\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} }