COM NET NEWS Vol. 1 No. 2 May 1994 >From the Editor Welcome to the second issue of COM NET NEWS. It has been and interesting and hectic month since the first issue was published. First, I want to thank everyone for the enormous amount of interest in CNN and the many kind words about the newsletter. This issue is coming out late because I, like many others on the Net, was writing an NTIA TIIAP proposal. One of the major events that occurred over the last month was the Apple Computer/Marino Foundation "Ties that Bind" conference held at Apple in Cupertino, California. There will be much said about this conference on the Net over the next few weeks, and as I was unable to attend, it will not be covered in CNN. I would like to remind everyone, if you have information or articles of interest to the community/commercial network communities, please feel free to send me articles, information, or pointers. If you have comments or criticisms, please let me know. Richard W. Bryant, Editor RW Bryant Associates P.O. Box 1828 El Prado, NM 87529 Tel/fax: 505-758-1919 rbryant@hydra.unm.edu **************************************************************** **************************************************************** SAN LUIS VALLEY RURAL TELECOMMUNICATIONS PROJECTPPRURAL TELECOMMUNITY EXPO '94 The first San Luis Valley (SLV) Rural Telecommunications ProjectPP Rural Telecommunity Expo was held on 30 April 1994 in Alamosa, Colorado. The meeting brought together over 100 interested people throughout the San Luis Valley in Southern Colorado, other parts of Colorado, and Northern New Mexico. The SLV Rural Telecommunications Project is looking into hooking up the San Luis Valley, a large, sparsely populated agricultural region that is roughly 110 miles north to south and 60 miles wide in South- central Colorado. Alamosa, the largest SLV town, sits at the southern end of the valley. Because of the long distances between towns, and the very remote nature of these towns, connection through a telecommunity would result in benefits for all. Attendees included: Jerry Cook, Coordinator for the SLV Rural Telecommunications Project; a number of SLV farmers; a contingent from Florence and Canon City, Colorado, who are attempting to start up their own community network; Tom Bonomo, "techno wizard; "Alan Wehe from Blanca Telephone (a tiny local telephone company serving two small towns in Southern Colorado); Flo Raitano, Executive Director of the Colorado Rural Development Council; Jeff Richardson, Director of the Colorado Advanced Technology Initiative; John Kuenhold, District Judge; Dan Jones from the SouthCentral Colorado Tourism Region; David Edwards from the Colorado State University Cooperative Extension Service; a representative from the Governor of Colorado's office; Richard Bryant and Barbara Lazar from the La Plaza Telecommunity Foundation, Inc.; and many other interested individuals. The one-day meeting provided a medium for regional discussion and dialog and demonstrations of ongoing activities. The emphases of the project are healthcare, education, government, and agriculture. At the end of the day a forum was convened to discuss the day's activities, plans, problems, and where to go in the future. The diversity of people that came together for this meeting was very encouraging. and the meeting was characterized by a great deal of enthusiasm for the project and the resources that it will provide. It was unclear how the project would be funded. However, the State of Colorado apparently has some interest in these types of endeavors. This group is at the very beginning of its process and currently developing community support of the project. TAOS WORKSHOP ON ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT The Town of Taos (New Mexico) recently held a number of workshops covering economic development, education, environment, and sustainable land use. I chaired the economic development workshop in which a wide range of representatives attended. Without going into all of the details, one of the most commonly mentioned issues was access to online systems--particularly the Internet. In fact, those who showed the most interest were 9th-grade civics class students who participated in these workshops. They felt that access to the Internet and all of its resources was very important for their education, so that they could be better prepared for the job market once graduating from high school. COMMERCE ON THE INTERNET From Edupage CommerceNet, to be operational by September, is being billed as the first large-scale effort to transact business on the Internet. Backers of the effort include Apple Computer, BankAmerica, Hewlett-Packard, Lockheed and Sun Microsystems. The service will start with about 50 companies offering products, services, and on-line banking, and will expand to include brokerage and notary services as well. CommerceNet has an initial investment of $12 million with half of its funding to come from government. "This is the first industrial park in Cyberspace," notes author Daniel Dern. (Wall Street Journal 4/8/94 B2) ON-LINE SHOPPING IDG's is planning a computerized on-line shopping service for 1995; it will feature product reviews, articles, and messages from advertisers, and will allow users to shop for hardware and software by ordering from their networked computers. (Folio 4/1/94 p.25) LAWYERS CAPITALIZE ON INTERNET FLAMING Canter & Siegel, a husband-and-wife law firm that