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-
- Computer underground Digest Sun Feb 23, 1997 Volume 9 : Issue 11
- ISSN 1004-042X
-
- Editor: Jim Thomas (cudigest@sun.soci.niu.edu)
- News Editor: Gordon Meyer (gmeyer@sun.soci.niu.edu)
- Archivist: Brendan Kehoe
- Shadow Master: Stanton McCandlish
- Field Agent Extraordinaire: David Smith
- Shadow-Archivists: Dan Carosone / Paul Southworth
- Ralph Sims / Jyrki Kuoppala
- Ian Dickinson
- Cu Digest Homepage: http://www.soci.niu.edu/~cudigest
-
- CONTENTS, #9.11 (Sun, Feb 23, 1997)
-
- File 1--SUPREMES: CIEC Brief Filed (CDA news)
- File 2--Eleven CDA briefs filed: "Last Words," from The Netly News
- File 3--info on abuse.net
- File 4--(Fwd) conference - policing the internet, report
- File 5--Sanford Wallace (the "Spam King") to Start Own Spam Service
- File 6--Cyber Promotions, Evil, Evil, EVIL
- File 7--Press release: Metaphor brief filed in CDA case
- File 8--Cu Digest Header Info (unchanged since 13 Dec, 1996)
-
- CuD ADMINISTRATIVE, EDITORIAL, AND SUBSCRIPTION INFORMATION APPEARS IN
- THE CONCLUDING FILE AT THE END OF EACH ISSUE.
-
- ---------------------------------------------------------------------
-
- Date: Fri, 21 Feb 1997 10:48:08 -0800
- From: --Todd Lappin-- <telstar@wired.com>
- Subject: File 1--SUPREMES: CIEC Brief Filed (CDA news)
-
- THE CDA DISASTER NETWORK
-
- February 21, 1997
-
- It's a one-two punch...
-
- Shortly after the ACLU filed a CDA brief with the Supreme Court, the
- other major group of CDA opponents in this case -- the Citizens
- Internet Empowerment Coalition [CIEC] -- also filed their brief.
-
- The following Trial Bulletin gives a basic rundown of the CIEC brief,
- as well as pointers to a Web site where you can read the document in
- its entirety, and suggestions as to what you can do to get involved in
- this milestone legal action.
-
- Work the network!
-
- --Todd Lappin-->
-
- Section Editor
-
- WIRED Magazine
-
- ===================================
-
- Citizens Internet Empowerment Coalition Update No. 17
-
- February 20, 1997
-
- -----------------------------------------------------------------
-
- http://www.cdt.org/ciec/
- ciec-info@cdt.org
-
- -----------------------------------------------------------------
-
- CIEC UPDATES are intended for members of the Citizens Internet
-
- Empowerment Coalition. CIEC Updates are written and edited by the
-
- Center for Democracy and Technology (http://www.cdt.org). This
-
- document may be reposted as long as it remains in its entirety.
-
- ------------------------------------------------------------------
-
- ** 56,000 Netizens Vs. U.S. Department of Justice. **
- * The Fight To Save Free Speech Online *
-
-
- Contents:
-
-
- o CIEC Plaintiffs File Supreme Court Briefs in CDA Appeal
-
- o How to Remove Yourself From This List
-
- o More Information on CIEC and the Center for Democracy and
- Technology
-
-
- --------------------------------------------------------------------
-
-
- CITIZENS INTERNET EMPOWERMENT COALITION FILES BRIEF WITH SUPREME COURT
-
- IN CDA APPEAL
-
- The Citizens Internet Empowerment Coalition (CIEC) today filed its
- brief before the United States Supreme Court in the legal
- challenge to the Communications Decency Act (CDA), a law imposing
- broad content regulations on the Internet.
-
- The full text of the brief, along with detailed background on the
- case, can be found at http://www.cdt.org/ciec/.
-
- The CIEC plaintiffs urged the Supreme Court to agree with a lower
- court ruling that the CDA violates the First Amendment by imposing
- restrictive, TV-broadcast style content regulations on an
- inherently democratic medium.
-
- Among other things, the CIEC argues:
-
- * The Internet is a unique communications medium that deserves
- free speech protection at least as broad as that enjoyed by print
- medium.
