December 2003 - cypherpunks-legacy

[RRE]The Return of Antimasonism in American Political Life
by Robert Hettinga 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

--- begin forwarded text Date: Fri, 30 Oct 1998 17:59:29 -0800 (PST) From: Phil Agre <pagre(a)alpha.oac.ucla.edu> To: "Red Rock Eater News Service" <rre(a)lists.gseis.ucla.edu> Subject: [RRE]The Return of Antimasonism in American Political Life Sender: <rre(a)lists.gseis.ucla.edu> Precedence: Bulk List-Subscribe: <mailto:rre-on@lists.gseis.ucla.edu> Conspiracy and Reason: The Return of Antimasonism in American Political Life Phil Agre http://dlis.gseis.ucla.edu/ (I wrote this back in the spring, but it seems even more relevant now.) When going to the movies, my favorite part is afterward, walking back out into the world, seeing everything through the prism of the movie. After seeing Terry Gilliam's bizarre "12 Monkeys", for example, I drove across San Diego in the grip of a delusion that I was Bruce Willis, warning Cassandra-like about a catastophe that nobody wanted to hear about. Of course it didn't make sense. Am I really warning anyone about a catastrophe? Is nobody really listening? But that's how it felt for a good couple of hours. I got that feeling again this afternoon. For the last few months, in amongst my official duties, I have been reading the literature on apocalytic social movements. I was originally inspired in this by David Noble's book "The Religion of Technology". Noble observes, for example, that many of the important early engineers, particularly in the United States, were Masons, and he describes the development of a particular kind of millennialism -- or at least a secularized form of religious utopianism -- among engineers that became secularized and formed the outlines of technical movements such as artificial intelligence and -- he might as well have added -- cyberspace. As part of this reading campaign, earlier this week I read large parts of Robert Fuller's "Naming the Antichrist", which is a history of social movements in the United States that, from earliest colonial times to the present, have claimed to identify the Antichrist that is mentioned briefly in the visionary books of the Bible. In reading Fuller's book, all at once it occurred to me that the ongoing tidal wave of accusations and innuendoes against Bill Clinton and his entire generation resemble nothing so much as Antimasonism. The similarities are most striking: both involve attempts to foment hatred by ordinary people against their slightly better-off and more cosmopolitan fellow citizens by implicating them in an enormous Conspiracy. Even the fine details of the accusations are similar: in each case, for example, the conspirators are said to undermine religion and promote decadence through the public schools. This analogy impressed me for a while, but then I cooled down. Even when an analogy is instructive, one should determine its limits. After all, nobody is claiming that Bill Clinton is mounting his vast campaign of murder, drug dealing, treason, and bank fraud on behalf of the Illuminati, right? And with that thought I filed the whole thing in my notebook. That was Tuesday. This afternoon, Friday, I happened to pass through a Barnes and Noble in Costa Mesa, California. I was there because the bookstore has a public restroom and is on the way to the most excellent El Toro Bravo taco stand, which does not. Briefly inspecting the "New Non-Fiction Books" shelves as is my custom, I noticed a new book by Tony Brown. Its title, "Empower the People", was not so promising, given that I've already read quite a few books by conservative authors about how the free market empowers people to make choices etc etc etc. Yet something poked at me to look closer, and I saw the subtitle: "A 7-Step Plan to Overthrow the Conspiracy That Is Stealing Your Money and Freedom". I opened the book and found to my utter slack-jawed amazement that it described none other than the great Conspiracy by the Illuminati, led by Bill Clinton. I am not making this up. Now, if the author of this book were a fringe crazy then it would only be mildly odd to find the book in Barnes and Noble. Just the other day I sat on the floor in the Barnes and Noble at Pico and Westwood in Los Angeles and read large parts of a well-produced volume entitled "A Woman Rides the Beast" by Dave Hunt, which argues that the woman seen riding on the back of the Beast in the Book of Revelation is none other than the Virgin Mary as she is worshipped in the Catholic Church. (This is part of a resurgence of anti-Catholicism among some American evangelical Protestants that deserves much more attention than it has gotten -- see, for example, Michael W. Smith singing on a recent record, amidst a lamentation of various sins, of people who are "jaded by hypocrisies behind cathedral walls"). This is the sort of fringe weirdness that is easy to write off. But the author of "Empower the People", Tony Brown, is not a marginal crazy. I hate to be the one to