found itself scorched by flame mail last month for advertising on the Internet, has decided to launch a new service, Cybersell, to help other businesses do the same thing. Cybersell will charge $500 for access to 6,000 news groups. "People like Canter & Siegel are taking grotesque advantage of liberating technology that supports the free and open exchange of ideas," says the president of the Internet Company. Retorts Siegel, "Our fate has been that we're making a lot of money. If a bunch of hysterics want to scream and yell and make fools of themselves, then I don't feel they warrant respect." (Wall Street Journal 5/9/94 B2) WOMEN FAVOR E-MAIL OVER E-MALL A survey conducted by an online publication reveals that more than 66% of the women surveyed log on to an electronic service at least once a day and the same number spends at least $20 a month on online fees. Top on their list is interacting with editors, writers and other readers, with Internet access ranking second. Only 6% considered shopping, banking or travel services a priority. (Tampa Tribune 5/9/94 B&F3) SURGE OF ELECTRONIC NEWSPAPERS More than 2,700 newspapers are now experimenting with one or another kind of electronic venture, says The Kelsey Group, compared to only 42 in 1989; part of the urgency for the experiment is that almost half of young people 18 to 24 years old don't read newspapers at all. The Palo Alto Weekly (http://www.service.com/PAW/home.html) is the only general-circulation newspaper now on the Internet. (U.S.News & World Report 5/16/94 p.60) INTERNET TOP TEN BEST-SELLING BOOKS CPU Publishing Update says the top ten best-selling books on the Internet are: 1. Whole Internet User's Guide (Krol); 2. The Internet Complete Reference (Hahn & Stout); 3. Internet for Dummies (Levine); 4. Mac Internet Tour Guide (Ventana); 5. Complete Internet Directory (Braun); 6. The Internet Companion Plus (LaQuey); 7. Internet Starter Kit for the Mac (Hayden); 8. The Internet Navigator (Glister); 9. Connecting to the Internet (Estrada); 10 Zen and the Art of the Internet (Kehoe). (Internet Business Report May 94 p.5) BATTLE WAGED OVER NSFNET CONTRACT The National Science Foundation will spend $50 million on an upgraded NSFNet backbone, and has selected MCI for the vBNS (very high-speed backbone network services) portion of the project. Sprint is raising objections, and the lawyers are preparing to do battle. Sprint claims that NSFNet management had a too-cozy relationship with MCI during the evaluation process, and that a National Science Board member also has a possible conflict of interest with MCI. (Telecommunications 5/94 p.15) HIGH-TECH BANKING COMMUNICATIONS The Royal Bank will build a state-of-the-art communications center in New Brunswick to enable customers to obtain account balances, pay bills and carry out other transactions using home computers, phones and ultimately through info-highway connections to their TVs. (Toronto Globe & Mail 5/12/94 B4) According to Washington Telecom Week, Sen. Inouye will introduce, this week or early next, a new bill to set aside "reserve capacity on the National Information Infrastructure (NII) for use by non-profit or public institutions [incl. NGOs, schools, local govt., civic organizations, etc.] at little or no cost". The bill is expected to be "married to" Holling's S1822, the Senate counterpart of the Markey/Fields HR3636. Sounds interesting, though this bill, like S1822 and HR3636 seems set up, for some reason, so that the FCC should be involved in this process, which may turn out to be a hazardous proposition, given the censorious and iron-fisted behavior of FCC in the past and present. From: Stanton McCandlish * mech@eff.org * Electronic Frontier Found. Online Activist SENIOR PC SALES UP Sales of PCs and on-line services to those over 65 are strong, and a director at Compaq Computer notes that the robust senior market is "one of the most overlooked facts or one of the best-kept secrets of the business." Prodigy and Compuserve each report some 200,000 subscribers over age 55. (St. Petersburg Times 4/11/94 Business p.11) AUTHORS GUILD PROTESTS CONTRACT The Authors Guild is protesting a new Random House standard contract, calling its clause on multimedia rights "a brazen attempted land grab on the electronic frontier." One source of irritation is the reduced royalty rate for electronic products -- 5% as opposed to the usual 10% on hardcover books. (Wall Street Journal 4/12/94 B9) FAX FACTS A Gallop poll has found that fax transmission account for 36 percent of telephone bills at Fortune 500 companies, and that e-mail has made little headway in being used routinely for corporate communications, in spite of its considerable cost advantage. ANS (Advanced Network Services) says that a one-page e-mail message sent by network costs less than 2 cents, compared to 29 cents for a letter sent by mail and an even higher cost for a fax message. (New York Times 4/19/94 C3) A WINDOW ON THE INTERNET Bill Gates predicts by year's end that Microsoft Windows will come equipped with built-in access to the Internet. Gates also unveiled a technology that enables users to simultaneously send data and converse over a single phone line. (Investor's Business Daily 4/20/94 A1) WIRELESS INTERNET ACCESS *Wireless Internet Access. The "Internet Anywhere" Consortium has established a joint venture to develop a software/hardware systems solution to allow wireless access over Morbitex to the Internet/CANet