~From: http://www.guidemag.com/newsslant/vigilante-censors.html ~"Whether it's CPAC wanting to nuke all web sites containing the word 'boy,' Senator Swinestein wanting to nuke all web sites containing the word 'bomb,' or Senator Hatch wanting to nuke all web sites containing the word 'sex,'" writes Mike Duvos in a Cypherpunks newsgroup, "the optimal strategy for service providers has turned out to be to quietly remove any material some squeaky wheel is uncomfortable with, keep proclaiming themselves to be the strongest supporters of free speech in the entire Net community, and stonewall when asked questions which might suggest anything to the contrary." Sounds like one of them-thar, cynical, irreverent, shit-disturbing CypherPunks, to me. ~Now, the pages are back online on a small server in Germany. Organizers of the site are raising funds to purchase their own direct connection to the Net. However they don't want their computer to be in the US-- but not because they plan to violate any US laws. "We are very nervous about being here," says Jim Finn, who helps run the Free Spirits, "if the government is going to use underhanded tactics to intimidate our providers and possibly confiscate our equipment." In the course of investigations, police frequently seize computers that they never return, even when they file no charges. Perhaps Germany should start building refugee camps for American homosexuals, Jews, and producers of strong encryption. ~If the Internet had sprung up in the 50s, Senator Jesse Helms would be riling his white constituents about the scandalous web sites promoting interracial marriage and civil rights. The right way to answer to Helms and his ilk is not with pacifying assurances that, thanks to filtering, people can avoid these offensive ideas, but to confront the underlying racism. Now that queer sex is the bugaboo, the answer shouldn't be any different. CypherPunk Cult of One Project:?: Put up a website containing quotes from Jesse Helms and other high- profile politicians, public figures, etc., and then actively promote it being censored and removed from the InterNet. (Pictures of a topless Princess Di, etc. Naked children from a "Life" magazine photo from the '60's, etc.) Has anyone ever sued themselves to have their own site censored and dismembered? "Greg Broiles vs. Greg Broiles" (Kind of has a 'ring' to it.) ~That censorship is bad and dangerous no matter who its victims is a concept best grasped today by Cypherpunks steeped in computers and the Net. And who came out of internment in the legendary "Flame Camps" of the late 1990's, vowing, "Never Forgive. No Prisoners." ~Whether it's the painting "Mona Lisa" or the sex video Lisa Moaning, WHY DON'T THESE PEOPLE PROVIDE *POINTERS*!!! (No, *not* to the "Mona Lisa," you idiot!) ~If hysteria over drugs or hate speech or pornography becomes intense enough, then no one's data-- which is to say no one's privacy-- is safe. Much better than civil libertarians and gay politicos, Internet activists have seen the danger in the new wave of repressive laws. Whether they can articulate that danger to a broader public remains to be seen. If not, the 1990s may be recalled as a short-lived golden age of free expression on the Net, and free spirits won't have any place to call home. ** "Give me bandwidth, or give me death." "Give me your huddled electrons, struggling to be free." "Now is the time for all good hackers to come to the aide of no-country. "One if by land. Two if by sea. NULL if by Net." ("The Americans are coming! The Americans are coming!) "I may not agree with what you censor, but I will defend to the death my right to tell you to 'Fuck off and die.'" "Ask not what you can do for your country. Ask where the Federal building is." "A small step for a nuclear bomb. A big step for D.C." ("It's raining donkeys and elephants out there. Better take your lead umbrella.") "In Diffie-Hellman We Trust." "Nuke the candidate of your choice--but Nuke!" "The final finding of the TruthMonger Commission is that Tim May acted alone. The Magic Nuclear Missle hit D.C., deflected toward Moscow, turned around in mid-air and took out London, before coming to rest at Rome. "There is no evidence to suggest that Jim Bell was ever a member of the CypherPunks list, or ever had contact of any nature with Tim May. Toad.com was never connected to the CypherPunks list--it served mostly as a mail-drop for decent, upstanding drug dealers, pedophiles, tax evaders and terrorists. "Duncan Frissel's first act of power, the pardoning of Tim May, was done in order to allow the nation to put this behind us and to heal our nuclear wounds." CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED ISP'S OF TERRA ----------------------------------------- "Congress shall make no laws." Signature: Anonymous Witness: Nobody --------- ------ Send complaints of abuse of this Constitution to: Lock&Load@nuke.dc ~~~~~~~~~~~~~ FreedomMonger ~~~~~~~~~~~~~