-
- * Individual users and parents -- not the government -- should
- decide what material is appropriate for their children, and;
-
- * Simple, inexpensive user empowerment technology is the only
- effective and constitutional way of limiting the access of minors
- to material on the Internet.
-
- The Communications Decency Act was ruled unconstitutional by a
- special panel of three federal judges in Philadelphia in June of
- 1996.
-
- Plaintiffs in the CIEC include the American Library Association,
- civil liberties groups, America Online, CompuServe, Prodigy,
- Microsoft, Apple, the Recording Industry Association of America,
- the American Society of Newspaper Editors, the Newspaper
- Association of America, WIRED Magazine, and over 56,000 individual
- Internet users. The lead plaintiff in the case is the American
- Library Association (a full list is attached below).
-
- The CIEC law suit, also known as ALA v. DOJ, was consolidated with
- a similar case brought by the American Civil Liberties Union and
- 20 other plaintiffs, known as ACLU v. Reno. The cases will be
- argued together before the Supreme Court on Wednesday March 19 at
- 10:00 am ET. The Supreme Court's decision is expected in late
- June or early July.
-
- The Government filed its brief with the Supreme Court on January
- 20, 1997.
-
- The full text of that document, along with amicus briefs filed by
- conservative "pro-family" groups and Members of Congress who
- supported the CDA can be found online at http://www.cdt.org/ciec/
-
- -------------------------------------------------------------------
-
- WHAT YOU CAN DO
-
- It's not to late to become a part of this landmark case! Internet
- users who support the free flow of information online and believe
- that individual users and parents, NOT THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT,
- are the best and most appropriate judges of what material is
- appropriate for themselves and their children can JOIN THE
- CITIZENS INTERNET EMPOWERMENT COALITION. It's easy and it's
- free. Help us fight for the future of the Internet as a viable
- means of free expression, education, and commerce. Visit:
-
- http://www.cdt.org/ciec/join_ciec.html
-
- ---------------------------------------------------------------------
-
- BACKGROUND ON THE COMMUNICATIONS DECENCY ACT
-
- The Communications Decency Act, enacted in February 1996, made it
- a crime punishable by up to $250,000 and 2 years in prison to
- "display" or "make available" any "indecent" or "patently
- offensive" material on a public forum online.
-
- Because the Internet is a global medium with no centralized point
- of control, and because every user of the Internet is a publisher
- with the capacity to reach millions of people, broad government
- content regulations pose a serious threat to the free flow of
- information online and the First Amendment rights of all
- Americans.
-
- Judge Steward Dalzell, in his opinion declaring the
- Communications Decency Act unconstitutional in June, noted that
- the Internet is a unique communications medium that allows users
- tremendous control over the Information they receive. Dalzell
- stated:
-
- "If the goal of our First Amendment jurisprudence is the
- 'individual dignity and choice' that arises from 'putting the
- decision as to what views shall be voiced largely into the hands
- of each of us', then we should be especially vigilant in
- preventing content-based regulation of a medium that every minute
- allows individual citizens actually to make those decisions. Any
- content-based regulation of the Internet, no matter how benign
- the purpose, would burn the global village to roast the pig."
-
- While supporters argue that the law is designed to protect
- children from so-called "pornography" on the Internet, 2 separate
- Federal Courts have agreed that they law goes far beyond that and
- would ban otherwise constitutionally protected materials. Under
- the CDA, classic fiction such as the "Catcher in the Rye" or
- "Ulysses", AIDS and Sex education materials, rap lyrics, the
- "7-dirty words" and other material which, while offensive to
- some, enjoy full First Amendment protection in print, would be
- illegal if posted on a public forum on the Internet.
-
- The outcome of this legal challenge will have far reaching
- implications. At stake is nothing less than the future of the
- First Amendment in the information age.