news, mail, and data transfer services. Those involved in contributing core technologies and performing research and development efforts include Mortice Kern Systems Inc. (MKS), the Information Technology Research Center (ITRC), and Research in Motion Limited (RIM). Contact: Erin Hintz, Voice 519-883-4371; Fax 519-884-8861. INTERNET STATISTICS: THE NET KEEPS GROWING AND GROWING Traffic on the NSF backbone growing by a stunning 20.7 percent - nearly 2 terabytes - during the month of March -- the largest single jump in the history of the Internet. Gopher traffic grew by 17.6 percent and http (WWW) grew by 32.9 percent to a new total of one-half terabyte per month. Http traffic grew by a total of 0.7 percent of total NSFNet traffic. (Internet Society) NEWS FROM EDUCOM'S CORPORATE ASSOCIATES *NTalk. NTalk provides a graphical interactive computer network that allows institutions to maintain newsletters and other documents on the network at no cost. Subscribers who join for $8 per month receive local or 800 access to internet email, government research reports, directory of embassies, forums, shareware, and a daily national electronic newspaper featuring business, finance and markets, international news, sports, features, and more. Contact: 513-241-7753. NETWORKING *Sonoma County Library. Sonoma County is now the first public library in California to offer access to the Internet as a basic menu option on its public access online catalog. Librarians are able to look at other library catalogs and burrow to gophers, as well as use the system's reference tools to answer questions. A lively curious icon named Communicat helps explain the system through a user friendly booklet at each terminal. For more information, contact Paul Kiley at 707-545-0831 or pkiley@sonoma.lib.ca.us. POT HOLES ON THE INFORMATION SUPERHIGHWAY It appears as if the Information Superhighway is proving to be a lucrative new business for lawyers. Two of the short articles below mention law suits regarding postings on the Internet. There have several other cases recently that illustrate how dangerous it is to exercise free speech in the Internet. The judicial system must begin to deal with these issues and set up equitable guidelines before it becomes impossible for the small publisher to publish for fear of offending someone and being the subject of a co stly lawsuit. Sure, the Internet is a new frontier. But, before there are too many more shoot-outs, some semblance of order must be put into place to protect everyone. The government is putting a lot of effort into snooping (AKA the Clipper Chip, see article below), but little has come out about protecting freedom of speech and the press. editor. DAVID AND GOLIATH ON THE INFO SUPERHIGHWAY The La Plaza Telecommunity Foundation, Inc. (La Plaza) recently put out a call for help on the Net. The posting asked that sympathetic individuals email Senator Jeff Bingaman's office and the Provost at the University of New Mexico in regard to alleged untoward behavior on the part of a number of groups in New Mexico who were allegedly attempting to subvert the La Plaza project. Apparently, the call for help resulted in a large amount of email being delivered to both offices. Dialogs with Senator Bingaman's and the Provost's offices were started. Apparently, the Net really does empower the little guy or gal. More on this later... E-MAIL EAVESDROPPING One in five companies admits that it eavesdrops on its employees by searching computer files, voice mail or e-mail, but a spate of lawsuits is beginning to curb the habit. If a company plans on monitoring employees, it should tell them in advance to avoid legal trouble later. (Investor's Business Daily 4/19/94 A4) LIBEL SUIT ON THE INTERNET In the first lawsuit of its kind, the editor of Cyberwire Dispatch was sued by the owner of Suarez Corporation Industries for "flaming" his product on the Internet. The plaintiff ventured on-line to advertise free Internet access and a "get-rich-quick" scheme, and was denounced by the defendant as a "slick direct-mail baron." The exchange escalated and Suarez filed a defamation suit. (Wall Street Journal 4/22/94 B1) ARCHEOLOGIST WINS INTERNET DEFAMATION SUIT An archeologist, formerly at the University of Western Australia, has won a lawsuit filed in Australia against an anthropologist, claiming comments made about him on an Internet bulletin board were defamatory. Damages equal to $28,000 were awarded after a psychiatrist testified to the plaintiff's anxiety and depression suffering caused by the remarks. (Chronicle of Higher Education 4/27/94 A30) MORE ON THE CLIPPER CHIP Forwarded message from: Date: Fri, 6 May 1994 11:17:38 -0400 (EDT) From: Stanton McCandlish Subject: Stewart Baker (NSA) - Admin doesn't care what you say about Clipper (fwd) This from Steve Miller in New York, originally posted to ECHO's "Internet" conference. 