups that reposts cancelled articles. See Appendix A for
- details on its creation and operation.
-
-
- C. What was the Judges-L mailing list?
-
- A while back, a guy named David Stodolsky decided that he was
- going to be in charge of cancels on Usenet. He set up a mailing list to
- this effect, Judges-L, and expected to start working.
-
- The rest of the world didn't exactly want him to be Emperor of
- Usenet.
-
- After a short flamewar, an early FAQ on Cancel Messages was
- written as a result of the Judges-L list; while technically accurate, it
- had little influence on the creation of this FAQ. In the mean time, the
- Judges-L list was dissolved; David Stodolsky is rarely seen on Usenet
- anymore.
-
-
- D. What is the UDP?
-
- UDP stands for the "Usenet Death Penalty", the final weapon
- against those that attempt to abuse Usenet. It is never entered into
- lightly.
-
- Originally, the UDP referred to auto-cancellation of all
- messages from a certain site as a final solution to too much abuse. As
- Usenet terms tend to change over time, the meaning mutated into meaning
- to refer to the aliasing out of a certain site by many major sites, thus
- "shunning" them off of Usenet. This latter method is now more commonly
- called a "passive UDP", and is widely accepted as being only the decision
- of the sites involved; the former has been renamed to "active UDP", and is
- much more controversial.
-
- Active UDPs are saved for those sites that absolutely refuse to
- stop abuse from their systems. Sites which allow abuse of their system
- for weeks straight are given warnings, culminating in a public discussion
- of whether a UDP is warranted. If a consensus is reached that it is
- necessary, the offending site is given a week to fix the problem - after
- that, all articles from the site are automatically cancelled until the
- abuse stops. All in all, this tactic is more politically than technically
- effective, but that doesn't stop the mere threat of an active UDP from
- being enough to make most ISPs clean up their act.
-
- The ethics and morals of active UDPs are, of course, still in
- debate.
-
-
-
- IX. What are the current cancel issues?
- =======================================
- A. What are the cancel-on-sight rules?
-
- If a message is guaranteed to be spam beyond the cancel thresholds,
- anybody may issue a cancel for it - the problem comes with confirming that
- the post is, indeed, beyond the cancel thresholds. Usually, this is done
- automatically with scanning software by the major spam cancellers; they
- are not perfect, however, and sometimes the software misses a few messages.
- Individuals, however, must check the thresholds by hand - which takes a
- great deal of time and effort.
-
- To solve this problem, a certain class of spam has been declared -
- cancel-on-sight. If a particular spam has stayed above a certain threshold
- daily, and shows no signs of stopping in the immediate future, the spam is
- declared cancel-on-sight - from then on, any instances of the spam may be
- cancelled on sight, without requiring checking by the canceller, on the
- theory that the spam must have passed the thresholds long ago.
-
- Currently, the only spam declared cancel-on-sight is the ongoing
- "Make Money Fast!" spam/scam in all its forms. Details for declaring
- other spams cancel-on-sight are still being worked out in news.admin.
- net-abuse.policy.
-
-
- B. Are HTML postings cancellable?
-
- Most modern web browsers allow for posting to Usenet; they also
- generally offer an option to post messages in HTML, for easier viewing by
- other browsers - at the expense of significantly larger post sizes and
- much-increased difficulty of viewing by the rest of the Usenet community.
- This poor mixing of HTML and Usenet has been fought tooth-and-nail by
- Usenet readers, moderators, and administrators, but the postings continue.
-
- One suggestion to stop HTML posting is to declare HTML posts to be
- binary messages, and thus cancellable under the bincancel rules. This
- idea has not been implemented, simply because HTML messages are *not* binary
- messages, under current definitions, and if the definitions were changed
- the consensus would probably disappear.
-
- In short: no, postings are not cancellable merely for being in
- HTML.
-
-
- C. What happened to copyright cancels?