break this to you, but the United States is now a country in which a man who believes that the President is an agent of the Illuminati has a regular program on public television. What are we to make of this? Several things. First, in the astonishing climate of political warfare now under way in the United States, when the speaker of the House insinuates in a speech at Stanford University that the President is systematically killing his enemies (NY Times 5/3/98) and nobody finds this even slightly odd, we have to confront the fact that in the late 18th century, during the formative decades of the political culture of the United States, this country was positively addled by conspiracy theories. These theories were not prominent in the writings of the educated secular elites who officially founded the country. But the rank and file of the Revolution were animated in large part (though not, of course, solely) by elaborate claims to have located the Antichrist in the crown and church of England, and in their adherents in America. Nor the American cultural inclination to conspiracy theories end with the Constitution. As the new country fought its first round of political conflicts, the theories suddenly shifted their attention -- to the Masons. This happened precisely 200 years ago, in fact, in 1798, when the first tracts appeared describing the great Conspiracy of the Illuminati, a subgroup of the Masons from Bavaria. After smouldering for several years, opposition to this Conspiracy became a substantial social movement beginning around 1830 in the "burned-over district" of upstate New York, so-called because of the waves of evangelical religious enthusiasm that had swept over the area. (Madison probably had an earlier wave of revivals, the First Great Awakening, in mind when he expressed relief in the famous tenth Federalist Paper that social movements that rise up in one part of the country, particularly religious movements that devolve into political ones, cannot easily spread to other areas.) The Antimasonic movement became a political party which contested several elections before collapsing a decade later. You will recall that many early American engineers were Masons, as were many of the Founding Fathers. But who exactly were the Masons? The Masons originated as a medieval guild, but during the period in question they were a semi-secret society of white men who constituted themselves on classical Greek and Roman models as the intellectual elites of their respective countries. In this sense, Antimasonism was very much a revolt against educated people. That it was also a revolt against the same people who founded the country was, so far as I can determine, little-noted at the time. It is often observed that cultural patterns are able to go underground for decades or centuries, only to spring fully-formed to the surface once again, as if they were brand new, when the time is right. And that, I would suggest, is what's happening now. If this were the late 18th century, white men who rose through education from relatively poor backgrounds -- men such as Bill Clinton -- would be spinning classical political philosophies and writing the Constitution, and conservative evangelical ministers would be spinning conspiracy theories and opposing the Constitution on the grounds that (quite the opposite of what many such ministers say today) it does not create a Christian nation. The vigorous but ideologically vague patriotism of the contemporary anti- government movement likewise corresponds to the equally vague ideas of the 18th century conspiracy theorists. In drawing out these parallels, I am particularly struck by the place of technology in American political culture. The early engineers -- the men who founded the country's original technological institutions -- were largely Masons, and popular reactionary movements in the United States have increasingly incorporated technological themes into their theories. Computers, for example, play an important role in conspiracy theories based on the Book of Revelation. Viewed superficially, these theories sometimes seem to resemble the much more serious ideas of privacy and civil liberties advocates. My experience, however, is that the people who spin such theories are indifferent to accurate information about the nature and use of computers, no matter how unsettling; their concern with the technology is much more symbolic. In my view, a critical turning point in American cultural constructions of information technology occurred in the 1970's, in the wake of the Vietnam war. This cultural shift has been brilliantly documented by James W. Gibson's "Warrior Dreams: Paramilitary Culture in Post-Vietnam America" (1994). The Vietnam war, Gibson observes, was organized largely by men from elite institutions who believed in formal rationality and made heavy use of mathematical decision-making models. They lost, and there arose in the aftermath of that loss an important cultural narrative that was best captured by Sylvester