Anarchy Eroded: Project Efnext

[Eric Cordian]

Almost since the inception of the Internet, Usenet and IRC have been
uncensorable distributed resources defined only by adherence to published
protocols.

With no centralized administration, and resilience against the loss of
individual servers, they carry enough traffic to provide complete and
total plausible deniability for any server operator over content which
gores some specific group's ox.

Indeed, alt.anonymous.messages, a Usenet newsgroup, is often used as the
basis for Cypherpunkish schemes, in which people need to talk to each
other without any third party being able to discern either content or
traffic patterns in the discussion.

Unknown to much of the Internet, there is a plan brewing to "upgrade"
Efnet, the primary IRC network, to something called "Efnext."  Server
software is being rewritten and tested.  Efnet server admins have been
contacted and promises to move to the new network during a "transition
period" exacted.  People who won't play ball have been identified, and
plans to delink them and not connect them to the new regime fabricated.

Efnext is a very different kind of IRC than we are used to.  It is
centrally administrated, with the Efnext Cabal passing judgment on who may
link to the new system, as well as having the ultimate say over the
policies and selection of administrative personnel on individual servers.

The identity of individual IRC servers has been blurred whenever possible,
and IRC Operators have been given many new powers, which span individual
servers, and apply globally to the entire Network.

The old Efnet policy that IRCops didn't get involved in "channel issues"
has been replaced by one where operators are encouraged to do so on
Efnext.

Operators on Efnext will be able to globally reserve nicks, channels, and
even entire servers, making them inaccessible to people using IRC.  They
will be able to enter channels, adjust modes, op themselves, and mass deop
others.  They will even be able to remote k-line on any server.

There will be global logs of how these new powers are used, and operators
will work with one another to present to the users an unvarying monolithic
implementation of the policies and doctrines created by the centralized
Efnext administration.

In short, and in secret, and without many comments by the people affected,
IRC as we know it is about to get the equivalent of AOL Chatroom Monitors,
with the identities of individual IRC servers becoming invisible to the
users as IRC is transformed from a server cluster into a monolithic
network object under a single authority.

One could very easily envision a similar thing happening to Usenet, with
everyone awakening one morning to "Usenext," whose centralized authority
can turn newsgroups off and on with ease, and control who is permitted to
post, and what they are allowed to say, both before and after the fact,
and globally across all NNTP servers.

Freeh and Reno will love Efnext.  Saddam Hussein will love Efnext.  
Channels like #%%%100%MoslemWomenWithoutVeilsPix and
#Feinswine&HatchCanMunchMySphincter will be able to be disabled with
little more than a friendly phone call by the cops to the people publicly
advertising themselves as being in charge of the vast majority of IRC.

"Suspected pedophiles, money launderers, drug traffickers, and terrorists"
can just have their nicks turned off, or be k-lined on all servers.  All
for the greater good of the greater number, of course.

With centralized administration will come centralized responsibilty,
centralized liability, and of course, like the rest of the camel into the
tent, centralized policy.

Perhaps centralized policy like...

"No channel names with naughty words in them"
"No discussions which exploit Gyno-Americans, Under-18-Americans, or
 Differently-Tinted-Americans" 
"No talk of how to make drugs or explosives"

And of course, where ever there is centralized authority, people will be
encouraged to rat out anyone they suspect of such things to the classroom
monitor, and the path of least resistance will be to disable the resource
involved until the accused proves otherwise.

Perhaps Efnext will even include the ability to log problematical channels
at the request of law enforcement.  I wouldn't be at all surprised.

You can learn more about Efnext at http://www.efnext.net/

"Resistance is futile.  You will be assimilated.  We will add your
biological and technological distinctiveness to our own."

We are Efnext.

-- 
Eric Michael Cordian 0+
O:.T:.O:. Mathematical Munitions Division
"Do What Thou Wilt Shall Be The Whole Of The Law"