-
- Please continue to visit the CIEC web page for the latest news
- and information on the case (http://www.cdt.org/ciec)
-
- ------------------------------
-
- Date: Fri, 21 Feb 1997 15:56:05 -0500
- From: Declan McCullagh <declan@well.com>
- Subject: File 2--Eleven CDA briefs filed: "Last Words," from The Netly News
-
- Source - fight-censorship@vorlon.mit.edu
-
- The Netly News Network
- http://cgi.pathfinder.com/netly/editorial/0,1012,671,00.html
-
- Last Words
- by Declan McCullagh (declan@well.com)
- February 21, 1997
-
- Attorneys for the groups challenging the Communications
- Decency Act submitted their final briefs to the Supreme Court
- yesterday. It was free speech advocates' last chance to shore up
- their case before the nation's highest court hears oral arguments
- on March 19.
-
- Nine other organizations, from Playboy to the National
- Association of Broadcasters, filed separate briefs supporting the
- American Civil Liberties Union and the American Library
- Association lawsuits that last June won a preliminary injunction
- barring enforcement of the law. The "amicus" briefs were
- surprising -- not so much for what they asserted, but for the
- unlikely coalition that authored them.
-
- Ann Beeson, attorney for the ACLU, told me yesterday that the
- purpose of her group's brief was to "reframe what the case is
- really about," and respond to arguments the Justice Department
- made last month. In a 55-page brief, the government had argued
- that the threat of accidentally viewing porn online deters
- would-be netizens. It asserted the CDA was a "cyberzoning"
- ordinance that would keep users from stumbling across sexually
- explicit images. "We were able to (rebut) that very confidently
- because of the strength of the lower court's opinion," Beeson
- said, referring to the Philadelphia district court's 409 separate
- factual findings.
-
- The briefs totaled more than 500 pages of dense arguments
- against the CDA, peppered with references to obscure broadcasting
- and obscenity cases. I sat down with pizza and mint tea last night
- and waded through the heap of documents. (And now, as the sun
- rises on D.C., I'm still not finished.)
-
- I started with the ACLU. The group's 65-page filing blasted
- the "government's eleventh-hour effort to salvage" the law. The
- DoJ is wrong to contend users are scared away by indecent
- material: "The government introduced no evidence at trial to
- support this assertion." The ACLU and ALA briefs also assail the
- "cyberzoning" concept, saying that previous Supreme Court zoning
- cases have nothing to do with speech and instead regulate only the
- physical location of adult movie theaters.
-
- Stressing Supreme Court precedents, the Association of
- National Advertisers argues that parents, not government, should
- decide what children may and may not see: "Today, would-be
- regulators of speech routinely attempt to dress up censorship in
- the cloak of protection of children." The group worries that the
- court will back away from recent rulings providing greater
- protection for commercial speech.
-
- The broadcasters, too, are uneasy -- and they have good
- reason. Arguing against the CDA, netizens have painted cyberspace
- as wildly different from the heavily regulated broadcast medium.
- The Net isn't like radio or TV, the argument goes, since it
- doesn't suffer from invasiveness or spectrum scarcity -- the two
- justifications used for FCC regulation. In other words, the number
- of "broadcasters" online is not limited the way TV stations are,
- and web pages don't leap out at you as radio programs could.
-
- CBS, NBC and ABC detest this argument. They've never agreed
- that these reasons grant the FCC so much regulatory authority, and
- they want the court to overrule -- or at least not reaffirm -- its
- decision in the stifling 1969 Red Lion case. That case, anathema
- to broadcasters, upheld the constitutionality of the "fairness
- doctrine," which holds that broadcast media must present both
- sides of controversial issues. As justification, the justices came
- up with the concept of spectrum scarcity, which was used in later
- Supreme Court decisions to restrict broadcasters' rights to air
- "indecent" material. Whether the court affirms or strikes down
- the CDA, the broadcasters want to make sure the justices don't
- endorse Red Lion; indeed, they'd like to see it rejected.
-
- Still more groups weighed in. Site Specific, a consulting
- firm, declares that "the proper analogy for cyberspace is print."
- The American Association of University Professors headed a group
- that submitted arguments on a CD-ROM, a first-ever for the court.
- The Chamber of Commerce, that mainstay of Main Street American
- life, points out that 37 million Americans are wired at work --
- and under the CDA, businesses may be liable for what their
- employees say online. The number of e-mail messages is unthinkably
- high: Firms originated 350 billion messages in 1996. "In view of
- both the volume of messages on interactive computer services and
- their often 'real time' nature, employers are incapable of"
- checking employees' messages, the brief says. And what of
- employees who are minors? Companies that hire 16- and
- 17-year-olds would be in trouble.