Stallone's "Rambo". Rambo is a lone individual who keeps fighting despite having been betrayed by decadent institutions. Cold War heroes, by contrast, may have been ambivalent about their institutions, but they were insiders -- they were part of the institution. Rambo is an outsider. He has two enemies, the "official" enemy and the institution itself. This figure of the betrayed and wounded hero fighting two enemies has become deeply engraved in American culture. Constrast, for example, the original Cold War era (1966-1969) "Mission: Impossible" television series and the 1996 movie version starring Tom Cruise. In the television version, the government is completely unquestioned, but for Tom Cruise, the CIA is the enemy as well. Rambo epitomized a new cultural construction of masculinity, set against institutions rather than identifying with them. And technology was identified with the institutions. This helps to explain why Hollywood has apparently decided that computers and rationality are feminine domains. (Think, for example, of "The X-Files".) Cultures often define men as "outside" of something and women as "inside"; what varies is the something. In this case, the something is the institutional world, technology and all. The Rambo phenomenon also helps to explain the otherwise mysterious shift that took place during the 1980's in prevailing cultural constructions of computer hackers: the original hackers were comfortably identified with military-sponsored research institutions, but then the word "hacker" suddenly shifted around to refer to men, whether bad criminals or virtuous rebels, who were outside of and opposed to institutions. This, in turn, helps explain the peculiar divide on the political right between those cultural conservatives -- the inheritors of the Antimasonites -- who persist in identifying technology with oppressive institutions and a demographically narrow but highly educated group of libertarians who have redefined technology as an instrument for the destruction of institutions. The point here is not that Rambo appeared from nowhere. Quite the contrary, "Rambo"'s construction of the Vietnam war drew upon and revalued elements of American historical memory that have been handed down, for the most part unconsciously, by all sorts of mechanisms throughout the country's history. And once it did, neoconservative intellectuals such as Irving Kristol set about reinterpreting those cultural forms in terms of their "New Class" political strategy. That phrase, "New Class", was originally applied by Milovan Djilas in his analysis of the bureaucrats who consolidated their power in the Soviet Union. True to the ideologies of Lenin and Stalin, these people were drawn primarily from the lower strata of Russian society, semi-educated and selected through the Soviet examination system (itself originally derived, via European variants, from the classical Chinese system), and installed in positions of power that they proceeded to consolidate over several decades. The neoconservatives' strategy is to portray American liberals as an analogue of the Soviet New Class and to use the money of the rich to mobilize working people against professionals and the poor. This helps to explain why conservative rhetoric virtually never discloses the existence of working-class liberals, and why the party that enjoys the overwhelming support of wealthy Americans persists in appropriating generations of left-wing rhetoric to portray liberals as a wealthy "elite". (It's bad to foment envy against the rich, apparently, but not against college professors.) This whole strategy succeeds in large part because of the whole historical inheritance of Antimasonism and its successive generations of descendents. The liberals, in short, are the new Masons. In his history of German intellectual life in the era that led up to the Nazis, Georg Lukacs spoke of a "destruction of reason" -- a step- by-step demolition of rational thought that became possible as Germans found themselves willing to project more and more and more of their own negative impulses into a vast enemy. Tony Brown's "Empower the People", it seems to me, is one very clear step in a destruction of reason that is currently far along in the United States. Antimasonism is the American equivalent of fascism, and Antimasonism is coming back. Will the relatively rational antiliberalism of neoconservative intellectuals be drowned by the unfortunate tradition of conspiratoralism upon which it draws its emotional force? That, it seems to me, is an urgent question for our country right now. end --- end forwarded text ----------------- Robert A. Hettinga <mailto: rah(a)philodox.com> Philodox Financial Technology Evangelism <http://www.philodox.com/> 44 Farquhar Street, Boston, MA 02131 USA "... however it may deserve respect for its usefulness and antiquity, [predicting the end of the world] has not been found agreeable to experience." -- Edward Gibbon, 'Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire'

