1319 lines
59 KiB
Plaintext
1319 lines
59 KiB
Plaintext
F I D O N E W S -- Vol.11 No.32 (08-Aug-1994)
|
||
+----------------------------+-----------------------------------------+
|
||
| A newsletter of the | ISSN 1198-4589 Published by: |
|
||
| FidoNet BBS community | "FidoNews" BBS |
|
||
| _ | +1-519-570-4176 |
|
||
| / \ | |
|
||
| /|oo \ | Small animal psychology and |
|
||
| (_| /_) | Spiritual guidance Department: |
|
||
| _`@/_ \ _ | Rev. Richard Visage 1:163/409 |
|
||
| | | \ \\ | |
|
||
| | (*) | \ )) | Editors: |
|
||
| |__U__| / \// | Donald Tees 1:221/192 |
|
||
| _//|| _\ / | Sylvia Maxwell 1:221/194 |
|
||
| (_/(_|(____/ | Tim |
|
||
| (jm) | Newspapers should have no friends. |
|
||
| | -- JOSEPH PULITZER |
|
||
+----------------------------+-----------------------------------------+
|
||
| Submission address: editors 1:1/23 |
|
||
+----------------------------------------------------------------------+
|
||
| Internet addresses: |
|
||
| |
|
||
| Don -- don@exlibris.tdkcs.waterloo.on.ca |
|
||
| Sylvia -- max@exlibris.tdkcs.waterloo.on.ca |
|
||
| Tim Pozar -- pozar@kumr.lns.com |
|
||
| |
|
||
| submissions=> editor@exlibris.tdkcs.waterloo.on.ca |
|
||
+----------------------------------------------------------------------+
|
||
| For information, copyrights, article submissions, |
|
||
| obtaining copies and other boring but important details, |
|
||
| please refer to the end of this file. |
|
||
+----------------------------------------------------------------------+
|
||
========================================================================
|
||
Table of Contents
|
||
========================================================================
|
||
|
||
1. Editorial..................................................... 2
|
||
2. Articles...................................................... 3
|
||
Good press free............................................. 3
|
||
Dear Reverend Visage,....................................... 6
|
||
Always Winter and never Christmass.......................... 8
|
||
A Response to Digitial Signatures and "Fake Articles"....... 10
|
||
EDUCATOR LOOKING FOR BBS PARTNERS FOR LOCAL SCHOOLS......... 11
|
||
Helms Amendment passed...................................... 16
|
||
An Editorial Policy Is Required............................. 17
|
||
Subject: Fidonet Crackdown in Italy - Follow-up (fwd)....... 18
|
||
Can we stop telling other people what to believe, please?... 22
|
||
3. Fidonews Information.......................................... 23
|
||
FidoNews 11-32 Page: 2 08 Aug 1994
|
||
|
||
|
||
========================================================================
|
||
Editorial
|
||
========================================================================
|
||
hiya you.
|
||
|
||
Goldberg variations spiralling up staircase, drifting faintly
|
||
into my office/hideout. i like them when i'm trying to figure
|
||
things. mind follows trails and fugues, gently ordering and
|
||
revolving, multiplicity of perspective causing shapes like holographs.
|
||
|
||
this feels like my old apartment on water street, where i put my
|
||
first computer. it was a bit slumlike, backyard shabbly and i had
|
||
to climb a fence to get to my door. the plumbing often didn't work
|
||
but i didn't mind, because there were beautiful ancient hand pumps
|
||
instead of taps, connected to a well. all the walls were at peculiar
|
||
angles, so shadows fell in trances. at a first i had my computer in
|
||
an alcove of windows on an old oak desk that i got cheap at the sally
|
||
ann because a drawer was missing. empty old picture frames hung like
|
||
wallpaper evereywhere. i'd watch them with my imagination instead
|
||
of television.
|
||
|
||
the computer was in a time warp, surrounded by victorian junk.
|
||
it had a modem, and someone gave me some numbers. didn't know what
|
||
they were for so i tried them. that's how i got into this magic space.