-
- Copyright cancels were a rarely-used type of third-party cancel
- where messages are cancelled for being copyright violations. The idea
- behind the cancels was to stop the violations from spreading; cancels are
- fairly ineffective in this respect, however, because not all sites honor
- cancels. This ineffectiveness, combined with a desire by most news
- administrators to stay out of legal matters, was enough to declare the
- consensus regarding copyright cancels void. The only remedy for copyright
- violations on Usenet has again become the real-world legal system.
-
-
- D. What should be done about unaccountable spam cancellers?
-
- The current winner of the "most cancels issued" award is Cosmo
- Roadkill, a 'bot operated by "Uncle Roadkill" that single-handedly cancels
- most of Usenet's spam. This was, for a time, considered a good thing;
- still, the 'bot isn't perfect, and over time people have found more and
- more problems with Cosmo. This too would be okay, except for one thing -
- Uncle Roadkill never responds to complaints.
-
- There still isn't really a true response to this issue, but at
- least people are outraged.
-
-
- E. Whae should be done about open news servers?
-
- Most rogue cancel attacks on Usenet are performed using news
- servers that allow public reading and posting. This was originally done
- to allow an "open" Usenet, where people could read and post from other
- servers to help guarantee better propagation and a nice atmosphere; now,
- though, the potential for abuse is too great, and so most open news
- servers are being shut down. This is generally considered a good thing.
-
- There are, though, a few that will miss the old open system; as
- such, there are still ideas floating around for how to allow those servers
- to remain open and still not allow any significant abuse.
-
-
- F. How should hierarchies opt out of spam cancels?
-
- On July 18, 1998, the free.* hierarchy was recreated under the
- theory of "no control, no cancels, no rmgroups". One of the unexpected
- shocks caused by this creation was from the spam cancellers - they didn't
- necessarily want to exclude free.* from their filters, and were outraged
- that somebody would tell them what to do on the matter without even
- discussing it ahead of time. Others responded that it was the cancellers'
- responsibility to follow the wishes of the hierarchy, and that if they
- wouldn't do so how were they better than the rogue cancellers?
-
- While this particular flamewar finally burned out, the underlying
- embers of the issue are still burning - how should hierarchies opt out
- from spam cancels? Is it the responsibility of the cancellers to ask
- permission to cancel the posts? Or must hierarchies request such things,
- and work with the cancellers to ensure that it works?
-
-
-
- Changes
- =======
- v1.0 -> v1.01 Updated the style slightly
- Clarified the meanings of EMP and ECP
- Added a section in I, "Where can I find cancel messages?"
- Added some newsreaders' cancel buttons
- v1.01 -> v1.1 Updated the addresses to have the HTML version
- Got some information about CNews
- Got approval for posting to news.answers
- Fixed a few errors here and there
- v1.1 -> v1.2 Added slrn to the newsreaders' cancel buttons list
- Updated the section on NoCeM
- Added a section on PGP
- Made a few slight cosmetic changes
- v1.2 -> v1.25 Added references to the Bincancel FAQ
- Updated the definition of a spew
- Added "unauthorized copyrighted material" to the list of
- valid reasons for cancel messages (with disclaimers).
- Added Agent's cancel button
- Added a disclaimer for the CNews information
- v1.25 -> v1.3 Added references to the Spam Thresholds FAQ
- Added references to Dave Hayes' "Site of Virtue" page
- Changed the definition of a 'spew'
- Updated IV.E.
- Added a section on the ellisd and pseudosite cancel
- incidents
- v1.3 -> v1.31 Updated the newsgroups, based on the recent news.admin.
- net-abuse.* reorganization
- Added a link to the news.admin.net-abuse homepage
- Updated the cancelbot section to warn against publicly
- distributed ones
- Updated the information on the psuedosite cancel attack
- v1.31 -> v1.4 Made lots of cosmetic changes
- Removed invalid CNews information, updated INews aliasing
- information
- Virtually re-wrote IV.G.
- v1.4 -> v1.5 Added an appendix on Dave the Resurrector
- Jun 11, 1997 Added an appendix on Retromoderation
- Updated the rogue cancellers section (V.D.)
- Clarified the pseudosite section
- Updated the 'format of a cancel' section (II.C.)
