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- Computer underground Digest Wed Apr 26, 1995 Volume 7 : Issue 33
- ISSN 1004-042X
-
- Editors: Jim Thomas and Gordon Meyer (TK0JUT2@NIU.BITNET)
- Archivist: Brendan Kehoe
- Shadow Master: Stanton McCandlish
- Field Agent Extraordinaire: David Smith
- Shadow-Archivists: Dan Carosone / Paul Southworth
- Ralph Sims / Jyrki Kuoppala
- Ian Dickinson
- Copy Desecrator: Emo Shrdlu
-
- CONTENTS, #7.33 (Wed, Apr 26, 1995)
-
- File 1--EPIC On Gov't Guidelines
- File 2-- Lorrie Faith Cranor's CFP95 Conference Report
- File 3--DEATH ROW INMATE GETS HOME PAGE ON INTERNET (fwd)
- File 4--Cu Digest Header Info (unchanged since 19 Apr, 1995)
-
- CuD ADMINISTRATIVE, EDITORIAL, AND SUBSCRIPTION INFORMATION APPEARS IN
- THE CONCLUDING FILE AT THE END OF EACH ISSUE.
-
- ---------------------------------------------------------------------
-
- Date: 26 Apr 1995 16:32:35 -0400
- From: "Marc Rotenberg" <rotenberg@EPIC.ORG>
- Subject: FIle 1--EPIC On Gov't Guidelines
-
- Electronic Privacy Information Center
- 666 Pennsylvania Avenue, S.E.
- Washington, DC 20003
- (202) 544-9240
- info@epic.org
-
-
- * P R E S S R E L E A S E *
-
-
- April 27, 1995
-
-
- EPIC URGES SPECTER TO PROCEED CAUTIOUSLY
-
- WASHINGTON -- In a letter sent today to Senator Arlen Specter,
- the Electronic Privacy Information Center, a leading civil
- liberties organization, urged the Congress to proceed cautiously
- in the wake of the tragic bombing incident in Oklahoma. EPIC
- said that "any expansion of federal authority to investigate
- political activity could have a profound impact upon
- communication networks and the future of electronic democracy."
- Senator Specter is holding hearings tomorrow on counter-terrorism
- proposals.
-
- The EPIC letter focused on the history of the Attorney
- General guidelines which permit the government to conduct
- investigations of domestic organizations. The original
- guidelines were issued in 1976 by Attorney General Edward Levi.
- The "Levi Guidelines," as they came to be known, recognized the
- FBI's legitimate investigative needs while seeking to protect the
- First Amendment rights of dissident politic organizations. The
- Guidelines were promulgated in the wake of Watergate and the
- revelations of the Senate's Church Committee investigation.
- According to EPIC, the Levi Guidelines reflected the post-
- Watergate consensus that the investigation of controversial or
- unpopular political groups had at times been overzealous and had
- violated fundamental constitutional rights.
-
- In 1983 President Reagan's Attorney General, William French
- Smith, issued a new set of guidelines that replaced the Levi
- Guidelines. The "Smith Guidelines" were far less restrictive
- than the Levi Guidelines. As President Reagan's FBI Director
- William Webster said, the Smith Guidelines "should eliminate any
- perceptions that actual or imminent commission of a violent crime
- is a prerequisite to investigation."
-
- The critical section of the Smith Guidelines cited in the
- EPIC letter provides that "[a] domestic security/terrorism
- investigation may be initiated when facts or circumstances
- reasonably indicate that two or more persons are engaged in an
- enterprise for the purpose of furthering political or social
- goals wholly or in part through activities that involve force or
- violence and a violation of the criminal laws of the United
- States."
-
- EPIC said that "the current guidelines provide the FBI with
- ample authority to initiate investigations of organizations and
- individuals similar to those alleged to have been involved in the
- Oklahoma City bombing." EPIC noted that public information
- concerning paramilitary right-wing organizations in general --
- and the Michigan Militia in particular -- has been readily
- available to the FBI and other law enforcement agencies for some
- time. EPIC also noted that former Attorney General Griffin Bell
- and former Assistant Attorney General Victoria Toensing have
- recently expressed the view that the FBI possessed sufficient
- authority under the Smith Guidelines to investigate and monitor
- the activities of this organization and affiliated individuals.