|
||
|
||
i liked to move the computer around to see what affect
|
||
differeing environments had on my time online. i moved it into the
|
||
bathroom. giant clawfoot bathtub, candles, shadow puppets near the
|
||
ceiling. then i moved it onto the roof of the kitchen, which was
|
||
flat like a porch, surrounded by dead trees, a condmned building and
|
||
a parking lot. then i moved it inside again, on a low table in front
|
||
of an open window between two blank canvasses. Eventually the
|
||
canvasses filled up and i moved. Spaces have moods to them.
|
||
|
||
didn't know what bbss were supposed to be when i started calling
|
||
them. i thought that the only people reading echos were the dozen
|
||
or so people writing messages, so i wrote messages to them,
|
||
unselfconsciously from inside my head. Chatting was a rush. using
|
||
the modem was goldmining for other minds. hypnotic. mesmerizing.
|
||
|
||
i finally learned about route maps and how echos work by meeting
|
||
an e-friend at a donought shop at two o-clock in the morning. i
|
||
came to feel bonded with people through this medium. i've heard of
|
||
people meeting online and then meeting in person and being
|
||
disappointed, but i've never been disappointed by real-time meeting an
|
||
e-friend.
|
||
|
||
when i became conscious of the vastness of the web, and how
|
||
public it can be, and how socially organized some of it is, i
|
||
stopped writing messages. it seemed like live theatre, and i had
|
||
stage fright. all that structure made me claustrophobic. that went
|
||
away when i began to admire senses of community evolving in echos and
|
||
nets and i wanted to be involved, even if i was awkwardly self-conscious
|
||
about it. sometimes i get fed up when the sense of magic and community
|
||
FidoNews 11-32 Page: 3 08 Aug 1994
|
||
|
||
is threatened by nastier aspects of culture from which bbss can free me.
|
||
i am disappointed when hierarchical concepts migrate from the technical
|
||
aspect of managing nets, to social ones.
|
||
|
||
years later i'm still fascinated by it all. i'm boggling
|
||
through specs and manuals and wire-tap laws and issues of CUD; i'll
|
||
never absorb all of it, there's more and more. i only do that because
|
||
i'm looking for goldminds.
|
||
|
||
A: goldminds: re new able re source.
|
||
|
||
o x x x===ooooooo....#$%^!
|
||
|
||
Q: i read in the most recent edition of CUD that "hackers" are
|
||
being cracked down upon for "pornography". This time hackers had
|
||
used a *nuclear weapons* laboratory machine in Livermore as a
|
||
repository site for some pictures or something.
|
||
|
||
A: huh? nuclear weapons? who's using technology pornographically?
|
||
|
||
Q: What are you doing?
|
||
|
||
A: i'm going to Arizona to examine part of the plant experiment.
|
||
i'm going to look for a pile of dead junky metal and steering
|
||
equipment, with intelligent plant life growing out of it.
|
||
|
||
========================================================================
|
||
Articles
|
||
========================================================================
|
||
Good press free
|
||
|
||
NETSTOCK
|
||
|
||
Sheila Lennon
|
||
Whitehouse&Lennon, Art of the Possible (1:323/109)
|
||
|
||
I had to write a Woodstock story or go sit in the mud again.
|
||
|
||
This was first published in the Providence (Rhode Island, USA) Sunday
|
||
Journal Magazine, Aug. 7, 1994, and is spreading via the New York
|
||
Times News Service. The author grants permission, blah, blah, blah ...
|
||
to free systems to post it or pass it on. Just keep it free.
|
||
|
||
WOODSTOCK REMEMBERED
|
||
|
||
HEADLINE: "The global village is finally wired''
|
||
|
||
By SHEILA LENNON
|
||
|
||
``I still get a chill through me. Woodstock happened because a lot of
|
||
people believed in those things -- helping each other, sharing, making
|
||
it better together.'' -- Al Fumognari. Providence Sunday Journal,
|
||
August 13, 1989
|
||
|
||
You must know by now that Woodstock was more than the mud and the
|
||
FidoNews 11-32 Page: 4 08 Aug 1994
|
||
|
||
stars and the music.
