\def\interrupt{\goodbreak\bigskip% \hbox to\bigcol{\hfil * * * * *\hfil}% \nobreak\nointerlineskip} \section{Are all sysops criminals?} \dropcap{T}he U.S. Declaration of Independence\margintext{Oops --¨ the original article named the Constitution; what's being¨ referred to is the ``inalienable rights'' passage. Oh well, it¨ gets the point across anyways.} does not grant us rights. ``Our''¨ government does not grant us rights. They have nothing to give¨ us, other than ostensibly services which it provides from our¨ taxes. (I'll leave that one alone here.) The Constitution simply admits that, as humans, we have certain¨ rights, and that the government recognizes this, and promises not ¨ to take them away. THAT was the revolutionary idea behind this¨ government. This is an incredibly important difference, and one which our¨ government does not like to emphasize. They want it to¨ appear\plainmargintext{By the way, another article that¨ originally appeared in FidoNews.} that they are the defenders of¨ all that is good, when in reality they are one of the worst¨ offenders. \interrupt Tim Pozar \& I just got back from the Hackers Conference 6.0.¨ (The Hackers' Conferences are an invite-only social event for the¨ creative weirdos who make up at least part of the forces behind¨ the (mostly) software frontier. When they were started in '84,¨ the micro software industry was still somewhat laughable in¨ large-industry terms (though given a lot of credibility (sic) by¨ the IBM PC a few years before), and ``hacker'' usually meant more¨ or less what ``ham'' did in amateur radio. I've been to four of them so far, 1, 2, 4 and 6. The first two¨ were great, the 4th not so, in my peculiar opinion. It was too¨ \dots isolated. The whole trickle-down thing revisited. Like this¨ -- ``We're making the tools that will benefit the world'' and all¨ that rot, and if it only cost \$500, everyone could buy one.¨ (Forgetting that they themselves are 1\% of 1\% and \$500 is an¨ unthinkable figure for {\it most} US citizens -- and growing.) But this year was different. \interrupt The unix-based uucp\margintext{Oops again. The original article¨ said ``usenet'' here, which is like saying echomail instead of¨ FidoNet. (Isn't that helpful?)} network has many corporations¨ that pay for telecomm costs, unlike us bums who pay for FidoNet¨ ourselves, or on the sly where possible. Until a year or so ago,¨ FidoNet was not considered a ``real'' network, whatever that is.¨ Part of it was simple snootiness, but a big part was simply that¨ we sprung up from a place no one was expecting, and even when the¨ wilder of the ``traditional network'' bunch looked in the right¨ direction, they weren't sure of exactly what it was they were¨ seeing\dots you have to admit we are a curious bunch. People don't just ``build'' networks. They are expensive, take¨ all that expensive minicomputer hardware, and who takes care of¨ all those user accounts? What user accounts?! Where's your VAX?¨ Hey wait a minute\dots \interrupt Some INTERNET nodes specialize in FTP'able (filereqestable)¨ files; utilities, documents, that sort of thing, just like¨ FidoNet nodes do. One specialized in~.GIF picture files,¨ including some of variously erotic content. The (government)¨ sponsors of the net (in keeping with the current censorious¨ trend) ordered the stuff ``off''. The Finnish offered to take the¨ files, where they quickly became 70\% of the traffic\dots and¨ indication of their U.S. popularity. Then the feds (I forget the branch) told the Fins: if you¨ continue to provide those files to the U.S., we will cut all of¨ your network connections. The Fins had no choice; survival comes¨ first. \interrupt The Hackers Conference was in a ski-lodge in Tahoe City, starting¨ Friday afternoon, ending Sunday afternoon. Sleep optional. Dinner¨ served at midnight. (Us vegetarian types had to sludge through¨ greasy sauce-laden meat and such. Where ``mint tea'' is some grim¨ lipton-clone where I swear they simply held a mint-leaf over the¨ mixing vat\dots)\plainmargintext{I seem to be insulting our hosts¨ here, which was not the intent. These things are more like¨ organically chaotic than rigidly organized. Oh well.