I got a lot of complaints today about copies of Tim's old "Blacknet" posting being sent to inappropriate groups:
From paw@coos.dartmouth.edu Mon Feb 14 09:34:13 1994 Date: Mon, 14 Feb 1994 12:31:44 -0500 From: paw@coos.dartmouth.edu (Pat Wilson) To: hfinney@shell.portal.com, root@portal.com, postmaster@portal.com Subject: Re: Introduction to Blacknet Newsgroups: comp.sys.sun.admin References: <199402120837.AAA22008@jobe.shell.portal.com> Status: R
In comp.sys.sun.admin you write:
Introduction to BlackNet
[etc]
I believe that this is an illegal and unethical use of the Net for commercial purposes (to say nothing of bounds of decency). This posting lends credence to all sorts of (US) gov't paranoia. Please cease and desist immediately.
Non-anonymously,
-- Pat Wilson Maanger, Academic Unix Systems Group Dartmouth College paw@northstar.dartmouth.edu
From mcr@unison.com Mon Feb 14 10:11:51 1994 Date: Mon, 14 Feb 1994 10:11:22 -0800 To: hfinney@shell.portal.com From: mcr@unison.com (Michael Riehle) X-Sender: mcr@hal822.unison.com Subject: Introduction to Blacknet Status: R
This message appears to be from someone who is offering an illegal service and is certainly not welcome. I can't tell if this person is serious or if this is just a sick joke. It certainly isn't appropriate regardless.
Date: Mon, 14 Feb 1994 00:50:01 +0000 Reply-To: HP-3000 Systems Discussion <HP3000-L@UTCVM.UTC.EDU> Sender: HP-3000 Systems Discussion <HP3000-L@UTCVM.UTC.EDU> Comments: This message is NOT from the person listed in the From line. It is from an automated software remailing service operating at that address. Please report problem mail to <hfinney@shell.portal.com>. Comments: Warning -- original Sender: tag was NETNEWS@AUVM.AMERICAN.EDU From: nobody <nobody@SHELL.PORTAL.COM> Subject: Introduction to Blacknet To: Multiple recipients of list HP3000-L <HP3000-L@UTCVM.UTC.EDU>
Introduction to BlackNet
[...]
From kwthomas@nsslsun.nssl.uoknor.edu Mon Feb 14 12:38:27 1994 Date: Mon, 14 Feb 94 14:37:01 CST From: kwthomas@nsslsun.nssl.uoknor.edu (Kevin W. Thomas) To: hfinney@shell.portal.com Subject: Re: Introduction to Blacknet Newsgroups: comp.sys.sun.admin In-Reply-To: <199402120837.AAA22008@jobe.shell.portal.com> Organization: National Severe Storms Laboratory Cc: root@shell.portal.com, root@jobe.shell.portal.com Status: R
In article <199402120837.AAA22008@jobe.shell.portal.com> you write:
Introduction to BlackNet
BlackNet is currently building its information inventory. We are interested in information in the following areas, though any other juicy stuff is always welcome. "If you think it's valuable, offer it to us first."
- trade secrets, processes, production methods (esp. in semiconductors)
BlackNet can make anonymous deposits to the bank account of your choice, where local banking laws permit, can mail cash directly (you assume the risk of theft or seizure), or can credit you in "CryptoCredits," the internal currency of BlackNet (which you then might use to buy _other_ information and have it encrypted to your special public key and posted in public place).
This doesn't belong in "comp.sys.sun.admin", or any other Usenet group. It's postings like this that give Usenet a bad name.
Kevin W. Thomas National Severe Storms Laboratory Norman, Oklahoma
From lab@biostat.mc.duke.edu Mon Feb 14 14:05:15 1994 To: hfinney@shell.portal.com Subject: Re: Introduction to Blacknet In-reply-to: nobody@shell.portal.com's message of Mon, 14 Feb 1994 11:32:23 -0800 Date: Mon, 14 Feb 1994 17:04:09 -0500 From: "Lance A. Brown" <lab@biostat.mc.duke.edu> Status: R
What _IS_ this doing in misc.health.diabetes?