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Company Press Release - Oct. 29
by info＠innovativetx.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Thursday October 29, 12:55 pm Eastern Time Company Press Release SOURCE: Innovative Tracking Solutions Corp. Innovative Tracking Solutions Joins Forces With Leading Medical Experts; Private Practice Protocols to be Introduced in 4th Qtr 1998 LAGUNA HILLS, Calif., Oct. 29 /PRNewswire/ -- Innovative Tracking Solutions Corp. (OTC Bulletin Board: IVTX - news) announced today that it has teamed up with three leading experts in three significant areas of expertise, Incontinence, Woundcare and Injury Prevention/Ergonomics to develop and implement three new protocols for the Private Practice(TM) Vibration Reminder System for specific applications of the product in their respective fields. The Private Practice(TM) Vibration Reminder Disk is worn on the body or in the pocket and automatically, consistently and silently vibrates at specific intervals throughout the day to prompt or remind patients to do their prescribed therapy regimen at home, work or wherever they may be. The product is currently being used in the healthcare industry for over 50 applications from post-surgical to biofeedback. ``In addition to general rehabilitation, we have isolated three of the most significant and prevalent problems and situations in which our product has the most impact,'' stated Dianna Cleveland, president and CEO of Innovative Tracking Solutions. ``We are honored to have these well-known experts spearheading the development of these new protocols which will help professionals in these fields to more quickly and effectively implement the Private Practice(TM) system with their patients and clients.'' In Incontinence Therapy: Genevieve Messick, M.D., was an integral team member in the development of a behavioral incontinence program that is delivered in over sixty clinics throughout the country. The program carries an 80 percent success rate for eliminating incontinence symptoms in properly selected patients. Dr. Messick currently has her own practice, received her B.S. from John Caroll University in Cleveland, Ohio and graduated cum laude from Ohio State University College of Medicine in Columbus, Ohio. Dr. Messick has recently received a patent for a device for the treatment of pelvic floor dysfunction and she is a member of AOA (Alpha Omega Alpha -- a national medical honor society). ``We are thrilled to have Dr. Messick's expertise and enthusiasm behind this project. She is a prominent and respected expert in her field and she clearly envisions the dramatic impact our product will have in addressing the problem of incontinence which afflicts more than 13 million Americans,'' stated Scott Postle, vice president, Healthcare Division of Innovative Tracking Solutions. ``Over 80 percent of cases of urinary incontinence can be cured or improved with proper training and compliance with Kegel exercise therapy. Private Practice(TM) is a natural extension to these therapies, including biofeedback.'' ``After finding out about the Private Practice(TM) Vibration Reminder Disk, we immediately began prescribing the device to our patients,'' said Dr. Messick. ``We have had a positive response from our patients and I am excited about working with Innovative Tracking Solutions in developing this protocol.'' In Wound Care: Evonne Fowler, RN, CNS, CWOCN (Certified Wound Ostomy Continence Nurse), is President of Dynamic New Directions, an educational and consulting company in Banning, Calif. She is a Clinical Nurse Specialist in Gerontology having graduated from the UCLA School of Nursing. Ms. Fowler is currently in practice as a Wound/Skin Care Specialist at Kaiser Permanente Hospital, Bellflower, Calif., where she manages the Chronic Wound Care Center. She serves on the Editorial Board for Ostomy/Wound Management and chairs the Annual Advanced Wound Care Symposium sponsored by Health Management Publications, Inc., and is a founding board member and President of the newly formed Association for the Advancement of Wound Care (AAWC). The AAWC is a multidisciplinary organization whose mission is to facilitate optimal care for people with wounds. She is also a past member of the National Pressure Ulcer Advisory Panel (NPUAP). ``Working with Evonne has been quite illuminating. Her 25 plus years in wound care nursing and vast knowledge of the challenges that exist in Ostomy/Wound Care today has been instrumental in developing our Wound Care Protocol,'' said Mr. Postle. ``I'm a true believer in that preventing pressure ulcers is much easier than treating them once they develop. It's simply a matter of frequent and consistent repositioning or 'unweighting' throughout the day,'' stated Ms. Fowler. ``This little disk is so effective in prompting bedridden or wheelchair-bound patients to do this repositioning that I expect it to save the healthcare industry tremendous dollars in wound care!'' In Work Injury Prevention and Ergonomics: Michael S. Melnik, M.S., O.T.R., owner and president of Minneapolis-based Prevention Plus, Inc., has authored and co-authored several works on Cumulative Trauma Disorder (CTD), back injury and other current ergonomic related issues. He has consulted for firms such as Fluor Daniel, Pepsi-Cola, Wal-Mart and United Airlines, to name a just a few. Mr. Melnik is an Occupational Therapist with an advanced degree in exercise physiology from the University of Illinois. His area of expertise includes Employee Education/Training, Ergonomics Programs, Job Site Stretching and Warm-Up Programs. ``Mr. Melnik's practical approach to injury prevention fits extremely well with our company philosophy. He is well respected in the industry and a very charismatic speaker which is sure to have the industry buzzing about our product,'' commented Cleveland. ``His knowledge and expertise will bring a pragmatic focus to the products' applications for all types of work environments for all types of companies.'' ``I am excited at the Private Practice(TM) product and the possibilities it holds to compliment what has been my passion for the last 10 years; inviting positive changes in behavior,'' stated Mr. Melnik. ``At Prevention Plus, we are always looking for more ways to improve the work environment and to promote safety and awareness on the job. I truly believe the Private Practice(TM) system is a cutting edge solution that makes a great deal of sense for most companies today. I am confident that many will add this simple product to their existing injury prevention and ergonomic programs and that it will give growing companies the ''jump start`` they need to finally begin a program they can afford.'' Based in Laguna Hills, CA, Innovative Tracking Solutions innovates, designs, and develops sophisticated, yet simple products that have broad ranges of applications. The rapid growth of the company's Healthcare Products Division is a result of aggressive R&D and marketing, solid relationships with companies within the healthcare infrastructure, and a consistent focus on pioneering extensions to current healthcare services with a multitude of product applications. For more information regarding IVTX or the Private Practice(TM) Vibration Reminder Disk, call 1-888-4REMEMBER (473-6362) or visit the company's website: http://www.innovativetx.com or hyperlink http://www.privatepractice.com. SOURCE: Innovative Tracking Solutions Corp.