53:37) Sharp 23-APR-94 10:20 Stuart Baker is a lawyer who works for NSA. His duties presently include traveling the country to explain his agency's position on the Clipper chip, a telephone encryption device that the government would like to see become a standard. If you live under a rock, you also need to be told that part of the standard includes decryption keys that are kept in escrow for use by legal wiretappers in their law enforcement efforts. It is safe to say, I think, that most of the online community is opposed to this idea. I listened to Baker's remarks at yesterday's conference on "Lawyers and the Internet" at the Association of the Bar of the City of New York. I took some notes, and offer the following reconstruction of some of his statements: - The debate caused by the Clipper proposal is a culture clash among "netheads." This is all really an overreaction to the government having said it was going to buy these chips and "use them for its own purposes." - Privacy would be preserved at least at its present level because it won't be any easier to obtain a wiretap warrant than before. - The government doesn't know what a world with perfectly secure communications would be like, and that's disturbing because the Mafia and child pornographers would be able to use it. Those groups have never used state-of-the-art technology in the past, but they'd use this. We're not sure how the world would be affected by such things, so we're moving to prevent those effects. - Objections to our efforts come mostly from would-be "cybernauts" who picture themselves in "bandoliers and pocket-protectors." These are really just people who "couldn't go to Woodstock because they had to do their trigonometry homework." - Some say that Clipper will only assist law-enforcement if criminals are very stupid. But, criminals are very stupid. Many felons, for example, attempted to buy guns in stores even after the Brady bill passed. The NSA is much smarter than they are. - The government is a trustworthy organization that wouldn't abuse this standard once it was in place. After all, records of who does what and what warrants are obtained over whose testimony are kept, so no one can do anything sneaky or sly. Well, I very nearly embarrassed myself in front of the audience of 200 with remarks of my own, but didn't get to do so; the conference chairman (who knows just how embarrassing I can get) spotted me turning crimson in the audience and (I think) advised Mr. Baker not to take questions from me. Since I was one of those young people who felt studying nature and science was more important than rock and roll, I did get upset by this spy's words. Fortunately, Mike Godwin of EFF spoke next and, I think, made Mr. Baker look like the toady he is. Mike asked the audience to consider why something as wholly useful as Clipper is claimed to be must so often (in Baker's traveling road show) be sold on its child pornography prevention platform. Probably, he suggested, that is because appeals to the emotions sometimes work when actual merits are lacking. He said much more, and with an eloquence I found almost moving (and Mike don't always move me the way he'd like, he knows), but I'll let him make his own case. I mention this response to kid porn, though, for two reasons. First, Baker must have mentioned kid porn and pedophilia at least six times in his thirty minute presentation. Second, after Mike spoke, Baker was allowed a response. He defended the emphasis on kid porn upon the notion that the online community is already known to be full of young boys with poor social skills; that they are easy prey for pedophiles. That's it, friends. To your government, we are would-be nerds-in-arms who don't deserve a hearing of our objections because we lacked the social grace that goes with attending rock concerts. We aren't people worth taking seriously; we're much more fun to laugh at. The scary thing is (and Godwin put it best, this way), nothing we can say will change the NSA's mind. The audience was polled, and about a fourth were opposed to Clipper, a fourth were undecided, none held up their hands in support (and some just didn't hold up their hands; why is that?). If this proposal, essentially "trust us, we love you little dweebs," is to be defeated, it will not be by discourse and debate. The other side isn't listening. Logic is out. We must use the political process. You know the rap: write your congressman, join EFF, send letters to editors. But do it, folks. Stuart Baker doesn't care what you say, but he wants the power to listen in the dark. Stop him. _____ end ________ -- Stanton McCandlish * mech@eff.org * Electronic Frontier Found. Online Activist "In a Time/CNN poll of 1,000 Americans conducted last week by Yankelovich Partners, two-thirds said it was more important to protect the privacy of phone calls than to preserve the ability of police to conduct wiretaps. When informed about the Clipper Chip, 80% said they opposed it." - Philip Elmer-Dewitt, "Who Should Keep the Keys", TIME, Mar. 14 1994 ITALIAN CRACKDOWN ON COMMUNITY NETS From: Bernardo Parrella On May 10-12 1994, the first nationwide crackdown on telecom nets was operated by Italian police. Acting after a warrant issued by a Prosecutor in Pesaro, about 60 Bullentin Board Systems throughout the country have been visited and searched by police officials. Dozens of people were formally accused of "distribution of illegally copied software and appropriation of secret passwords" under the law approved by Italian Parliament in January this year. In several cases police officials didn't know what to search for, thus seizing computers, floppy disks, modems along with electric outlets, answering machines, audiotapes, personal effects. The raids also hit private houses and belongings, and in some places sleeping people were abruptly woken up facing machine guns. After searching probably around one third of the entire network - that includes more than 300 BBSes - police officials closed several Fidonet