Thanks, Lance
nobody <nobody@shell.portal.com> writes:
Introduction to BlackNet
Your name has come to our attention. We have reason to believe you may be interested in the products and services our new organization, BlackNet, has to offer. [...]
From appel@cea.Berkeley.EDU Mon Feb 14 14:24:03 1994 To: hfinney@shell.portal.com, root@shell.portal.com Subject: Re: Introduction to Blacknet In-reply-to: nobody@shell.portal.com's message of Sat, 12 Feb 1994 03:49:18 -0800 Date: Mon, 14 Feb 1994 14:23:06 -0800 From: Shannon Appel <appel@cea.Berkeley.EDU> Status: R
Please be aware that your anonymous remailer is being abused. The following inappropriate post was recently sent to a rec.games.frp group. Please see that this type of thing does not happen again.
Shannon --
Introduction to BlackNet
[...]
I set up a log file for "blacknet" postings, and got this:
From hal@alumni.cco.caltech.edu Mon Feb 14 17:46:41 1994 Received: from nova.unix.portal.com (nova.unix.portal.com [156.151.1.101]) by jobe.shell.portal.com (8.6.4/8.6.4) with ESMTP id RAA11362 for <hfinney@shell.portal.com>; Mon, 14 Feb 1994 17:46:41 -0800 Received: from punisher.caltech.edu (punisher.cco.caltech.edu [131.215.48.151]) by nova.unix.portal.com (8.6.4/8.6.4-1.13) with ESMTP id RAA03081 for <hfinney@shell.portal.com>; Mon, 14 Feb 1994 17:46:41 -0800 Received: from alumni.cco.caltech.edu by punisher.caltech.edu with ESMTP (8.6.4/DEI:4.41) id RAA14916; Mon, 14 Feb 1994 17:45:46 -0800 Received: from localhost by alumni.cco.caltech.edu (8.6.4/DEI:4.41) id RAA23534; Mon, 14 Feb 1994 17:45:42 -0800 Received: from handel.cs.colostate.edu by alumni.cco.caltech.edu with SMTP (8.6.4/DEI:4.41) id RAA23522; Mon, 14 Feb 1994 17:45:34 -0800 Message-Id: <199402150145.RAA23522@alumni.cco.caltech.edu> Received: by handel.cs.colostate.edu (1.37.109.4/16.2) id AA28603; Mon, 14 Feb 94 18:45:32 -0700 Date: Mon, 14 Feb 94 18:45:32 -0700 From: lawrence detweiler <detweile@CS.ColoState.EDU> To: hfinney@shell.portal.com request-remailing-to: comp.sys.ti.explorer@news.cs.indiana.edu subject: Introduction to Blacknet
Introduction to BlackNet
Your name has come to our attention. We have reason to believe you may be interested in the products and services our new organization, BlackNet, has to offer. [...]
It seems Larry is sending this posting to lots of inappropriate groups using several different mail-to-news gateways. This is a good way to get remailers shut down, which may be his ultimate goal. I call upon remailer operators to block incoming messages from Detweiler's known aliases. Thos using the slocal-based "cypherpunks" remailer perl scripts can add the following lines near the front of their maildelivery files. # Filter Detweiler
From ld231782@longs.lance.colostate.edu file ? /dev/null From an12070@anon.penet.fi file ? /dev/null From detweile file ? /dev/null
Unless his access to the remailer network is blocked, he will be able to continue to abuse the system until it gets shut down. The alternative would be to block my remailer's access to all known mail-to-news gateways, but I am reluctant to take that step because of the loss of this ability for those who legitimately need it. If his abuse keeps up, though, that may be the only choice left. Hal Finney hfinney@shell.portal.com