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Re: network computers, web TV, java
by blancink 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

>From Vlad ze Nurdi, who knows knows *Everything*: >I know what you're doing.... > >well you WON'T GET AWAY WITH IT-- mark my words, you >@#%^&* gatesasskissers!!!!! > >gates REALLY IS AN EVIL, PETTY MAN >it's just that he's managed to hide it from the world ............................................................ Do you have some kind of emergency which requires that you get a web TB with java Real Soon Now, but that stinkin' rotten billg is making life hard on you? Like there aren't other companies working in this market as well, and will jump at the opportunity to include features left out by their competitors (in particular, Microsoft) for the benefit of whiners like you? It's not like he (or the other companies working on this project) *owe* it to you, you know. It's more like you have to wait for someone to come up with the idea, then to do all the work of putting it together, then you have to decide whether you want it, then you put your money down. You're so juvenile. But so amusing. .. Blanc

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IP: [FP] R 141331Z-OCT-98 DNA SPECIMEN COLLECTION PROGRAM
by Vladimir Z. Nuri 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

From: "ScanThisNews" <mcdonalds(a)airnet.net> Subject: IP: [FP] R 141331Z-OCT-98 DNA SPECIMEN COLLECTION PROGRAM Date: Sat, 31 Oct 1998 20:59:51 -0600 To: ignition-point(a)majordomo.pobox.com SCAN THIS NEWS 10/31/98 Forwarded message: -------------------------------- I am a government contractor and have had my problems with this enumeration demonization and now find that the alarms are rising. A close friend of mine, who is a government employee sent this copy of an unclassified message from the Commander of Naval Surface Pacific Command to all forces of the Pacific command. Undoubtedly, this is also true for the Atlantic Fleet as well as the rest of the military under the control of the Commander in Chief. I think Ayn Rand was correct when she said, "Justice vanished from the country when the gold coins vanished from the country's hands." It appears that sooner than not, we will "not be able to buy or sell except he that has the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name. Here is wisdom. Let he that has understanding calculate the number of the beast: for it is the number of a man [His DNA?]; and his number is 666." [the helical make-up?] Revelations 13: 17 & 18. May God grant us the wisdom we all need for discernment in this matter. F E -------------------------------- Subject: R 141331Z-OCT-98 DNA SPECIMEN COLLECTION PROGRAM R 141331Z OCT 98 ZYB PSN 475808S32 FM COMNAVSURFPAC SAN DIEGO CA//N01M// TO NAVSURFPAC INFO RHHMHAH/CINCPACFLT PEARL HARBOR HI//N01M// BT UNCLAS //N01320//PASS TO MEDICAL DEPT REPRESENTATIVES MSGID/GENADMIN/N01M// SUBJ/DNA SPECIMEN COLLECTION PROGRAM// REF/A/RMG/COMNAVSURFPAC/101331Z/JUN98// REF/B/RMG/CINCLANTFLT/021630Z/JUN98// NARR/REF A IS READD MSG FROM BOTH CINCS REGARDING THE DNA SPECIMEN COLLECTION PROGRAM. REF B PROVIDED GUIDANCE ON HOW TO QUERY THE ARMED FORCES INSTITUTE OF PATHOLOGY (AFIP) DATABASE.