nodes, but no arrests were made. A still inaccurate figure of people were charged with software piracy, and dozens of computers and related devices were seized - along with thousands of floppy disks, CD-Roms, W.O.R.M.S. Moving after a suspected software piracy ring run by people involved in a Fidonet node, the crackdown started in the night between May 10 and 11 in Milano, targeting in the two following days BBSes in Pesaro, Modena, Bologna, Ancona, Pisa and other cities. Fidonet Italia, member of the worldwide Fidonet network, is a non-profit organization devoted to distribution of shareware and freeware programs as well as to electronic forums on topics ranging from technological to social issues. An essential communication tool for several groups and individuals throughout the country, Fidonet Italia became an active multi-cultural vessel and distributor of several different nodes dedicated to specific issues: Peacelink (solidarity, human rights), Cybernet (cyberpunk), Ludonet (games), Scoutnet, Amynet, and others. For thousands of Italian people, Fidonet BBSes today are invaluable tools of information-exchange, social activism and professional activities. The network policy strictly prohibits any distribution of illegally copied software and fraudulent appropriation of secret passwords. Also, Fidonet is one of the few International organizations which has always stated and pursued a clear position against unauthorized copying software. At the moment, the raids seems to be motivated by accusations against two people involved in a Pesaro-based BBS who were using Fidonet contacts to allegedly distribute illegal copies of computer programs. However, there are no reasons for such a vast law enforcement operation. Most likely the prosecutor acted simply on the basis of the Fidonet telephone numbers list (publicly available) owned by the two suspected of software piracy. The vast majority of the people searched don't have any kind of relationship with the suspected, and many of the search warrants stated a generic "conspiracy with unknown" for the crime of software piracy. Particularly, the random and arbitrary seizures of floppy disks and personal computers are completely unmotivated, because every BBS is a completely independent structure and each sysop is running his/her own hardware and software. The seizures will resolve in a great economic loss for these people and their professional activities will be surely affected from negative publicity. Some of them own small computer-related companies while others are physicians, hobbyists, students who risk personal savings to run their services. Because police officials also seized electronic and paper archives containing data and numbers of the people who logged onto Fidonet nodes, it is evident that investigations are going even further - thus violating the constitutional right to privacy. The first result of this crackdown is that many Fidonet operators decided to shut down immediately their systems all over the country, fearing heavier police intrusions in both their public activities and private lives. While the Italian Parliament recently approved specific laws about copyright and piracy of computer software, there are still no rules to protect personal privacy in the electronic medium. This legislative void inevitably makes the sysop the only responsible person about anything happens onto and around his/her own BBS. Fidonet operators do not want and can not be the target of undiscriminated raids that, forcing them to closing down their activities, cause serious damages to themselves as well as to the entire community. In an article published Friday 13 by the newspaper "La Repubblica", Alessandro Marescotti, Peacelink spokesperson, said: "Just when the worldwide BBS scene is gaining general respect for its important role at the community level, in Italy the law hits those networks that have always been strongly against software piracy. Charging dozens of honest operators with unmotivated accusations, the main goal of this crackdown is directed against the social activities of small community nets - thus clearing the space for commercial networking." While terms and figures of the entire operation should still be clarified, on Sunday 15 Fidonet Italia operators will meet in Bologna to study any possible legal counter-action. **************************************************************** CNN SUBSCRIPTION INFORMATION Please send an email message to Richard W. Bryant, Editor & Publisher at: rbryant@hydra.unm.edu indicating that you wish to subscribe. You will be put on the e-mailing list for the following month. CNN is published only in electronic format. **************************************************************** COM NET NEWS is solely under my editorship, and is unrelated and independent of the La Plaza Telecommunity, of which I am vice president. The editorial comment is my own and does not reflect in any way on La Plaza. You may reproduce or publish any parts of this newsletter and distribute it electronically or in paper format. However, any reproduction or publishing of CNN material must be accompanied by the following reference: >From COM NET NEWS: Richard W. Bryant, Ph.D., Editor & Publisher RW Bryant Associates P.O. Box 1828 El Prado, NM 87529 Tel/fax: 505-758-1919 rbryant@hydra.unm.edu ************************************************************ ************************************************************