-
- Finally, EPIC urged Senator Specter to give similar careful
- consideration to any proposals for the modification of the
- wiretap statute or privacy statutes that would diminish the
- freedoms that all American currently enjoy.
-
- Earlier this year, EPIC recommended that Congress not
- appropriate $500 million for a national wiretap program developed
- by the FBI. EPIC said that the program would increase the
- vulnerability of the nation's communications infrastructure.
- EPIC said today that it will continue to oppose funding of the
- program.
-
-
-
- -30-
-
- ELECTRONIC PRIVACY INFORMATION CENTER
- WASHINGTON, DC
- INFO@EPIC.ORG
-
- April 26, 1995
-
- Honorable Arlen Specter
- Chairman
- Judiciary Subcommittee on Terrorism,
- Intelligence and Gov't Information
- United States Senate
- 161 Dirksen Office Building
- Washington, DC 20510
-
- Dear Senator Specter:
-
- We write on behalf of the Electronic Privacy Information
- Center ("EPIC"), a non-profit research organization concerned with
- the protection of privacy and civil liberties. We are particularly
- interested in the preservation of Constitutional freedoms in the
- evolving communications infrastructure. Increasingly, the Internet
- and other digital systems facilitate the expression of political
- opinions and have, in effect, become the electronic town squares
- of our information society. For this reason, EPIC believes that
- any expansion of federal authority to investigate political
- activity and/or expression could have a profound impact upon those
- networks and the future of electronic democracy.
-
- As the Committee begins its examination of the tragic events
- in Oklahoma City, we urge careful and deliberate consideration of
- any proposal that would alter current guidelines governing the
- investigation and monitoring of domestic political activity or the
- collection and use of personal information. The Congress must be
- careful not to compromise fundamental constitutional values as it
- seeks to address the obvious security concerns in the wake of
- recent events. As Justice Powell observed in the Keith case:
-
- History abundantly documents the tendency of Government
- -- however benevolent and benign its motives -- to view
- with suspicion those who most fervently dispute its
- policies. [Constitutional] protections become the more
- necessary when the targets of official surveillance may
- be those suspected of unorthodoxy in their political
- beliefs. The danger to political dissent is acute where
- the Government attempts to act under so vague a concept
- as the power to protect "domestic security." Given the
- difficulty of defining the domestic security interest,
- the danger of abuse in acting to protect that interest
- becomes apparent.
-
- United States v. United States District Court, 407 U.S. 297, 314
- (1972).
-
- In order to assess whether it is necessary to make changes in
- the current policies concerning the investigation of domestic
- organizations, we believe it is necessary to look closely at the
- history of federal investigative authority. As you know, the
- evolution of the current requirements governing the FBI's conduct
- of domestic security investigations dates back to 1976. In that
- year, President Ford's Attorney General, Edward Levi, issued
- "Guidelines on Domestic Security Investigation," which came to be
- known as the "Levi Guidelines." This directive, which recognized
- the FBI's legitimate investigative needs while seeking to protect
- the First Amendment rights of dissident politic organizations, was
- promulgated in the wake of Watergate and the revelations of the
- Senate's Church Committee investigation./1/ The Levi Guidelines
- reflected the post-Watergate consensus that the investigation of
- controversial or unpopular political groups had at times been
- overzealous and had violated fundamental constitutional rights./2/
-
- Seven years later, in 1983, the Levi Guidelines were
- superseded by the "Attorney General's Guidelines on General
- Crimes, Racketeering Enterprise and Domestic Security/Terrorism
- Investigations," issued by Attorney General William French Smith
- (the "Smith Guidelines"). The revised guidelines were generally
- considered to be far less restrictive than the Levi Guidelines.
- As FBI Director William Webster noted at the time of their
- issuance, the Smith Guidelines "should eliminate any perceptions
- that actual or imminent commission of a violent crime is a
- prerequisite to investigation."/3/
-
- The guidelines provide, in pertinent part, that
-
- [a] domestic security/terrorism investigation may be
- initiated when facts or circumstances reasonably indicate
- that two or more persons are engaged in an enterprise for
- the purpose of furthering political or social goals wholly
- or in part through activities that involve force or
- violence and a violation of the criminal laws of the
- United States.
