Caught in |
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by Al Massey |
One of my all time favorite books on the follies of government is The Spoils, by Basil Bunting. Bunting wrote "But their determination to banish fools foundered ultimately in the installation of absolute idiots." Although he was speaking on the decline of the Turkish Empire, Bunting could just as easily have been talking about t he current state of the Internet.
Governments, all governments, yours, mine, theirs, ours, just can't seem to grasp the simple theory holding the 'Net together: "information NEEDS to be free." This concept appears to be out of reach of bureaucrats who take it as their sworn duty to place controls on the free-flow of information.
The United States is leading the way with its poorly written and ill defined Communications Decency Act which mentions indecency, and child pornography, but fails to define just what qualifies as indecency or child pornography. The act goes on to prohibi t the word abortion from being used in cyberspace, including so-called private e-mail messages.
But, the CDA is not the U.S. only hole card in the cyber-wars, not by a long shot. We also have such things as Public-key encryption and the V-Chip. I have heard the V-Chip described as one of the "best placebos ever created" and indeed, it must be a mir aculous piece of technology. As far as I can see it hasn't done a single thing to protect kids or clean up violent or sexual content anywhere, yet it's continuously invoked as the answer to all the fears parents have about violence and porn being brought into their homes via the 'Net or TV.
Our favorite government is not alone in this regulation frenzy. Germany, not content to censure over 200 USENET news groups on CompuServe, is now striking fear into the hearts of ISPs by garnering support from sympathetic European governments and using s trong-arm tactics to make all Europeans comply with German law. Earlier this year German prosecutors tried to close a Dutch ISP hosting a militant left-wing magazine but backed down in the face of an uproar from the international 'Net community. Spurred by charges filed in Munich, the Austrian national police recently raided a small ISP called VIP looking for child pornography. The result of this action caused 98 percent of Austrian ISPs to go off-line for over two hours. The fact that nothing was found has not stopped German officials from coercing their neighbors to continue monitoring ISPs. The government of Singapore recently established strict controls on all Internet Service Providers and many World Wide Web pages. ISPs and content providers will be licensed, and required to adhere to a rigid set of content guidelines which apply to political speech, ethnic and religious remarks including satire, and public morals including "contents which propagate permissiveness or promiscuity."
Hong-Kong 'Netizens, fearful that their wired-world will have to adapt to China's pervasive Internet Standards soon, are clamoring to find homes for their Web pages elsewhere. 'Net users in China must register with the police and access to a wide range o f Web sites is completely blocked. Computers and the use of the Internet have been tightly controlled from the beginning resulting in a system where the Internet can only be accessed through government supervised ISPs, where communication passes through a few key gateways and routers that send and receive packets which can be programmed to filter out "undesirable" sites.
While governments rush to barricade their borders in an effort to create a new world information order they need to be aware of a new virus spreading through cyberspace - the virus of freedom.
Under Mouse Arrest: Getting busted for violating an online service's rule of conduct. "Sorry I couldn't get back to you. AOL put me under mousearrest."
As I reported last month, "flat-rate, unlimited access to the Internet" has not gone unnoticed by the RBOCs (Regional Bell Operating Companies). The regulatory arena is home of the Regional Bells and they have spent most of the year there playing the "pa nic card". This is an old time-honored tactic of the BellHeads and they play the game well.
They have been protestng to the FCC that unlimited usage pricing schemes are driving up their infrastructure costs and sacrificing the reliability of their voice networks. Pac Bell is estimating that it will need to spend about $500 million over the next three years to support increased Internet business. They have been joined by US West and Bell Atlantic in filing detailed reports to the FCC charging that unlimited 'Net usage is driving their costs up. While the laboratory and the courtroom both figure heavily in the RBOCs plans, the most important battle line seems to be forming between the telcos and the computer industry.
In a classic case of the right hand not knowing what the left hand is doing the right handed RBOCs are going to court or protesting to the FCC while the left handed RBOCs are trotting out their own unlimited usage pricing schemes for Internet access. Thi s double standard has not been overlooked by the computer industry, which has formed a golden nugget of its own called the Internet Access Coalition to lobby the FCC in an effort to pass legislation in their favor.
