CD-ROM Aktief 1995 #3/CDA3.iso/survival/effinfo.enc

Text File | 1994-07-30 | 14KB | 253 lines

From FidoNews 1130, 25 Jul 94:


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On Electronic Frontier Organizations
Stanton McCandlish, EFF Online Activist/SysOp
[e-mail] -- 1:109/1108

In FidoNews 11.24, the collective Editor says:

>What is the difference between "place" and "space"?  It's wonderful
>to see EFF-type organizations sproinging up with enthusiasm.  It
>bothers me a bit that they are arranged according to countries.  I
>guess it makes sense to organize legal-aid stuff by country, because
>particular beaurocratic/political situations will have problems
>requiring local resources,

This is indeed the case.  EFF would probably like nothing better than
to be able to be of direct legal assistance to non-US citizens, but we
cannot.  It is difficult enough to do this job even for one country,
with 5 lawyers on staff, and a paralegal to boot.  We'd need a team of
thousands to cover all countries' laws.  And that doesn't even begin to
get into politics and legislation.

>but... I hope the limitations of
>boundaries are not imposed upon the net out of historical habits.
>
>Occasionally habits are useful, but if they are not continually
>reviewed and revised to jive with changing reality, they turn into
>rules, which is boring.

Agreed wholeheartedly.  However, I think more often than not the problems,
besides legal/bureaucratic ones, stem mainly from national, cultural and
linguistic barriers, which though eroding in these days of international

media and communication, are still strong, and important to many.
One can argue whether or not nationalism and cultural pride are strengths
to preserve, or weaknesses to avoid, but whatever the answer, they are
strong feelings for most people.

>Sure, people can think in terms of borders if they want to, but not
>everyone should *have* to.  Also, borders, do not have to be based
>upon history.  They could be based upon science fiction, or
>anything at all, if they have to exist.

Agreed again, and I think that networking is likely to play a large role
in redefining our boundaries.  Right now, however, the only practical
way to go about online activism is regionally, and I've been working with
the founders of various local and national groups to help get them going
and to put them in touch with likeminded people.  There's a strong feeling
of solidarity among the "EF-groups", and we look to the day when enough
critical mass is reached that the efforts can be more closely allied.
I liken this process to the genesis of the Internet - one idea, many
independent nodes in a non-heirachical network.  It's the process of
forming a community, rather than a single organization.  In time the
individual pieces may come together in a synergistic whole greater than the
sum of it's parts.  But due to the number of differing jurisdiction, each
local organization needs to fill a role for the online community in it's
own area; these resources cannot be generated by a hierarchical single
-base group, but they can be pooled over time, to build a sort of
meta-organization.

To that end, I'll be making some alterations to the eff-activists mailing
list [NB: a "mailing list" is the Internet equivalent, roughly, of a BBS-
network echo, or a Usenet newsgroup], and it will become ef-activists,
with international participation between (I anticipate) members of EFF,
CPSR, SEA, EF-Canada, EFF-Austin, EF-Houston, EF-Norway, EF-Ireland,
CommUnity, EF-Australia, and more.  To date the list has served as a good
place to pass on items of relevance to online activists (e.g. press
releases, legislative texts, action alerts, etc.), but has yet to become
all it can be.

In time I hope to cross-gate this to Fido and other BBS networks, along with
several other relevant conferences, such as comp.org.eff.news.  As it is,
however, I've come up against problems like dupe loops and such which can
be caused by incautious cross-gating, and would like some advice on this
matter from someone(s) experienced with cross-gating between Usenet/Internet
and Fido, and between Fido and OtherNets, so all goes smoothly.  Then we
can get all of these disparate and insular virtual communities together for
some serious activism.

For those unaware of what EFF does, the Electronic Frontier Foundation is
a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization devoted to civil liberties in cyberspace.
We offer legal information for sysops and users, have supported courtroom
cases (such as the by-now-legendary Steve Jackson Games v. US Secret Service
case), and engage in direct policywork with the Administration and Congress
to work toward open access to information infrastructure (the "data super-
highway"), to get wider and more affordable deployment of ISDN, to head off
privacy-threatening maneuvers like the FBI's draft Digital Telephony "Wire-
tap Bill", and the NSA Escrowed Encryption Standard (the Clipper Chip, as
many of you may recall from previous articles.)  These are all important
issues, and all of them will be affecting you (even those of you that live
in other countries - the FBI is already attempting to get Russia to deploy
it's own DigTel-style surveillance system, and the White House has been
pressuring many European and other governments to adopt the Clipper system.)
The time's come for all of us to get involved, and to get organized.  The
opposition on these issues, ranging from telco monopolists to Executive
Branch agenices, have a headstart and vast resources.  The wild and wooley
days when the online world was a well-kept secret are drawing to a close,
and if we wish to preserve it's better aspects, we'll need to cooperate,
and to present a strong, united voice.

For more info on EFF, our mission, membership in the organization, and
details about our mailing lists, you can send any message (e.g. via UUCP
gate) to [e-mail] in the Internet, or call our BBS, Outpost, at
[phone] (300-14000bps, V32b, V42b; 8N1) or [phone]
(300-14400bps, V32b, V42b; 16800 ZyX; 8N1).  The BBS is free and up
continuously except for mail hour.

>I still haven't heard any more about nodes disappearing in Italy,
>despite trying to find information.  This makes me curious.

I'll forward what I have on it, and you might find some of it FidoNewsworthy.

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Cryptography and Digital Signatures
A Short Clarification
Stanton McCandlish - Electronic Frontier Foundation Online Activist/SysOp
[e-mail] - 1:109/1108 - Outpost [phone], [phone]

In article "Fido Newsletter Content" in FNews 11.27, Neil Lauritsen
(1:3603/120), like many others, expresses opposition to the use of
encryption and digital signatures in FidoNet.  I won't broach the subjects
of censorship (the main topic of Neil's article), or of legal liabilities
and why you should allow cryptography [the interested should read
the sci.crypt FAQ which is available from most BBSs including ours, then
read the ECPA law and associated commentary available from our BBS, and
mentally correlate these pieces of information with eachother.  See also
legal articles by Mike Riddle in previous issues of FidoNews], as these are
very large topics which I probably cannot clarify adequately in so short a
space.  I'll just focus on the common confusion about what digital
signatures are.

>Dear Ed..I agree
[about the perceived need to censor FidoNews]
>and I run an Adult Oriented BBS. I also strongly object to encripted
>passages or signatures as also appeared in this issue. I do have a right
>to refuse to forward to distribute materials which are encripted (and I
>am a Net Host) as you also have the right to refuse to accept articles
>with unacceptable language as part of your FIDO news. Freedom of speech
>cannot be used as an argument to condone these violations of our trust
>in the editor.
[...]
>Neil - NC3603

[...]
>Dear Editor, Please do not forward for distribution to my net any
>articles which contain any form of encription either in the text or in
>the si