-
- Smith Guidelines (reprinted in 32 Crim. L. Rep. (BNA) 3087
- (1983)), Section III (B)(1). The standard of "reasonable
- indication" is
-
- substantially lower than probable cause. In determining
- whether there is reasonable indication of a federal
- criminal violation, a Special Agent may take into account
- any facts or circumstances that a prudent investigator
- would consider. However, the standard does require
- specific facts indicating a past, current, or impending
- violation. There must be an objective, factual basis for
- initiating the investigation; a mere hunch is insufficient.
-
- Id., Section II (C)(1).
-
- Given the constitutional command that the government may not
- suppress or punish statements advocating criminal activity unless
- they pose an immediate and substantial danger to public safety,
- Brandenburg v. Ohio, 395 U.S. 444 (1969), the Smith Guidelines
- afford the FBI considerable leeway in pursuing investigations of
- potential violent crime. In a 1984 en banc opinion interpreting
- the Smith Guidelines, the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals found
- that the directive strikes an appropriate balance between First
- Amendment rights and legitimate law enforcement. As Judge Posner
- wrote for the court,
-
- [the FBI] may not investigate a group solely because
- the group advocates [an unpopular cause]; but it may
- investigate any group that advocates the commission, even
- if not immediately, of terrorist acts in violation of
- federal law. It need not wait until the bombs begin to
- go off, or even until the bomb factory is found.
-
- Alliance to End Repression v. City of Chicago, 742 F.2d 1007, 1015
- (7th Cir. 1984).
-
- Thus, the current guidelines provide the FBI with ample
- authority to initiate investigations of organizations and
- individuals similar to those alleged to have been involved in the
- Oklahoma City bombing. In reaching this conclusion, we note that
- a good deal of public source material concerning paramilitary
- right-wing organizations in general -- and the Michigan Militia in
- particular -- has been readily available to the FBI and other law
- enforcement agencies for some time. For instance, a front page
- article about the Michigan Militia in the Detroit Free Press last
- fall reported:
-
- Their goal is to keep the U.S. government in check,
- through threat of armed rebellion if need be. Gun control
- advocates, federal firearms agents and the United Nations
- are among the perceived threats. ...
-
- Federal officials are aware of these groups, but "we
- are not monitoring their growth," said Stanley Zimmerman,
- head of the Detroit office of the federal Bureau of Alcohol,
- Tobacco and Firearms. "It would be our preference that the
- militia groups would use the power of the vote rather than
- the threat of armed violent confrontation to accomplish
- their goals."
-
- "They Cite their Disgust with Government," Detroit Free Press,
- October 13, 1994, at 1A.
-
- Indeed, the Justice Department was specifically alerted to
- the activities of the Michigan Militia. Morris Dees, director of
- the Southern Poverty Law Center, disclosed in a recent interview
- that:
-
- We warned Attorney General Reno in a letter last October
- concerning this Militia of Michigan, the one that's
- involved in this case, and pointed out that they should
- be checking on them. ... [T]hese people, like Mark Koernke,
- are out actually advocating the overthrow of the United
- States government with individuals who are practicing and
- training with explosives, with assault weapons.
-
- ABC News, "This Week with David Brinkley," April 23, 1995.
-
- In recent comments concerning the adequacy of the Smith
- Guidelines, former Attorney General Griffin Bell and former
- Assistant Attorney General Victoria Toensing have expressed the
- view that the FBI possessed sufficient authority to investigate
- and monitor the activities of this organization and affiliated
- individuals. This conclusion is consistent with the observation
- of former FBI Director Webster, noted above, that the current
- guidelines "should eliminate any perceptions that actual or
- imminent commission of a violent crime is a prerequisite to
- investigation." As you commence your review into this matter, we
- strongly urge you to consider the views of many experts who share
- the opinion of these former officials.
-
- We urge you also to give similar careful consideration to any
- proposals for the modification of the wiretap statute or privacy
- statutes that would diminish the freedoms that all Americans
- currently enjoy. Any such proposal must be carefully drafted to
- address specific and identifiable harms. We urge you also to
- proceed cautiously in the area of electronic communications. Our
- country is in the process of developing the communication tools
- that will take us into the next century. While we share the
- President's belief that irresponsible speech should be opposed by
- responsible speech, we do not believe that enhanced surveillance
- of lawful activity by American citizens will serve the country
- well.