|
||
|
||
An experience, not an album.
|
||
|
||
"To the media it was a catastrophe, but to us, it was the very best
|
||
life," Carmino Scaglione of Scituate, R.I., recalled in 1989.
|
||
|
||
For three days in 1969 he and I and a half-million like-minded
|
||
strangers had come together and created the world we wanted to live
|
||
in. There were no rules, and no violence.
|
||
|
||
Woodstock was as far as we could take the '60s. Freedom could work,
|
||
but we were kids. We didn't know enough, and Richard Nixon's America
|
||
wasn't ready for more than our dress rehearsal.
|
||
|
||
We went home, different, some too different ever to fit into anywhere.
|
||
|
||
Others forgot what happened at Woodstock and got lost in the glitz.
|
||
|
||
I bought the "Whole Earth Catalog," the owner's manual of the
|
||
counterculture, and discovered Buckminster Fuller, cheap travel and
|
||
natural childbirth.
|
||
|
||
Twenty-five years later, Richard Nixon is dead, our dissatisfaction
|
||
with government is widespread, and the global village is finally
|
||
wired. It's time to move into it.
|
||
|
||
"A million small computers, linked by ordinary telephone lines, can
|
||
suddenly wield formidable computing power that is extremely hard to
|
||
control in a rigidly hierarchical, centralized manner." -- Howard
|
||
Rheingold, "Virtual Communities."
|
||
|
||
The information highway will not be televised.
|
||
|
||
Learn to navigate the computer net, or be relegated to the second tier
|
||
of the future -- a shopper. ``Interactive TV'' will restrict your
|
||
choices to which movies you'll watch and which ATM account to debit
|
||
for those cubic zirconias.
|
||
|
||
True ``interactivity'' allows you to generate content from a keyboard,
|
||
to send and receive. Not only celebrities get ``microphones.'' You too
|
||
have a voice. You can champion an idea, object to an outrage, question
|
||
authority. Like-minded people are again coming together, but this time
|
||
the "virtual world" is computer-mediated. You'll have to make friends
|
||
with machines, or at least learn their language, in order to enter the
|
||
future.
|
||
|
||
Mastering the computer may prove a stretch, harder in its own way than
|
||
the mud and thirst and heat of Woodstock. But many people will help
|
||
you, and ask only that you pass on what you learn to someone a few
|
||
steps behind you.
|
||
|
||
I haven't felt smart since I arrived online, but I'm having a great
|
||
time.
|
||
|
||
FidoNews 11-32 Page: 5 08 Aug 1994
|
||
|
||
Unorthodox information -- topics not seriously covered by the
|
||
mainstream press -- is exchanged like contraband. Such '60s staples as
|
||
herbs and alternative medicine, underground politics, altered states,
|
||
organic gardening, vegetarian cooking and astrology mix with such '90s
|
||
concerns as virtual reality, ACT UP, jobs wanted and health care.
|
||
|
||
Politicians who venture online will find a well-informed constituency
|
||
already here, and can expect to account for their actions publicly and
|
||
often.
|
||
|
||
``Information wants to be free.''-- Stewart Brand, founder of the
|
||
"Whole Earth Catalog" and The Whole Earth 'Lectronic Link, the WELL.
|
||
|
||
In Woodstock's economy, your money was useless. What we had was
|
||
shared, and what was ordinarily exchanged for money was given away.
|
||
|
||
Many local bulletin boards offer free public access to global nets.
|
||
Freelance computer programmers distribute inexpensive software through
|
||
them: "shareware" that you're welcome to try before you buy.
|
||
|
||
On the net, you can give away all that you have and still have it all.
|
||
Electronic information is not a hard commodity.
|
||
|
||
What has value here are the people who can generate information. What
|
||
you know and how you'll share it is your currency.