// POC/A.C. ABAD, HMCM(SW)/CNSP/N01M2/-/TEL:(619)437-2326 /TEL:DSN 577-2326// RMKS/1. THE PURPOSE OF THIS MSG IS TO ALERT ALL COMNAVSURFPAC UNITS TO THE REQUIREMENT TO REPORT THE STATUS OF THEIR DNA SPECIMEN COLLECTION PROGRAM TO THE TYCOM. PER REFS A AND B, ALL UNITS ARE REQUESTED TO SUBMIT REPORTS OF COMPLETION OF DNA SPECIMEN COLLECTION TO CNSP NLT 31 OCT 98. ALL UNITS SHOULD HAVE 100 PERCENT [PAGE 02 RUEDMCA0441 UNCLAS] OF THEIR CREW REGISTERED IN THE ARMED FORCES REPOSITORY OF SPECIMEN SAMPLES FOR THE IDENTIFICATION OF REMAINS (AFRSSIR) AT AFIP. 2. FOR QUESTIONS OR CLARIFICATIONS, PLS CONTACT POC. // BT #0441 NNNN RTD:000-000/COPIES: ======================================================================= Don't believe anything you read on the Net unless: 1) you can confirm it with another source, and/or 2) it is consistent with what you already know to be true. ======================================================================= Reply to: <fingerprint(a)networkusa.org> ======================================================================= To subscribe to the free Scan This News newsletter, send a message to <majordomo(a)efga.org> and type "subscribe scan" in the BODY. Or, to be removed type "unsubscribe scan" in the message BODY. For additional instructions see www.efga.org/about/maillist.html ----------------------------------------------------------------------- "Scan This News" is Sponsored by S.C.A.N. Host of the "FIGHT THE FINGERPRINT!" web page: www.networkusa.org/fingerprint.shtml ======================================================================= **************************************************** To subscribe or unsubscribe, email: majordomo(a)majordomo.pobox.com with the message: (un)subscribe ignition-point email@address or (un)subscribe ignition-point-digest email@address **************************************************** www.telepath.com/believer ****************************************************

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Entropy
by Matt Fitzpatrick 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 Hello out there. I propose a question to the Cypherpunks community. Other than the infamous Claude Shannon paper published in '49 in the Bell Systems Technical Journal "Communications Theory of Secrecy Systems", I am looking for a good (maybe a more layman level, published in the last decade or so, and available on the web) paper describing the relationship between entropy (of information systems) and secure communication. If no-one has any good suggestions, maybe you could email me with your favorite number or color or size of pants. Just kidding, what I am really interested in is, is how much Jelllo you can fit in your left sock. Or hell, send me your most provocative pictures of Margaret Thatcher in the nude. I am, in my uneducated state of fourth-year mathematics major at Antioch College, attempting a research project in the field of cryptography, and would appreciate citations of sources you consider significant developments in the field of cryptography, in the last 50 years or so. But your flammability has nothing to do with this request for information at all. So, goddamnit, thanks for your help. Matthew Sommers Fitzpatrick fnord(a)antioch-college.edu http://antioch-college.edu/~fnord/ -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: PGPfreeware 6.0 for non-commercial use <http://www.pgp.com> iQA/AwUBNjlopHlvMHCiUH52EQJD0QCg7QTES6BZRfJUDUx9+VCQmySuzMMAnRFb OJLWPgZBBHYn4MP87QVrSW2f =SvDu -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----