-
- Political and associational rights form the foundation of our
- democratic society. As the Committee and Congress examine the
- nation's contemporary security needs, the temptation to find
- expedient quick fixes must be resisted. Issues as fundamental as
- the ones you propose to address deserve and demand a thorough and
- open national debate. We look forward to working with you and the
- Committee as you consider these difficult questions.
-
-
- Sincerely,
-
-
-
-
- Marc Rotenberg, Director David L. Sobel, Legal Counsel
-
-
-
-
-
- cc: Sen. Fred Thompson
- Sen. Spencer Abraham
- Sen. Strom Thurmond
- Sen. Herbert Kohl
- Sen. Patrick Leahy
- Sen. Dianne Feinstein
-
- ==================================================================
-
- Notes
-
- /1/ See, generally, Final Report of the Senate Select
- Committee to Study Governmental Operations with Respect to
- Intelligence Activities, S. Rep. 755, 94th Cong., 2d Sess. (1976).
-
- /2/ Although some critics maintained that the guidelines were
- unduly restrictive, Attorney General Levi explained that they
- authorized the initiation of an investigation on the basis of a
- relatively benign statement such as "The rulers have set the time
- for the party; let us bring the fireworks," delivered by a group
- with no known propensity for violence. Alliance to End Repression
- v. City of Chicago, 742 F.2d 1007, 1012 (7th Cir. 1984) (quoting
- Congressional testimony of Attorney General Levi).
-
- /3/ Alliance to End Repression v. City of Chicago, 561 F.
- Supp. 575, 578 n.5 (N.D. Ill. 1983) (quoting internal FBI
- memorandum).
- ====================
- Marc Rotenberg (Rotenberg@epic.org) * 202-544-9240 (tel)
- Electronic Privacy Information Center * 202-547-5482 (fax)
- 666 Pennsylvania Ave, SE, Suite 301 * ftp/gopher/wais cpsr.org
- Washington, DC 20003 * HTTP://epic.digicash.com/epic
-
- ------------------------------
-
- Date: Mon, 24 Apr 1995 01:22:02 -0500
- From: jim thomas <tk0jut1@CS.NIU.EDU>
- Subject: FIle 2-- Lorrie Faith Cranor's CFP95 Conference Report
-
- Lorrie Faith Cranor's CFP95 Conference Report
-
- -----------------------------------------------------------------
- Copyright 1995 by Lorrie Faith Cranor. Permission to distribute this
- report electronically is granted, provided you do not distribute it
- for direct commercial advantage. This report is a description of
- CFP95 as I experienced it. The unattributed opinions liberally
- sprinkled throughout are, of course, my own.
- -------------------------------------------------------------------
-
- I attended the Fifth Conference on Computers, Freedom and Privacy
- (http://www-techlaw.stanford.edu/CFP95.html) March 28 through 31 at
- the San Francisco Airport Marriott Hotel. Having thoroughly enjoyed
- the previous two CFP conferences, I had been looking forward to CFP95
- for quite some time -- and I was not disappointed.
-
- The conference began on March 28 with a full day of tutorial programs.
- I arrived too late to attend the tutorials, but in time to enjoy an
- evening ice cream reception and meet some of the other attendees. The
- informal discussions I began that evening and which I continued
- between sessions throughout the conference proved to be as valuable as
- the formal sessions.
-
- The main part of the CFP95 program got off to a slow start on March
- 29 with keynote speaker John Morgridge, chairman of the board of Cisco
- systems. Morgridge described the current status of computer networks
- as "the era of use," in which we will have to address more difficult
- issues than we faced while we were just concentrating on "the
- plumbing." But he failed to shed much light on what these issues are
- or how we might face them.