} After the usual preliminaries (beer, M\&M's, 10,000 ``hello''s,¨ finding rooms, etc) the fun begins -- a 48 hr long bullshit¨ session, interrupted with food, sleep and occasional not-well-organized\margintext{} ``sessions''. In one of the bigger sessions, someone asked ``how many people¨ had been interviewed recently by the FBI?'' Fully 1/4th raised¨ their hands. \interrupt The FidoNet is nothing if not contradictions -- independent,¨ unpredictable, paranoid, decentralist, self\dash sufficient,¨ flexible, reactionary, technically so\-phis\-ti\-cated\dots Some¨ wonder how we get anything done. I wonder how anyone ELSE gets¨ things done! What appears to be a liability to the ``rest of the world'', our¨ ``lack of organization'', lack of resources (90's code word for¨ money) may be our long-term survival and later cause for¨ rejoicing. Corporate ``resources'' don't come without strings, as the¨ usenet\margintext{Aargh. uucp I mean.} may be about to find out.¨ This past weekend, that bastion of liberalism (well, liberal¨ capitalism; well, capitalism) Apple Computer just pulled the plug¨ on the alt.sex.* newsgroups. (Their equiv.~of echo conferences;¨ ``.*'' means just what you DOS users might guess; it's a lot of¨ conferences!) (Apple was a very big ``backbone'' distribution¨ node.) Why? ``Too controversial'' or some such. I'm sure it's a¨ ``good reason''. And of course they can do it, just like that. It¨ is not unthinkable it will start a ``run'' on plug-pulling. Before we get too snooty ourselves, we have to keep in mind that¨ we are just as vulnerable, maybe more so -- we don't have the¨ resources to defend ourselves, nor the connections (yet) to the¨ network community (though thanks to Tim Pozar we have ufgate¨ (usenet\margintext{\dots}/fidonet gateway) and INTERNET status).¨ WE NEED THOSE TO SURVIVE. And we can do it while maintaining our¨ utter and complete independence. And, the INTERNET will learn¨ from us. \interrupt To a few people, the high number of (ahem) interviewees was not a¨ surprise. Mitch Kapor and John Barlow both had funny (if it was¨ fiction) and foreboding (because of the feds power and ignorance)¨ ``interviews''. The story is quite interesting, and was available¨ on The Well and in print. To make a long story short, they have¨ formed the EFF -- Electronic Frontier Foundation -- to defend¨ First, (protected speech) and Fourth, (unreasonable¨ search/seizure) Constitutional Amendments, as well to monitor¨ ECPA (Electronic Communications Privacy Act) and other¨ violations, and to work with legislators to work out fair laws. What was most heartening to me, was the approach -- instead of¨ defending only the ``nice, upstanding'', positive-image type¨ cases, they went for the real issues -- the kids and families¨ getting busted at gun point by the feds, where literally every¨ piece of electronics removed from the house, no recourse, no¨ reason, no charges filed. The Niedorff case, where the claimed¨ \$70K ``stolen file'' is found to be a brochure available to¨ anyone for under \$14. (And the press still calls it ``stolen 911¨ software''.) Steve Jackson Games; computers seized because an¨ employee allegedly had on his home BBS a copy of the E911 doc¨ (they were confused as to the location of the BBS; they later¨ claimed that S.J.'s cyberpunk games (role playing like Dungeons¨ \& Dragons) were actually instructions on how to break into real-life computers!) In another case, the FBI thought that (1) John Draper (aka Cap'n¨ Crunch) was CEO of AutoDesk and (2) AutoDesk was involved in Star¨ Wars research, because they worked with something called¨ ``hyperspace''. Yup -- it's hilarious, only they have guns,¨ secrecy, bureaucracy and the power to evade legal process and¨ accountability. And, you get hung in the press because their¨ version of ``reality'' is so\dots heavy. It is so rare to find someone who acts ``from the heart'' in¨ their life, politics and actions, willing to put reputations at¨ stake and correctly defend the ``undefendable'' first, not last.¨ I have nothing but good things to say about EFF and it's¨ supporters. \interrupt This years FidoCon should be the best one yet. I'm actually¨ looking forward to going, a rare event. (I'll drive out in my¨ propane-powered '63 Rambler.) John Barlow, now of EFF fame, will¨ be speaking. And you ought to listen -- not only is he an¨ interesting speaker (and lyricist for the Grateful Dead!), the¨ subject is Your Personal Future -- our governments actions¨ against all too ordinary citizens, and what the EFF is doing, and¨ what you can do as well. We all went through some internal hell these last few years, of¨ which the growth and death of IFNA was merely a symptom. Look --¨ the FidoNet doubled in size every few months for years, and is¨ still growing at a rate that is completely, bar-none,¨ unprecedented. How many of you have broad-based communications¨ skills or experience? How many of you had telecomm.