-
- To the Feminists for Free Expression, the genderless Internet
- is "key to achieving gender equality," which the CDA threatens.
- "Feminist expression is inherently controversial," the group
- argues, and the act would muzzle netizens who wanted to discuss
- cases of sexual harassment. Even newsworthy cases such as Paula
- Jones v. Bill Clinton would be verboten: "Court opinions... could
- be prohibited under the CDA. The allegations in the Jones suit,
- for example, describe sexual activities and organs in terms that
- might be considered patently offensive in some communities."
-
- The Reporters' Committee for Freedom of the Press describes
- "endless examples of newsworthy topics that arguably fall within
- the purview of the statute and that could subject journalists to
- criminal sanction for doing their jobs." After all, nearly 800
- newspapers have online editions, and profane language is
- newsworthy. Consider a recent example: the now-public audiotapes
- of President Nixon swearing at Democratic party contributors.
-
- The irascible folks at annoy.com joined the chorus. The CDA
- overrides parents' wishes, they say: "Some parents affirmatively
- wish their children to have access to... information about
- avoiding sexually transmitted diseases." Besides, the federal
- government has no business regulating indecency in the first
- place; that wasn't the purpose of the Constitution's "commerce
- clause."
-
- Playboy's brief reminds the court that the magazine has never
- been found obscene, pornographic or harmful to minors by any court
- --but the web site would be criminalized by the CDA. As
- technologies converge, its brief says, Playboy is worried that the
- Net will have weaker free speech protections than print enjoys.
-
- Together, the 11 briefs represent a broadside assault on the
- CDA, one the law is unlikely to survive, legal experts say. In a
- way, the government deserves some sympathy. The Justice Department
- faces the unenviable task of justifying an intolerably
- unconstitutional law passed for political gain and defended for
- election-year cover.
-
- Perhaps Sen. Jim Exon was too late. If he had introduced the
- bill years earlier, the Internet wouldn't have been defended by
- such a dazzling constellation of groups. The Net has at last
- become strong enough to repel this initial attack.
-
- ----------------------
- Courtesy of: The Netly News Network
- Washington Correspondent
- http://netlynews.com/
-
- ------------------------------
-
- Date: Fri, 21 Feb 1997 21:59:06 -0600 (CST)
- From: Avi Bass <te0azb1@corn.cso.niu.edu>
- Subject: File 3--info on abuse.net
-
- >Subject--Welcome to abuse.net (ffhggtc)
-
- >Welcome to the abuse.net message forwarding system. Although this
- >service is provided without charge to the Internet community (with the
- >exceptions detailed below) you have to register once before you can
- >use it. Registration is very easy, but please read the instructions
- >before you try to do it. We regret that we have to make all of our
- >users go through the registration process, but it's the only way we
- >know to discourage miscreants from sending spam through the abuse.net
- >forwarder. (It took about three days for them to discover the
- >previous version that didn't have registration.)
- >
- >HOW DOES ABUSE.NET WORK ?
- >
- >Once you've registered, when you send a message to <domain>@abuse.net,
- >the system here automatically re-mails your message to the best
- >reporting address(es) we know for that domain. For many domains it's
- >postmaster@<domain>, for some it's abuse@<domain>, for some it's
- >something else. Some particularly unpleasant domains ignore all their
- >mail; when we're aware of that we use the address for their
- >next-level-up provider.
- >
- >When we don't know anything about the domain, by default we mail to
- >postmaster at that domain and all suffixes of that domain, so if you
- >sent mail to a.b.com@abuse.net, we'd re-mail that to postmaster@a.b.com
- >and postmaster@b.com.
- >
- >Not being omniscient, we don't know about every domain on the net.
- >Our current list is on the web site at http://www.abuse.net. If you
- >know of a reporting address not on our list, please tell us about it
- >at update@abuse.net.
- >
- >HOW DO I REGISTER ?