-
- The next session, "Student Databases: For Education and For Life,"
- proved more enlightening and quite controversial. Barbara Clements,
- Council of Chief State School Officers, outlined the advantages of
- electronic student records databases over the traditional paper filing
- systems. She argued that electronic systems are more accurate, take
- up less space, and are more secure. In addition, if these systems
- follow standard conventions they can make it much easier for
- information to be transfered between schools. But panelist Anita
- Hoge, was quite critical of standardized student information
- databases, especially those that contain information obtained through
- standardized tests. She described an exam given to her son in a
- Pennsylvania public school. Hoge said this "Educational Quality
- Assessment" was designed to measure predispositions of students
- towards certain types of behaviors. For example, the exam described a
- hypothetical situation in which the student's friends were planning an
- outing to spray paint graffiti around town. The student is asked
- whether he or she would go along. A negative response is interpreted
- as a predisposition towards anti-social behavior. According to Hoge,
- the results of this exam can be used to identify students with mental
- and behavioral disorders, classify them as special education students,
- send this information to the government, and make the students
- eligible for Medicaid. While most of the audience probably agreed
- with Hoge that such exams are inappropriate, many people were not
- convinced by Hoge's conclusion that the use of standardized exams and
- standardized student information databases was the first step in the
- government's effort to sneak socialized health care through the back door.
-
- Stanford Law Professor Margaret Jane Radin gave an interesting lunch
- time presentation that inspired fish jokes throughout the rest of the
- conference. Radin described two property rights paradigms and
- discussed the advantages and disadvantages of applying them in
- cyberspace. Traditionally, intellectual property has been considered
- a form of economic property that could be bought and sold in a free
- market. However, land (especially the land on which the family home
- is built) has been considered a form of property that has
- personal value beyond the monetary value that can be obtained by
- selling it. She also speculated that as more people flock to
- cyberspace, the Internet may evolve into something similar to what
- broadcast TV has become. She described the TV audience as "potential
- customers delivered to advertisers for a fee." Thus, she explained,
- the TV broadcast industry is a giant commercial fishing industry. "It
- would be good if cyberspace doesn't turn us into fish," she concluded.
-
- A panel discussion on Intelligent Transportation Systems raised some
- important privacy considerations, but was not nearly as provocative as
- the next two sessions of the day: "Transaction Records In Interactive
- Services" and "A Case Against Computers." The transaction records
- panelists debated a variety of issues including who owns personal
- information records (the person who provides them or the organization
- that collects them), the merits of "opt-in" and "opt-out" privacy
- protection systems, and where the responsibility for privacy
- violations should rest.
-
- The Case Against Computers session, dubbed the "luddite session,"
- featured four panelists critical of computer technology. Jerry Mander
- began by reminding everyone that people used to get along just fine
- without computers. He suggested that contrary to what electronic
- activists claim, computers help people feel more powerful, but are not
- actual instruments of empowerment. Rather, he argued, computers
- enforce centralized power structures that take power out of the hands
- of individuals. In addition he was critical of the fact that computer
- professionals do not receive training on how to critique computers.
- Finally, he expressed dismay at the way computers and other new
- technologies have been accepted by the public without debate or
- consideration of their downsides. Panelist Ted Roszak then discussed
- the fact that most computer users are not computer experts -- and
- don't wish to be. He urged computer experts to remember that when
- designing computer systems. Panelist Chet Bowers gave a very academic
- presentation that was probably lost on most of the audience. The
- point of his presentation seemed to be that we were not properly
- considering the cultural impact of computers. Richard Sclove, the
- only panelist with an email address (or at least the only one who
- mentioned it), reminded us that information technology effects
- everyone, even people who don't use computers. Although the panelists
- raised some excellent points, I don't think this panel did a very good
- job of addressing their audience. The panelists came across as a
- bunch of middle-aged (or older) academic luddites, a characterization
- that won them little respect or credibility with the techies in the
- audience. In fact, during the Q & A period one audience member (who
- seemed to have missed the point of the presentation entirely) asked
- the panel, "Are you guys not getting it? What are you missing?"
-
- The day's panel discussions were followed by the Electronic Frontier
- Foundation (http://www.eff.org) Pioneer Awards presentation, an
- EFF-sponsored reception, and dinner. At dinner each table was given a
- question to discuss and answer, with prizes being awarded for the best
- answers. Some tables took this quite seriously while others resented
- being told what to talk about and submitted answers more humorous than
- insightful (my own table taking the latter approach).
-
- The next day of conference sessions began with a panel titled "Defining
- Access Paradigms: Libraries, Rural Areas, and International Aspects."