|
||
|
||
``It was a little bit frightening to have such freedom, like another
|
||
world where you could do anything, say anything, be anyone, nobody
|
||
would stop you.'' Kathleen McDevitt, Providence Sunday Journal, August
|
||
13, 1989
|
||
|
||
In 1989, I went back to Bethel, New York, to what will always be
|
||
called Max Yasgur's farm, to cover the 20th-anniversary celebration of
|
||
Woodstock for the Journal-Bulletin, and brought along my 13-year-old
|
||
daughter, Casey Dahm. I tapped on a laptop in the grass, reporting on
|
||
a week of local bands lining up to play on the same spot as Jimi
|
||
Hendrix and Janis Joplin, and on the climactic Saturday night when
|
||
10,000 people rekindled that spirit of goodness that pervades the
|
||
place.
|
||
|
||
Casey will always remember it as the scene of her first kiss.
|
||
|
||
This year, Casey wants to be nowhere near the Catskills. The free,
|
||
eight-day Rainbow Gathering and Megarave in Arizona's the Grand Canyon
|
||
sounds more interesting. The Rainbow People, tie-dyed nomads, are
|
||
gathering there with the Zippies.
|
||
|
||
Zippies?
|
||
|
||
One, a fashion failure wearing virtual-reality goggles, graced the May
|
||
cover of Wired magazine, the 18-month-old guide to technohip that's
|
||
the biggest marketing success since Rolling Stone, and already not as
|
||
good as it used to be.
|
||
|
||
Zippies are technohippies from England who deftly mix the music and
|
||
FidoNews 11-32 Page: 6 08 Aug 1994
|
||
|
||
multimedia of the rave club scene, Druid religious roots, psychedelics
|
||
and that old hippie freedom trip. Their tour is called Pronoia -- the
|
||
sneaking feeling that others are conspiring to help you -- and their
|
||
goal is evolution, a revolution in consciousness. (Sound familiar?)
|
||
|
||
``When cars got stuck, people would literally lift them up. We were
|
||
spontaneously working together.'' John Sousa, Providence Sunday
|
||
Journal, August 13, 1989
|
||
|
||
The spirit of freakdom rides again, moving as information on a global
|
||
net that links nearby to nowhere special. It thrives on diversity and
|
||
disdains commercialism, a movement from the Old World to the New.
|
||
|
||
The net offers another chance to get it right:
|
||
|
||
We empower each other by sharing information.
|
||
|
||
We can create here, together, a society in which everyone has a voice,
|
||
and everybody's ideas are heard.
|
||
|
||
It's a different world now, 25 years later, and it's showtime.
|
||
|
||
(Sheila Lennon is a section editor in the Providence Journal-
|
||
Bulletin's features department.)
|
||
|
||
----------------------------------------------------------------------
|
||
|
||
Charles Herriot of 1:163/110 submits yet another letter
|
||
from the chemically imbalanced Doc Logger to the Reverend
|
||
Visage, a man of deep, probing ministries. Roll da flick,
|
||
Sylvia...
|
||
|
||
Moose Milk Ranch,
|
||
BarBQhaven, Ontario
|
||
Canada
|
||
O4Q L8R
|
||
|
||
Dear Reverend Visage,
|
||
|
||
Oh great. I have Snooze accountants crawling all over the
|
||
place. Do you think you might have been a little more subtle
|
||
and *not* submitted the receipts for Consuela's counseling
|
||
on edible underwear. Mercifully, every forensic scientist in
|
||
the universe is working on the O.J. case and they'll never
|
||
be able to match your tongue prints.
|
||
|
||
I am so pleased that you are being civilized about your
|
||
placement on the Snooze masthead. I am sure that neither Don
|
||
nor Sylvia cheated when I lost that poker bet wherein I had
|
||
to find someone who would get more Steve Winter mail than
|
||
they do. Mercifully, Steve Winter hasn't heard a *thing*
|
||
about your pagan rituals involving lubricants and nuns. When
|
||
the inevitable flood begins, I suggest stepping on the
|
||
messages with large measures of Glenlivet.