- >
- >Please read the terms of service below. If you accept them, reply to
- >this message and put "I accept" in the FIRST line of your response to
- >indicate your assent. Please be sure the subject line of the response
- >contains the subject line of this message, including the code in
- >parentheses, since that's the way we know who you are. Once your
- >acceptance is received, you're registered permanently, unless we
- >change the terms of service in which case you'll have to re-register.
- >If you don't accept the terms, don't reply and you'll never hear from
- >us again.
- >
- >TIPS FOR REPORTING ABUSIVE USENET OR E-MAIL MESSAGES
- >
- >* Send a copy of the entire abusive message, including all of the
- >header lines, particularly the "Received:" lines. (Many mail programs
- >including Pine and Eudora don't show or send all the headers unless
- >you specifically tell them to.) If the message is very long, you can
- >cut off the message in the middle, so long as you're sure you're
- >sending all the headers.
- >
- >* Be polite and to the point.
- >
- >* Don't make any threats unless you intend to carry them out.
- >
- >HOW PRIVATE IS ABUSE.NET ?
- >
- >Not particularly. At the moment, we only keep copies of messages to
- >which we send responses (the first message from each user, and the
- >registration response), but we reserve the right to keep copies of any
- >messages we need to. Like all mail systems, we log the "to" and
- >"from" addresses of all messages.
- >
- >Once your message is sent off to the administrator of the domain
- >you're complaining about, it's up to him, her, or it, what to do with
- >it.
- >
- >ABUSE.NET TERMS OF SERVICE
- >
- >1. You agree to use abuse.net only A) to report abusive behavior by
- >Internet users, or B) to communicate with abuse.net management with
- >questions, comments, or suggestions about the operation of abuse.net.
- >
- >2. You agree not to use abuse.net for any other purpose. In
- >particular, you agree not to send any commercial solicitations, chain
- >letters, or other mail sent to multiple recipients ("spam"), nor to
- >send messages intended to harass or annoy any person ("mail bombing").
- >If you send any messages in violation of this section, you agree to
- >pay I.E.C.C., the operator of abuse.net, a processing fee of $100 per
- >message plus any attorneys' fees and collection costs. You agree that
- >this processing fee is reasonable in view of the work involved and
- >resources expended in the handling of such messages.
- >
- >3. You agree that although abuse.net attempts to deliver all validly
- >addressed messages to an appropriate administrator, it makes no
- >promises about whether, when, or to whom your messages will be
- >delivered. You agree that abuse.net may keep copies of any messages
- >received from you.
- >
- >4. You agree that these terms are binding on you from the time you
- >send a message accepting them. You agree that if you subsequently
- >decide not to accept these terms, you will send no more messages to
- >abuse.net.
- >
- >Regards,
- >John Levine, abuse-meister
-
- ------------------------------
-
- Date: Wed, 19 Feb 1997 19:56:08 +0000
- From: David Smith <bladex@bga.com>
- Subject: File 4--(Fwd) conference - policing the internet, report
-
- Felipe Rodriguez, managing director of an Internet provider in the
- Netherlands, wrote the following report concerning a conference
- entitled "Policing the Internet"
-
- ------- Forwarded Message Follows -------
-
- From--felipe@xs4all.nl ()
- Date--17 Feb 1997 10:26:23 GMT
-
- Conference report - Policing the Internet
-
- The conference was organized by the Association of London Government.
- The aim of the conference was to define a European approach to
- combating pornography and violence on the Internet. I was invited by a
- friend, Prof. A. Dirkzwager, who was attending the conference for the
- Dutch digital citizens movement, and thought I would also be interested
- in attending.
-
- The speakers of the conference included five radical feminist
- activists, three police officers, representatives from the European
- parliament, British Telecom and the British Internet Watch foundation;
- an organization that is supposed to start regulating providers.
-
- Here is a short report of some of the content at the conference, the
- report is by no means complete but gives an indication of the
- color and tone of this conference.
-
- The agenda of the radical feminist speakers at the conference was a
- protest against pornography in general. These respected women activists
- argued for a complete ban on pornography inside and outside the
- Internet, referring to the damage that pornography causes to women. An
- endless amount of examples of pornography, child-pornography and other
- adult content was made, usually making no distinction between them.