- While not particularly controversial, the panel addressed some
- interesting problems. Karen Coyle of the University of California
- described the free lending library as a product of the print
- world. She explained that libraries generally purchase books but
- lease electronic materials -- sometimes on a per-use basis. If
- libraries had to pay per-use fees on all their materials, they would
- likely have to pass some of these fees onto their patrons. In
- addition libraries face problems in distributing electronic
- information to patrons who want to take the information with them.
- Panelist Christine Borgman's warning against causing a situation in
- which only the elite have access to knowledge, led one audience member
- to question whether technology really widens the knowledge gap. He
- cited as evidence the fact that he as access to as much information as
- a millionaire has. Apparently it didn't occur to this gentleman
- (probably a member of the middle class) that he is a member of the
- information elite, not the information poor.
-
- The next session, "A Net for All: Where Are the Minorities?", featured
- an interesting discussion of efforts to bring the Net to minority and
- underprivledged populations. Art McGee of the Institute for Global
- Communications described the famous New Yorker cartoon featuring one
- dog introducing another dog to the Internet. The cartoon caption
- reads, "On the Internet, nobody knows you're a dog." This led McGee to
- comment that the second dog should have asked, "What's wrong with
- being a dog?". He added that technology gives people the power to
- express themselves in their own voices, without having their messages
- spun by the media. But he reminded the audience that there are still
- a lot of illiterate people and "all the computers in the world won't
- help them if they can't read." Panelist Barbara Simons added that the
- computer revolution has had a negative impact on uneducated people
- because there are now fewer unskilled jobs.
-
- An afternoon of discussion on "Freedom and Responsibility of Electronic
- Speech" followed lunch, an address by Esther Dyson, and a panel
- discussion on online activism. The electronic speech discussion began
- with presentations from three individuals who have been involved in
- freedom of electronic speech disputes. Brock Meeks, who was sued for
- defamation because of something he posted as part of an online
- newsletter (http://cyberwerks.com:70/1/cyberwire), discussed his case.
- Because the case was settled out of court, it sets no legal precedent,
- but Meeks proposed that people who enter into a discussion on the
- Internet should be considered "public figures" who cannot be easily
- libeled. He suggested the public figure characterization is
- appropriate because Internet discussion participants have easy access
- to the same public forum as those who might try to defame them. Jean
- Camp (http://www.cs.cmu.edu/afs/cs/user/jeanc/www/home.html), a
- doctoral student at Carnegie Mellon University discussed CMU's
- censorship of sexually explicit Usenet newsgroups
- (http://www.cs.cmu.edu/afs/cs/user/kcf/www/censor/index.html). Roger
- Karraker, a journalism professor who maintained an electronic
- conferencing system at Santa Rosa Junior College, described a case in
- which a female student filed a sex discrimination complaint against
- him after hearing that derogatory remarks had been made against her on
- a men-only discussion group. Karraker said one of the mistakes he
- made with the conferencing system was in describing it as an extension
- of the student newspaper, because newspaper publishers are responsible
- for their content. Karraker said individuals should be responsible
- for their own speech in electronic discussion groups.
-
- The second half of the electronic speech discussion took the form of a
- "Socratic forum" (somewhat like a TV talk show) led by Stanford Law
- Professor Kim Taylor-Thompson. Taylor-Thompson described hypothetical
- situations and posed questions to the nine panelists. The discussion
- was animated and brought out some interesting ideas. However, too
- much of the debate was between the lawyers on the panel. CMU student
- Donna Riley -- whose introduction as the founder of the feminist
- Clittoral Hoods
- (http://www.cs.cmu.edu/afs/cs/user/kcf/www/censor/misc/clitoral-hoods-announ
- ce.html)
- organization brought a startled reaction from the audience -- and Ira
- Kaufman of the Anti-Defamation League could hardly get a word in.
-
- The second day of the conference concluded with a dinner speech by
- Roger Wilkins and an evening of Birds of a Feather sessions. Probably
- the most well-attended BOF was the public forum on cryptography
- policy. Members of the National Research Council cryptography
- committee listened and took notes as conference attendees expressed
- their concerns.
