We have a Problem . . . H. Keith Henson Part of the Federal Government's law enforcement mechanism is under the control of the Religious Right. By reaching out thousands of miles through cyberspace connections, the RR is using Federal power to suppress constitutionally protected activities which they find offensive. I expect the RR people involved feel that what they are doing is fair return for Federal power being used to suppress the school Christmas pageant in a thousand sleepy little towns in middle America--and less dangerous than offing abortion doctors, or killing gays. Most of you reading these groups are familiar with the AA BBS case. In a nutshell, a postal inspector in Memphis called Amateur Action BBS in California, downloaded a dozen files, ordered other stuff, shipped the sysop some unsolicited kiddy porn, then arrested the sysop (Robert Thomas) and his wife (Carleen) for kiddy porn and (by Memphis standards) obscenity. They were tried in Memphis last summer by an obviously biased court. (The judge and prosecutor made no attempt to hide their longstanding mutual admiration.) The Memphis jury found the sysop and his wife guilty of obscenity, but even they couldn't buy the kiddy porn charges, and acquitted on that charge. Friday (Dec. 2, 1994), in the worst perversion of justice I have ever witnessed, the sysop and his wife were sentenced to three years. They were lucky to get that little time. I got a look at the pre-sentencing report. (I may be able to post some of it later.) The recommended sentence included about twice this amount of time based on the kiddy porn charge they were *acquitted* of. Those reports are simply *amazing*. They cover family members and history out a generation or so in all directions, not to mention school, medical records, tax filings, and any police record--even if you were found innocent! It seems to be the function of these things to put your entire life in the worst possible light. Someone should take the form and do one for Christ just prior to the Crucifixion. It would run something like: ". . . questionable father, . . low class occupation (carpenter), . . . accused of impersonating a doctor by healing sick, . . . known to associate with low class persons, . . . travels about (vagabond), . . ." Back to the problem. I find the situation intolerable--without having a clear idea of how to deal with it. With little more effort (though a lot more skill than the postal inspector demonstrated) the RR-controlled Feds can create crime and venue problems for just about anyone running a BBS or net node. Certainly *any* system which carries alt.sex.* is subject to the same treatment by the Religious Right (in the guise of the Memphis Feds) as AA BBS. In fact, the very .gifs that were found obscene in Memphis were made "freely distribute," by Robert and have been posted *many* times to the net. Could we use economic retaliation? I won't use Federal Express any more because it and Graceland (and the cat houses near Graceland) seem to be the economic mainstays of Memphis. Unfortunately, even a very effective economic boycott is not going to have an effect on the zealots, and depressing that area further might make it an even *more* repressive backwater because the last of the intelligent/tolerant people would move out. On the other hand, economic pressures might induce the more sensible part of the community to pressure the zealots into being more tolerant (at least of people 3 time zones away!). In recent years economic pressure has induced two states to change laws. A positive sign that economic pressure might be effective is that the local newspaper did *not* support the prosecution. Research question: Why did the Memphis Feds back off after the Deep Throat trials? Is the law any help? After nearly a year of watching the process, I am *quite* pessimistic. In its own way, the court system is deeply corrupt. I think even the RR folks know this is a political case and not a criminal one. In political cases, leaving a person out on bail during appeal is normal, but in this case, it is very much in the government's interest to have Robert out of circulation so he cannot pursue the Electronic Communication Privacy Act suit and other causes of action against them in civil court. Robert's motion for bail during appeal was denied. Are there political routes? Yes, but chancy. It is possible that a political fight with the RR might backfire and result in heavy restrictions on the nets. Coming down hard on the nets would be very popular with the Administration forces after the Clipper debacle. The power of the net to organize political force must be quite worrying to those in power. (It is clear to me that modern day revolutions, anywhere in the world, and peaceful or not, would be organized through the net. In some places this has already happened.) It may be that a general cutting down on the powers of the Federal Government is in order. This has pros and cons, and support (in some areas) even from the RR. How *does* one shrink the unshrinkable? Tax revolts (in the form of massive political pressure) seem to come about when the tax rates get as high as they are now. Another possibility is that the formation of private money may greatly shrink the ability of governments everywhere to collect taxes. Should people start thinking about direct action? I hope we don't come to this! There is nothing I can think of worse than arousing the technically knowledgeable to take the infrastructure apart. Problem is that pinpoint damage (like taking the 901 area code down for a few days or weeks) is somewhere between impossible and probably impossible. (Though ATT managed to take down their entire phone network for a day with a missing "case" statement.) Your thoughts and suggestions would be appreciated. Please post encrypted through a remailer chain if you absolutely *must* post ideas about the last paragraph! S ,.