- v1.5 -> v1.6 Updated I.C. and II.A. to reflect changes in finding
- Dec 30, 1997 cancel messages
- Removed section on copyright cancels in I.E., to follow
- current consensus
- Added some more readers' cancel buttons
- Changed V.E. to not require me to give a full history of
- spam cancellers throug the ages
- Clarified and updated the UDP definition in VIII.D.
- Added Section IX. on current cancel issues
- Minor rewordings and updates in I.E., II.B., II.D., IV.B.,
- IV.D., IV.E., IV.G., V.C., VII.B., VII.C.
- v1.6 -> v1.7 Standardized the HTML tags to the <URL:[url]> standard in
- Aug 10, 1998 the headers, I.C., II.D., VII.A., VII.D., VII.E., and
- the links section.
- Minor rewordings - IV.B., IV.G.2., IV.G.5., IV.G.7.
- Added mention of server-side filtering in I.B.
- Depreciated the value of RFC1036bis in I.E.
- Updated the rules to include administrator preference -
- for example, you can't cancel your posts in free.* even
- if you want to - in I.E., along with a few other minor
- wording changes.
- Added another reader's cancel button.
- Strengthened the X-Cancelled-By standard to require that
- the address given must be read by its owner.
- Reworded II.B.'s stuff on pseudosites a bit.
- Changed around III.C. to be more clear on what to do with
- moderators that are "abusing their authority".
- Mentioned how uncustomizable freely available cancelbots
- are in IV.E.
- Strengthened the importance of responding to email about
- your cancelbiot in IV.G.4.
- Added "if one may cancel, all may cancel" to the list of
- popular reasons to cancel in V.B.
- Added "ignore the cancels" and "write and run a resurrection
- 'bot" to V.F.'s section on "what can I do?".
- Mentioned that this FAQ is a good example of Supersedes:
- and Expires: headers in VII.B.
- Added IX.[D-F].
- v1.7 -> v1.75 Reworded the expiration section of I.B.
- Sep 30, 1999 Reformatted I.E., IV.G., appendix B, and V.D. to just plain
- look nicer.
- Changed the wording of I.E.1. to make it more obvious what
- a first-person cancel actually is.
- Updated the spewcancels section of I.E.3.
- Significantly reworded I.H, IV.G.1 - 5
- Added a section on NewsAgent to V.D.
- Added Appendix C.
-
- To Do
- =====
- At some point, there needs to be a version 2.0 of this FAQ. While
- this will probably happen at some point in the future, it's not going to be
- any time soon; as such, most of the real changes for the next while are going
- to merely be cosmetic.
-
- Still, for the future:
-
- Fill in the technical sections in general, especially with other
- software.
- Add a section on things that *shouldn't* be cancelled, and why.
- Expand the UDP and NoCeM sections a *lot*. Maybe they even deserve
- their own FAQ...
- Add a "spew" appendix.
-
-
- Contributors
- ============
- In creating this FAQ, I discovered one important thing: it's a
- *lot* of work. These are the people that have helped me out in doing
- it, with suggestions, moral support, or whatever.
-
- Thank you all. I couldn't have done this without you. Literally.
- And, if I missed anyone, don't hesitate to speak up...