-
- The final day of CFP95 began too early in the morning with an 8 am
- talk by Willis Ware. The audience was sparse and sleepy from two
- nights of BOFs which ran until midnight (followed by informal
- discussions which ended early in the morning). Most of the conference
- attendees had dragged themselves out of bed in time for the next
- session: Can We Talk Long Distance? Removing Impediments to Secure
- International Communications. This panel was of particular
- interest to many of the audience members. While most of the
- discussion centered around issues which have been brought up
- repeatedly over the past few years, Cypherpunk Tim May summed things
- up nicely by characterizing the encryption controversy as a debate
- between those who feel that their communication is "none of your
- damn business" versus those who ask, "What have you got to hide?".
-
- A session on copyright and the Net included an interesting discussion
- about how copyright should be enforced in cyberspace. In response to
- often-repeated claims that it is not possible to enforce copyright
- laws on the Net, Attorney Lance Rose pointed out that intelligent
- software agents that can be programmed to search the Net for certain
- types of news can also be programmed to search the Net for copyright
- infringements. Michael Kepplinger of the U.S. Patent and Trademark
- Office and Law Professor Pamela Samuelson debated the "Green Paper"
- produced by the Working Group on Intellectual Property Rights.
- Samuelson criticized the Green Paper authors for assuming that there
- will not be any useful content on the Internet until Congress passes
- strict intellectual property laws. However, she said that people are
- already finding useful information on the Internet. She was also
- critical of the Green Paper for suggesting that online service
- providers should be held strictly liable for copyright infringement.
- Kepplinger denied that the Green Paper included strict liability
- language. Brad Templeton of ClariNet Communications Corp. followed up
- by asserting that most people respect copyright, regardless of whether
- or not it is enforced. Templeton, whose company provides Associated
- Press and other news feeds over the Internet, said that ClariNet
- has been profitable under the current copyright laws.
-
- Lenny Foner (http://foner.www.media.mit.edu/people/foner/), a graduate
- student at the MIT Media Lab and the winner of the CFP95 Student Paper
- Competition, presented his research on agents during lunch. Foner
- described a "matchmaker" system he is developing that is designed to
- demonstrate the feasibility of a large scale distributed system in
- which it is essential to build in privacy. Lenny's research is
- interesting for its technological goals as well as its political
- goals.
-
- By the afternoon of the last day of the conference, a large portion of
- conference attendees had migrated from their chairs to the floor in
- the back of the conference hall. Students, journalists, long-haired
- hackers, and libertarians camped out with backpacks and laptops on
- the audio platform and the surrounding floor space. One gentleman
- fell asleep, but was woken by a journalist when he started to snore.
- At one point Conference Chair Carey Heckman pointed out that there
- were plenty of empty seats towards the front, but nobody in the back
- moved forward.
-
- A session titled "It Oughta Be a Crime" kicked off an afternoon filled
- with some of the most interesting sessions of the conference. Scott
- Charney of the Justice Department opened his remarks by reminding the
- audience that "there is always a percentage of the population up to no
- good." Although only a small percentage of those up to no good are
- currently computer literate, 30 years from now everyone is likely to
- be computer literate, he said. He added that there are some types of
- behavior -- such as extortion and wire fraud -- that is clearly
- criminal conduct, however, there are other types of behavior that fall
- into grey areas. For example, some people don't think breaking into a
- computer system to look at files should be considered criminal if the
- intruder does not change or remove any of the files. However, Charney
- pointed out that companies that discover break-ins end up spending a
- lot of time checking all their files to make sure none have been
- changed or removed. This can be both inconvenient and quite
- expensive. Santa Clara District Attorney Ken Rosenblatt discussed
- statements by some people (including writer Bruce Sterling) that
- police have no business on the Net because electronic conflicts are
- more a "cultural war" than criminal behavior. However, Rosenblatt
- said that all laws are an expansion of cultural norms. Panelist Mark
- Traphagan of the Software Publishers Association concluded the session
- with a discussion of copyright infringement. He claimed that China
- has a 99 percent piracy rate making it "virtually a one-copy country."
- This session brought much disagreement from the audience members, some
- of whom interrupted the speakers. This prompted CFP founder Jim Warren
- to remind the audience that all sides need to be heard.