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17 Dec '03

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17 Dec '03

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Usenet Under Siege
by Eric Cordian 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Interesting developments in the election year attempts by New York State Attorney General Dennis Vacco to create legal liability for ISPs over Usenet content, particularly alleged child porn. Over the past few years, a number of national news providers, under pressure from various self-declared "child advocates," have filtered out articles from their feeds whose newsgroup names suggested that depictions of the sexuality of minors were topical. Given that Usenet routes around censorship, that a "newsgroup" is not a tangible entity, but simply one line on a Usenet article which attempts to roughly categorize it, and that the Usenet newsgroup namespace is practically infinite, such attempts to curtail the topics discussed in the worldwide real-time conversation that is Usenet have been laughably unsuccessful. While uncensored Usenet feeds are still the standard most customers demand, this content-based pruning of the daily newsfeed by some ISPs has provided the opportunity for some in law enforcement to characterize uncensored news servers as some sort of outlaw minority. Law enforcement is now trying to use such representations as a pretense to erode the notion that ISPs should enjoy common carrier status for content they do not originate. It therefore came as no surprise when Dennis Vacco, the incumbent New York Attorney General, and an individual who has built his reputation with numerous publicity stunts revolving around sexual vices featuring those under the legal age of majority, seized the news servers of Dreamscape and Buffnet in a highly publicized raid, accompanied by simultaneous press releases and Web pages, announcing that he had broken up an "International Child Pornography Ring." 13 individuals in several countries were also arrested on various possession, trafficking, and promotion charges involving illegal erotica. The fallacies in Vacco's spewage were innumerably large. There was the absurd idea that a running gag in one newsgroup involving a mythical "Pedo University" indicated the existence of a "virtual academic institution devoted to the sexual abuse of children." Vacco also seemed to believe that individual Usenet newsgroups were owned and operated by specific individuals, and that certain newgroups were "providing services" to the aforementioned imaginary academic institution. In reality, no one owns or operates a Usenet newsgroup, and any individual may post anything he likes to any newsgroup at any time, either anonymously, or with identifying information attached. Dennis Vacco's clueless attack on the global Usenet may in fact backfire, as there is presently serious discussion over a possible three day protest, in which all traffic destined for the groups targetted by Vacco will be posted instead to alt.law-enforcement. Vacco's plans to undermine claims of common carrier status for ISP's can be found in his following statements. "Most Internet service providers choose not to carry news groups that cater to the interests of child porn traffickers for obvious reasons. "Those that do are well aware of their nature and purpose, possess the offensive images on their servers, and facilitate the transfer and trading of child pornography." CNET News.com provides the following article by Paul Festa giving further information on the attempts to criminally charge ISPs over Usenet content, available on their web site. ISPs may face charges over child porn By Paul Festa Staff Writer, CNET News.com October 30, 1998, 5:35 p.m. PT A few exerpts... As many as five Internet service providers may face serious legal charges for providing access to newsgroups used by child pornographers in cases that critics are calling election-eve politics. New York Attorney General Dennis Vacco won praise this week for his role in an international crackdown on an online child pornography ring. But critics have accused Vacco, up for reelection Tuesday, of breaking the law and playing politics in probing two New York state ISPs as part of the crackdown and seizing their newsgroup servers. Three more ISPs--two on the West Coast and one in the Midwest--are likely to receive search warrants in coming weeks, the attorney general's office told CNET News.com today. ... Law enforcement officials have not arrested or charged anyone affiliated with the ISPs. But the businesses, which provided access to the newsgroups, are under investigation for what Vacco's office describes as the knowing possession of criminal images. "The servers were confiscated as part of ongoing investigation," said Marc Wurzel, spokesman for the attorney general. "The ISPs were in possession of illegal images of children engaged in sex acts. In both cases, they were forewarned that they were in possession of illegal images." The notification came in the form of an email inquiry sent by an undercover agent. The agent posed as a student wanting to know whether he would run afoul of the law by downloading child pornography he had found through the newsgroups. A third New York ISP, located in Albany, responded to the undercover inquiries by suspending the newsgroups. As a result, that ISP is not under investigation, Wurzel said. ... Coincidentally, Congress recently passed the Child Protection and Sexual Predator Punishment Act, which would make ISPs responsible for turning in their customers. Under that legislation, access providers who fail to report child pornography once they are made aware of it could be fined up to $50,000 for the first violation and up to $100,000 for each subsequent time they fail to contact law enforcement authorities. ... Vacco has pulled ahead in what only a few weeks ago was a tight race for reelection. In a New York Times-CBS poll taken in the first week of October, Republican Vacco and Democratic opponent Eliot Spitzer were statistically tied in their race for the state's top law enforcement spot. According to a Times-CBS poll released this week, Vacco is now ahead, 48 percent to 36 percent, with 14 percent of the voters undecided. -- Eric Michael Cordian 0+ O:.T:.O:. Mathematical Munitions Division "Do What Thou Wilt Shall Be The Whole Of The Law"