-
- Johann Beda j-beda@uiuc.edu
- CancelMoose moose@cm.org
- Ian Collier imc@comlab.ox.ac.uk
- Peter Da Silva peter@taronga.com
- Richard Depew red@redpoll.mrfs.oh.us
- Frans P. de Vries fpv@xymph.iaf.nl
- Ernie Diaz trebor@slip.net
- Arnould Engelfriet galactus@stack.urc.tue.nl
- J.D. Falk jdfalk@cybernothing.org
- Follower of the Clawed Albino edmcdo01@terra.spd.louisville.edu
- The Gentleman gentlman@alinc.com
- Howard Goldstein hg@n2wx.ampr.org
- Dave Hayes dave@jetcafe.org
- Jim Hill jthill@netcom.com
- Jonathan Kamens jik@mit.edu
- Joshua Kramer jkramer1@swathmore.edu
- Don Juneau djuneau@io.com
- Tom Lewis thomas.lewis@me.gatech.edu
- Chris Lewis clewis@ferret.ocunix.on.ca
- Charles H. Lindsey chl@clw.cs.man.ac.uk
- Guy Macon guymacon@deltanet.com
- John Milburn jem@xpat.com
- Bernhard Muenzer mue@gsf.de
- Ron Newman rnewman@thecia.net
- Matthew Paden mpaden@emory.edu
- Joshua Putnam josh@wolfenet.com
- John Rickard jrr@atml.co.uk
- Chris Salter chris@loncps.demon.co.uk
- Wolfgang Schelongowski [removed by request]
- Bill W Smith Jr bill@srisoft.com
- Keith Thompson kst@thomsoft.com
- Jason Untulis untulis@netcom.com
- Dimitri Vulis dlv@bwalk.dm.com
- Matthew P Wiener weemba@sagi.wistar.upenn.edu
- Michael Wise mjwise@unixg.ubc.ca
- Patricia Wrean wrean@caltech.edu
- Dick Yuknavech rey@mindspring.com
-
-
- Pointers
- ========
- For more information on cancel messages, or for information on
- related issues, try checking some of the following pages:
-
- Related FAQs
- ------------
- news.admin.net-abuse FAQ
- <URL:http://www.cybernothing.org/faq/net-abuse-faq.html>
- Advertising on Usenet FAQ
- <URL:http://www.danger.com/FAQs/advo.htm>
-
- <URL:http://www.cs.ruu.nl/wais/html/na-dir/net-abuse-faq/spam-faq.html>
- The Spam Thresholds FAQ
- <URL:http://www.killfile.org/faqs/spam.html>
- The Bincancel FAQ
- <URL:http://www.geniac.net/bincancel/>
- The Newsgroup Care Cancel Cookbook
- <URL:http://www.xs4all.nl/~rosalind/faq-care.html>
- The Moderated Newsgroups FAQ
- <URL:http://www.swcp.com/~dmckeon/mod-faq.html>
-
-
- Utilities
- ---------
- Anti-Spam Software
- <URL:http://www.exit109.com/~jeremy/news/antispam.html>
- Apollo - News/INN, a set of news related utilities
- <URL:http://www.backplane.com/news/>
- Adcomplain shell script
- <URL:http://www.rdrop.com/~billmc/adcomplain.html>
- Purge-binaries, an anti-binary script
- <URL:http://www.tju.edu/~theall1/tools/purge-binaries/>
- NoCeM
- <URL:http://www.cm.org/nocem.html>
-
-
- RFCs
- ----
- RFC 1036 -- Usenet Guidelines
- <URL:http://www.cis.ohio-state.edu/htbin/rfc/rfc1036>
- RFC 1855 -- Netiquette Guidelines
- <URL:http://www.cis.ohio-state.edu/htbin/rfc/rfc1855>
- RFC 1036bis (temporary)
- <URL:http://www.killfile.org/faqs/rfc1036b>
-
-
- Newsgroups
- ----------
- news.announce.newusers
- news.answers
- news.admin.announce
- news.admin.nocem
- news.admin.net-abuse.bulletins
- news.admin.net-abuse.email
- news.admin.net-abuse.misc
- news.admin.net-abuse.policy
- news.admin.net-abuse.sightings
- news.admin.net-abuse.usenet
- news.admin.misc
- news.groups
-
-
- Additional/Other
- ----------------
- Fight Spam on the Internet!
- <URL:http://spam.abuse.net/>
- The Jargon File
- <URL:http://www.ctrl-c.liu.se/~ingvar/jargon/>
- net.legends FAQ
- <URL:http://www.killfile.org/faqs/legends.html>
- news.admin.net-abuse homepage
- <URL:http://www.killfile.org/~tskirvin/nana/>
- The Free.* FAQ
- <URL:http://www.killfile.org/faqs/free.html>
- --
- Copyright 1999, Tim Skirvin. All rights reserved.
- <URL:http://www.killfile.org/faqs/cancel.html>
-