-
- Many conference attendees anticipated that the session titled "Who
- Owns the Law? The Debate Over Legal Citation Form and What It Means"
- would only be interesting to lawyers. However this session proved to
- be the most animated of the entire conference. After the four
- panelists gave their opening statements, Glenn Tenney of Fantasia
- Systems Inc. gave each of them five minutes in which to question the
- other panelists. This format provoked a lively debate about the
- U.S. legal citation system. Jamie Love of the Taxpayers Assets
- Project complained that West Publishing's page numbers must be
- used when citing most court opinions. Because one cannot determine
- the West pagination from the official court documents, one must visit
- a law library or pay online charges to West to find the complete
- citations. With an increasing amount of legal research being
- conducted online, this can get very expensive. However, West argues
- that they spend a lot of time verifying the accuracy of the opinions
- they publish and should be compensated for their work. Besides, they
- say, it is not their fault that the courts do not provide accurate
- copies of their opinions that can be cited in legal proceedings.
-
- The final CFP95 session featured several presentations about
- anonymity, pseudonyms, and the technologies that make such things
- possible. To illustrate the use of pseudonyms, some of the panelists
- replaced the names on their name badges and exchanged name cards.
- Leading moderator Roger Clarke to introduce panelists Gary Marx and
- Kent Walker as "Kent and or Gary." David Chaum described the
- electronic cash products being developed by his company, DigiCash.
- Writer Steven Levy then gave an excellent presentation on anonymous
- remailers. Science Fiction Writer David Brin wrapped things up with
- some thoughts on the conference as a whole. After this session, the
- chairs of all five CFP conferences commented on the past and future of
- CFP.
-
- Plans are already underway for CFP96 (http://web.mit.edu/cfp96) to be
- held March 27-30, 1996 in Boston.
-
- -- Lorrie Faith Cranor (lorracks@cs.wustl.edu)
- April 3, 1995
-
-
- /\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\
-
- Lorrie Faith Cranor Engineering and Policy, Computer Science
- Washington University http://dworkin.wustl.edu/~lorracks/
- 1 Brookings Dr Box 1045
- St. Louis, MO 63130 "UNLESS someone like you cares a whole awful lot,
- lorracks@cs.wustl.edu nothing is going to get better. It's not." -Dr.Seuss
-
- Look for the Crossroads special issue on computers and society,
- available May 1 from http://info.acm.org/crossroads/
-
- Students: Are you doing interdisciplinary research related to
- computers and society? Are you interested in joining an
- online discussion group to exchange ideas with other students?
- Send me email for more information.
-
- ------------------------------
-
- Date: Wed, 26 Apr 1995 00:10:14 -0500 (CDT)
- From: David Smith <bladex@BGA.COM>
- Subject: File 3--DEATH ROW INMATE GETS HOME PAGE ON INTERNET (fwd)
-
- ---------- Forwarded message ----------
-
- DEATH ROW INMATE GETS HOME PAGE ON THE INTERNET
-
- Illinois death row inmate Girvies Davis, who is scheduled to
- be executed by lethal injection on May 17, 1995, has become the first
- death row prisoner in the United States to take his case directly to
- the people on the Internet. Girvies' home page went online April 24,
- 1995.
-
- For the first time since Illinois re-enacted the death
- penalty in 1977, the State is faced with the very real likelihood of
- executing a man for a crime he did not commit. Internet users can
- learn more about the facts surrounding Girvies' conviction and death
- sentencing by accessing his home page at:
-
- http://www.mcs.net/~bkmurph/girvies.htm
-
- Girvies was convicted and sentenced to death in 1980 for a crime
- in which -- in all probability -- he had no involvement at all.
- Girvies' home page contains links to his clemency petition to the
- Governor, articles written about his plight, "evidence" that Internet
- users can examine for themselves, pictures and audio of Girvies, and
- the e-mail address of Illinois Governor Jim Edgar, who holds Girvies'
- fate in his hands.
-
- For more information, contact Mr. Davis' attorneys via
- electronic mail at bkmurph@mcs.net or contact Brian Murphy or David
- Schwartz at (312) 222-9350.
-
- ------------------------------
-
- Date: Sun, 19 Apr 1995 22:51:01 CDT
- From: CuD Moderators <cudigest@sun.soci.niu.edu>
- Subject: FIle 4--Cu Digest Header Info (unchanged since 19 Apr, 1995)
-
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-
- ------------------------------
-
- End of Computer Underground Digest #7.33
-