~and/or¨ conferencing experience before FidoNet? Simple experiences of¨ speaking in a large group of diverse people? And I mean as in¨ communications with humans, not hacking. Very few of us, I'm¨ afraid, and while it's been a serious problem, it (1) affords us¨ a fresh perspective and (2) simply something we have to deal¨ with. The fun is in the learning. I think we are heading for the fourth phase of FidoNet growth¨ (innocent start, echomail, paranoid self-consciousness, \dots).¨ The timing is good -- we have some real work cut out for us. \interrupt So this year's Hackers Conference was different. How? Finally¨ they reached my level of paranoia. There was an edge of stark¨ reality in the air. A bit more tied to the planet. Personally, it completed a circle. Now, every single thing I'm¨ involved in is officially disliked and under investigation and¨ infiltration by police of one sort or another. I think those that¨ though ``well, you must have somehow brought it on yourself'' are¨ starting to see, it's not like that at all\dots \interrupt By the way -- you might have heard about the nonsense at Prodigy¨ -- the idiotic administrators using broad scale censorship¨ (correct word) to squash dissent. What you probably don't know --¨ because the reports themselves were self-censored -- was that the¨ original discussion, purged by Prodigy, was over gay rights and¨ anything to do with gay people. This is what Prodigy claimed was¨ ``offensive material''. Shame, shame, on the so-called liberal types who in their turn¨ did not report that. It was not simply not including the gay¨ angle; it was intentionally removed, a very different thing.¨ Everyone suffers from that removal. \interrupt (1) The usenet\margintext{\dots} is our ally. We need as many¨ interconnections with it, and other networks, as is reasonably¨ possible. We are all under attack. Besides, it's technically¨ interesting. (2) Don't fall for what Pastor Martin Niemoller did; (``In¨ Germany they first came for the Communists and I didn't speak¨ because I wasn't a Communist\dots'') We're all ``commies'' in¨ that sense -- the [attacks upon] brat hackers are simply the thin¨ edge of the wedge. Criminals are criminals -- which is decided in¨ a court of law, not with a sealed search warrant and¨ intimidation. (3) Watch for EFF stuff in the net, or contact them directly. EFF¨ Inc, 112 Second St, Cambridge MA 02142. voice (617)\dash 864\dash¨ 0665, or usenet eff@well.sf.ca.us Bug 'em for an echo¨ conference\margintext{Which is now available from my node.}. Tell¨ 'em you are from the FidoNet. (4) The First Conference on Computers, Freedom \& Privacy will be¨ held 25 - 28 March 91 at the SFO Marriott. The goal is to open¨ channels of communication between network and telecomm experts,¨ info/datacomm providers, law enforcement, prosecutors,¨ constitutional exports, computer users and civil libertarians.¨ Attendance will be limited to 600 people. The event is sponsored¨ by Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility, and chaired¨ by Jim Warren (of West Coast Computer Faire [fame], amongst other¨ notorieties). CFPconf, 345 Swett Rd, Woodside CA 94062, FAX¨ (415)\dash 851\dash 2814, or usenet jwarren@well.sf.ca.us \interrupt {\narrower It is of more importance to the community that innocence should¨ be protected than it is that guilt should be punished, for guilt¨ and crimes are so frequent in the world that all of them cannot¨ be punished, and many times they happen in such a manner that it¨ is not of much consequence to the public whether they are¨ punished or not. But when innocence itself is brought to the bar¨ and condemned, especially to die, the subject will exclaim, ``It¨ is immaterial to me whether I behave well or ill, for virtue is¨ no security''. And if such sentiment as this should take place in¨ the mind of the subject there would be an end to all security¨ whatsoever.\par \hbox to\bigcol{\hfil\it -- John Adams} }