|
||
|
||
FidoNews 11-32 Page: 7 08 Aug 1994
|
||
|
||
Best of luck in British Columbia. I fear that you may learn
|
||
that not only the RC12 is missing, but that fellow Satti has
|
||
gone AWOL as well. Keep your eyes open for glassine craters
|
||
which may mark the spot where they underwent spontaneous
|
||
human combustion. The RC12, who runs an alleged BBS system
|
||
on alternate Wednesdays, hasn't sprinkled Holy Oil on the
|
||
winner of the net250 election but we can be assured that the
|
||
comatose majority continues to support him.
|
||
|
||
I tried to take your advice with respect to avoiding net250
|
||
sysop echos but I can't seem to control the evil twitching
|
||
in my Dr. Strangelove arm that keeps areafixing one of the
|
||
best humour echos on the continent. I mean, you can't help
|
||
but giggle at an endless stream of messages bragging about
|
||
how they are pulling 1,000 echos into their net but they
|
||
*still* can't move mail eight city blocks in less than four
|
||
days. Imagine, some of their sysops go into horrible
|
||
withdrawal when they haven't received Keith Robb's Dreknet
|
||
advertisement message on a daily basis.
|
||
|
||
What is more remarkable, is that there are still pockets of
|
||
poor souls who believe that the PeeFour document is the
|
||
highest and best expression of their McJob management
|
||
careers. I think it would be a good and decent thing for us
|
||
to help these people by sending them as the advance guard to
|
||
Haiti where they can proclaim "But we gotta have rules." The
|
||
TonTon Macoutes will embrace them with open arms... probably
|
||
small arms, with the safeties off.
|
||
|
||
The recall vote which was held in REG12 to dispense with the
|
||
alleged RC was an underwhelming success in vox populi. I
|
||
think all twenty four voters who exercised their franchise
|
||
will be sending angry netmail to Readers Digest demanding to
|
||
know if they are "already a winner."
|
||
|
||
Your secretary, Ms. LaBamba has parked herself on the edge
|
||
of my desk and despite my pleas for more oxygen she refuses
|
||
to release me from a thighlock until I lash this thing
|
||
together and get it shipped to Swamp Swine. I fear that her
|
||
silicone implants have gone to her head, and we may need to
|
||
send her to Mississauga to have her lobotomized.
|
||
|
||
I shall be on the road next week, having promised to visit
|
||
France where I will be a guest speaker at a "Save The Dwarf
|
||
Tossing" rally. I understand that our moosehide parka pal,
|
||
Bridgitte Bardot, will be there. I shall stop in
|
||
Newfoundland to club a few baby seals so that she can be
|
||
suitably attired.
|
||
|
||
Regards,
|
||
Doc Logger,
|
||
Vegetable Philosophy Dept.,
|
||
Smelting University,
|
||
Anaconda, Montana
|
||
|
||
FidoNews 11-32 Page: 8 08 Aug 1994
|
||
|
||
|
||
Always Winter and never Christmass
|
||
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
|
||
|
||
From: Mike Riddle (1:285/27)
|
||
To: Donald Tees (1:1/23)
|
||
Date: August 3, 1994
|
||
Subject: PGP
|
||
|
||
Re: Winter of our discontent (his title)
|
||
Always Winter and never Christmass (mine)
|
||
|
||
Dear Don:
|
||
|
||
In your generally well considered and written editorial
|
||
about the latest Winter storm, you write:
|
||
|
||
DT> None that I have seen yet are practical. PGP is the most
|
||
DT> common one ... but are we to refuse access to anyone not
|
||
DT> using PGP? I think not. Besides, unless we poll a system
|
||
DT> directly to get the public key, how does it prove anything?
|
||
DT> Anybody can create a key and a PGP signature.
|
||
|
||
First, I while I hope that no one suggested PGP as the ultimate
|
||
(dare I say, "final"?) solution, it would be *part* of a solution to the
|
||
problem of proof of authorship. Presumably you could trace the path
|
||
line of the submission, or could review your inbound log, but both of
|
||
those can be "hacked" so they might not prove much.