- Most called for tough controls on the Internet, to prevent the
- distribution of adult material, even if this material would be legal in
- the non-digital society. It was said that Internet technology will lead
- to an escalation of violations of womens rights, and that free-speech
- absolutism is setting the standard on the Net. The argument of
- censorship on the Net was countered by speaker Nel van Dijk, member of
- the European parliament. She gave a pro-speech and anti-censorship
- lecture, defending democratic values and civil liberties and noting
- that England lacked a constitution and legal guarantees that protect
- freedom of speech and other civil liberties.
-
- Martin Jauch, superintendent of the metropolitan police, clubs and
- vice, gave the most revealing lecture of the conference. He explained
- how British providers where threatened by his unit, in order to censor
- their newsfeed. The providers where assembled and where told that if
- they would not comply with the demands of Jauchs unit, their offices
- would be raided, and essential equipment would be confiscated as
- evidence. This is the British interpretation of industry
- self-regulation, if the providers do not comply with the demands of the
- police, theyll be prosecuted.These methods resulted in a removal of a
- number of adult newsgroups, like alt.sex.anal, on the servers of
- British providers. It did not matter that most of the articles in these
- groups would not be considered a violation of British law, the groups
- had to be completely removed.
-
- Martin Jauch went on to stress the importance of rating and labeling
- systems, and the need for filtering information that would be
- considered offensive to some. An important justification against all
- forms of pornography in Martins speech seemed to be that this material
- is being used to desensitize children before theyre being abused by
- child-abusers. And that women where often used against their will to
- produce pornography. An argument that was repeatedly stressed at the
- conference was that kids use the Internet, and that they may be
- confronted with al this harmful content. Martin made it very clear
- that any information on the Internet that was illegal under British
- Law would not be allowed by him on the Net and must be banned by
- self-regulation of providers. Martin did not say what would be done
- about information thats illegal in Britain, but not in other countries,
- like Holland and Sweden. If providers do not comply with the demands of
- Martins unit, they may be liable for prosecution, and his unit will
- bust their offices and take away their equipment. Under these threats
- providers have not much choice, other than comply with everything that
- theyre told. This is what is supposedly called selfregulation in
- England and Germany. At the start of his speech Martin said he was no
- expert about the Internet, and that in his opinion this did not matter;
- hed force the internet providers to comply with his demands and British
- law.
-
- Karlhein Moewes of the Munich police designed his speech to have a high
- impact. Without speaking much he showed slide after slide of
- child-pornography. His speech was obviously designed to arouse a
- feeling of disgust. After about 20 minutes of pictures of abused
- children and other violence he was requested by the conference chair to
- refrain from showing any further slides. Anyone that does not know
- anything about the Internet would believe it was full of these kind of
- pictures, and would not hesitate to immediately call for tough
- repression on the Net.
-
- Glyn Ford, member of the european parliament, gave a lecture about
- the current developments in the european parliament. Currently a
- draft report is being made about policing the Net, this report will
- be finished in a few months and then most certainly implemented
- as european law. Policy will mostly be based upon a previously
- published paper, Illegal and harmful content on the Internet.
- Glyn Ford can be emailed for information about how to receive the
- latest draft-policy report, his email address is
- glynford.euromp@zen.co.uk.
-
- Overall the conference seemed to stress the importance of policing the
- Internet, although most speakers where not very experienced Net users.
- It seems clear that the British want to implement a policy of industry
- selfregulation and content labelling and filtering. To ensure the
- effectiveness of this policy the British want to implement these
- policies in a European context. It seems that this goal is being
- heavily promoted in the european parliament, and a substantial
- British lobby is going on to pursue the british agenda regarding
- the Internet.
-
- Some of the attendees courageously tried to defend the argument of
- free-speech, but where agressively countered by the chair of the
- conference with the words; but you cannot mean that you want to allow
- child pornography and smut on the Net ?!
-
- The chair of the conference, Sue Cameron, optimistically concluded that
- there was an obvious consensus that something had to be done about the
- smut on the Internet. I may have missed this process of consensus;
- three of the speakers were absolutely not prepared to endorse
- censorship of the Net, and none of the attendees I spoke to was
- prepared to endorse this so called consensus. In a private conversation
- with Ms. Cameron after the conference she admitted to hardly ever
- having used the Net.