This group includes Netscape, Intel, AOL and the five-thousand pound gorilla Microsoft. Their argument contends that most of the current problems can be addressed with existing technology. While it is hard to argue with their logic, the motivation of thi s group is suspect. Although the coalition has positioned itself as protecting consumers from telco greed, in reality it is equally guilty of putting its own interest first. Denying the irrationality of flat-rate pricing on the switched network will not lead to a stable business environment. And arguing for telco subsidies on behalf of public good sets a potentially dangerous precedent for an FCC set on expanding universal service to include data services.
As someone recently pointed out, "Intel's charitable acts do not include passing out Pentium processors to the CPU-challenged".
"404: Someone who's clueless. From the World Wide Web message '404, URL Not Found,' meaning that the document you've tried to access can't be located. 'Don't bother asking him... he's 404, man.'"
Spam! I didn't like this glutinous mess when it only came in a can and I like it even less now that it has invaded my e-mail box. Never mind the get-rich quick schemes and cookie recipes, they are bad enough, but now I have no less than a dozen well mean ing friends that feel it is their duty to keep me up to date on every cyber-burp that takes place online.
Thankfully, I have an e-mail program that allows me to filter out most of these messages.
I draw your attention to Washington, D.C. based Aristotle Industries who recently struck a deal with Spam king Cyber Promotions to launch a free service that lets any registered voter block unsolicited bulk e-mails. The twist to this program is that it p enalizes promoters that misuse the information.
Aristotle is putting teeth in the program by establishing a US $1 million "performance bond" that will hold promoters liable for noncompliance and compensate consumers whose e-mail addresses have been misused. Financial details of the bond program have y et to be worked out but the intention is for companies to post a bond that would be turned over to Aristotle should a promoter use the suppression lists in an improper or commercial way. To date, some 1.27 million people have already requested blocking t heir e-mail addresses.
In some ways this service is a first cousin to Spam. Go to htp://www.aristotle.org and fill out the form and Aristotle will give you a free mailbox where presumably you will receive only the type of e-mail you want.
Each time you pick up your e-mail you will then be credited with a portion of the "savings" the sender realized by not sending you bulk snail mail. When your account reaches $100 you will then be sent a check. Be FORWARNED you will only be receiving comm ercial mail of the type you request in this FREE e-mail box. Cute, huh?
Corporate users tired of junk e-mail invading their network might want to check out Software.com. The Santa Barbara, Calif. Company has released an updated version of its Post Office Internet messaging server software with new features designed specifica lly for dealing with Spam.
Version 3.1 blocks out the receipt of mail from IP addresses or domains that are known Spam offenders. It also can deny the use of a messaging server as a relay host for unsolicited mail to prevent mail bouncing off an Internet service provider to anothe r recipient. The anti-spam software is designed for small and medium-size ISPs, which often feel the brunt of spam attacks on their infrastructures.
Advanced Instruments Corp, an ISP in Littleton, CO, reportedly was getting over 10,000 complaints a day from folks all over the world because they discovered their domain allowed the relay of mail. After installing Post Office 3.1 complaints have dropped off to about 100 per day.
If you are a corporate user plagued with spammers like Cyber Promotions Inc. and Quantcom Communications Inc. you might want to mosey on over and check it out.
Squirt The Bird: To transmit a signal up to a satellite. 'Crew and talent are ready...what time do we squirt the bird?'"
Word just in suggests that the technologically-impaired neophytes over at AOL are being besieged by password poachers.
It generally starts with users downloading an e-mail message with an enticing come-on for free products or software.
Once downloaded a "Trojan-horse" program is activated that results in the user's password being plucked.
Others are being victimized by phonies that claim to work for AOL. Armed with your password the cyber-thief can then log on and use your good name in chat areas or e-mail or just to do some free surfing.
Some folks have found that they have been "bumped" off AOL for violating the acceptable use policy.
DO NOT GIVE YOUR PASSWORD TO ANYONE, EVER!
Al Massey is a HAL-PC member.
E-mail me at webmaster@hal-pc.org with any comments you have and tell me what you want to see here.
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