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Re: network computers, web TV, java
by Anonymous 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

At 01:31 AM 10/31/98 -0800, Vladimir Z. Nuri wrote: >hi BLANK >a company has a *reponsibility* to its customers. perhaps >you would care to deny that?? gates has a *responsibility* >to his customers. what is that responsibility? to create >products they want. to anticipate their needs. Wrong from go. The company has a responsibility to its owners, the shareholders typically. The customers are responsible to themselves for making the best purchases. Everything falls out of these.

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Privacy International announces Big Brother awards ( forwarded via CFD V2 # 670)
by Jean-Francois Avon 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Date: Sat, 31 Oct 1998 09:39:33 -0600 From: "Timothy Bloedow" <lydia(a)travel-net.com> Subject: Privacy International announces Big Brother awards BBC - October 27, 1998 Sci/Tech Watching Big Brother By Internet Correspondent Chris Nuttall The first annual awards defending the individual's right to privacy have been made at a ceremony in London. The 1998 UK Big Brother Awards were held on the 50th anniversary of the writing of George Orwell's novel, Nineteen Eighty-Four. The pressure group Privacy International announced winners it judged to be the modern-day equivalents of Big Brother in the novel, as well as individuals who had fought to protect privacy, awarding them Winstons, the name of the book's hero. Privacy awards to go global The academics, writers and lawyers who make up Privacy International concentrated their first awards on the UK, but plan to extend them to other countries over the next few years. Hosting the awards, the activist comedian Mark Thomas said eight other countries were interested in holding similar ceremonies next year. The director of Privacy International, Simon Davies, said the time was now right for the awards. "Surveillance has now become an inbuilt component of every piece of information technology on the planet, we've got a long way to go to wind the clock back. I think these awards are the beginning of a movement," he said. And the winners are ... The Big Brothers were given for a number of categories: Corporation: The British firm Procurement Services International received a Big Brother award for selling surveillance equipment to Nigeria, Turkey and Indonesia, three countries whose human rights records have been severely criticised. Local government: Newham Council in London won for using its 140 street cameras and facial-recognition software to try to pick out criminals in crowds. National government: The Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) was named a Big Brother over its plans for the police to have access through a third party to the keys to any information sent electronically that was locked by encryption. Product: Software by Harlequin that examines telephone records and is able to compare numbers dialled in order to group users into 'friendship networks' won this category. It avoids the legal requirements needed for phone tapping. Lifetime achievement award: Menwith Hill in Yorkshire, a listening station used by America's National Security Agency and described as the biggest US spy station in the world, won this special award. None of the winners were present to accept their awards. But a video was shown of a receptionist at Newham Council receiving a Big Brother earlier in the day and of several police dragging a Privacy International campaigner out of the DTI's headquarters after he had tried to present it. Winstons were awarded to three individuals, cited for campaigning at Menwith Hill, documenting police surveillance and pursuing a privacy case against a landlord who had installed a two-way mirror in a 19-year-old woman's flat. ? BBC ------------------------------ Jean-Francois Avon, B.Sc. Physics, Montreal, Canada DePompadour, Société d'Importation Ltée Limoges fine porcelain and french crystal JFA Technologies, R&D physicists & engineers Instrumentation & control, LabView programming PGP keys: http://bs.mit.edu:8001/pks-toplev.html PGP ID:C58ADD0D:529645E8205A8A5E F87CC86FAEFEF891 PGP ID:5B51964D:152ACCBCD4A481B0 254011193237822C

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