-
- --
- Felipe Rodriquez - XS4ALL Internet - finger felipe@xs4all.nl for
- - Managing Director - pub pgp-key 1024/A07C02F9
-
- ------------------------------
-
- Date: 21 Feb 1997 00:46:31 GMT
- From: hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com (Lisa or Jeff)
- Subject: File 5--Sanford Wallace (the "Spam King") to Start Own Spam Service
-
- ((MODERATORS' NOTE: The next two posts come from TELECOM Digest,
- V 17, #48. TELECOM Digest is an electronic journal devoted
- mostly but not exclusively to telecommunications topics. It is
- circulated anywhere there is email, in addition to various
- telecom forums on a variety of public service systems and
- networks including Compuserve and America On Line. It is also
- gatewayed to Usenet where it appears as the moderated newsgroup
- 'comp.dcom.telecom'.
- Subscriptions are available to qualified organizations and individual
- readers. Write and tell us how you qualify:
- * ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu *
- ======
-
- The {Philadelphia Inquirer} reported (2/19/97, Business Page 1) that
- Sanford Wallace, notorious for his unsuccessful court actions against
- Compuserve and AOL, will open his own service for mass mailings.
-
- Most online services and ISPs prohibit bulk e-mailings and will terminate
- such customers.
-
- Wallace is president of Cyber Promotions. He charges $50 for a 3 line
- ad packed with other ads, to $2,500 for a one-time 40 line exclusive
- e-mail addresses Wallace has amassed. [I can't believe paying
- customers respond to these things, at least enough to pay the cost.]
-
- Some critics say unsolicited e-mail should be deemed illegal under the
- federal regulations that prohibit unsolicited faxes. [Sounds good to
- me!] Private Citizen, a 2,000 member junk-mail fighting organization
- in Naperville, Ill, has set up a WWW page (http://www.ctct.com) where
- those who wish to be removed from Cyber Promotions' mailing list can
- leave their email addresses. Wallace said he was cooperating with
- them.
-
- IMHO, such guys like Wallace ought to be thrown in jail for
- trespassing. Unlike a letter mailed to my house or business, which
- costs me nothing, email DOES cost me. I pay for my online time, and
- time spent filtering through junk email and Usenet posts costs me. If
- my ISP has to increase his system size to accomodate the increased
- junk traffic, those costs get passed on to me. It is well known that
- junk email clogs the Internet because (1) a lot of messages are
- undeliverable from old addresses and generate returns, and (2) the
- spammers use forged headers, so the returned mail (and complaints from
- recipients) get bounced back. So, what starts out as a single message
- can mushroom, and we Internet users are paying for it.
-
- Wallace has also shown incredible arrogance and disrespect to people.
- He has filed lawsuits (and lost) demanding he be allowed to invade
- private space.
-
- ------------------------------
-
- Date: Thu, 20 Feb 1997 10:32:57 EST
- From: Danny Burstein <dannyb@panix.com>
- Subject: File 6--Cyber Promotions, Evil, Evil, EVIL
-
-
- Per an Associated Press story 20-Feb-1997:
-
- New Network Makes Bulk E-Mail Easy
-
- By JENNIFER BROWN Associated Press Writer
-
- PHILADELPHIA (AP) -- It's about to get much easier for advertisers
- to send junk e-mail on the Internet.
-
- Cyber Promotions Inc. will launch the first bulk e-mail friendly
- Internet provider in the nation on March 17. It will allow computer
- users to send millions of commercial ads -- also known as spam -- for
- a single monthly fee.
-
- (The article continues with a discussion of how spammers are frowned
- upon by most ISPs and how they get their accounts canceled left and
- right as soon as they start their little pursuits.)
-
- "What people are doing is jumping around from one (Internet
- provider) toanother, and they don't have a secure home. We're
- going to give them a home," said Cyber Promotion founder Sanford
- Wallace.
-
- (snip)
-
- Wallace, known as the "Spam King," said Cyber Promotions is an
- extension of the Inter
-
-