|
||
|
||
But you show a bit of a misunderstanding with respect to PGP. If you
|
||
receive a PGP key and process it, you will see something like the
|
||
following example, using a of mine. Running the process
|
||
|
||
pgp [public key filename]
|
||
|
||
on my public key returns the following:
|
||
|
||
File contains key(s). Contents follow...
|
||
Key ring: 'mhr28527.$00'
|
||
Type bits/keyID Date User ID
|
||
pub 1024/FE0E156D 1994/05/18 Mike Riddle (mr@rlaw.omahug.org) sig
|
||
1158478D Jim Grubs, W8GRT
|
||
<jgrubs@voxbox.norden1.com>
|
||
sig F7ADF50D Jim Grubs
|
||
<jgrubs@voxbox.norden1.com>
|
||
sig EE38FB41 GK Pace
|
||
<gkp@f26.n374.z1.fidonet.org>
|
||
sig F89A24F9 Christopher Baker
|
||
<1:374/14@fidonet.org>
|
||
1 matching key found.
|
||
|
||
Do you want to add this keyfile to keyring 'C:\PGP\pubring.pgp'
|
||
(y/N)?
|
||
|
||
- From this, you can see that while obtaining the key directly from
|
||
FidoNews 11-32 Page: 9 08 Aug 1994
|
||
|
||
me is at least some insurance against "spoofing," the key contains
|
||
within itself its own validation.
|
||
|
||
Whether or not your system can decrypt the signatures is dependent
|
||
upon your having obtained the public keys of the signers. The
|
||
process seems slow at first, but quickly builds, and over time
|
||
you establish a "web of trust" based upon keys received from a
|
||
known, trusted source, plus keys obtained from unknown routes but
|
||
processed and signed by known persons.
|
||
|
||
Within the configuration of PGP you have the option to tailor the
|
||
trust levels and requirements, so you can be very easy-going or you
|
||
can be quite paranoid. Or you can take a common-sense, middle ground,
|
||
approach.
|
||
|
||
So if you receive a public key and a signed message in the same packet,
|
||
you might still be able to verify the sender. It will depend upon who
|
||
has signed the public key, whether you have any of those keys in your
|
||
keyring, and what trust levels *you*, not anyone else, has assigned to
|
||
the signers.
|
||
|
||
PGP might not be a perfect solution for the verification of authorship,
|
||
but digital signatures in a broader sense *are* the answer. The U.S.
|
||
government has recently announced a Digital Signature Standard. The
|
||
process, however, has been marred by technological and legal controversy
|
||
and it is difficult to say, as I write, what the final outcome will be.
|
||
|
||
But PGP (or PEM/RIPEM for the internet-able) are existing, relatively
|
||
widespread, systems which provide for digital signatures. PGP, because
|
||
of its flexible key and decentralized management, has generally won the
|
||
battle for the hearts and minds of cypherpunks within Fidonet. I
|
||
maintain both a RIPEM and a Fidonet public key, but I've never received
|
||
anything besides test traffic in RIPEM and I don't encourage its use.
|
||
The PGP front-ends are much friendlier.
|
||
|
||
So that other submission you received? Maybe you could have trusted it
|
||
after all!
|
||
|
||
Mike
|
||
|
||
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----
|
||
Version: 2.53
|
||
|
||
iQCVAgUBLj9gi0pSi8D+DhVtAQHeVAQA7n2KDHZU2rZxN4SC4Zd4wldo9NSBwffe
|
||
4bbcVBozTbjBEgokGI/TttNbr4frwZy5rOqYiM24A4K+Vub56OLpDADJmxbeoRWn
|
||
DKNJ+kHo7MzIg4fXu2cYzAnoHRryumBI8cBoh1ZhA5T3xq9UK6FX0qgxFuZa2n8v
|
||
AZpRe2AL6pE=
|
||
=qjfx
|
||
-----END PGP SIGNATURE-----
|
||
|
||
-----BEGIN PGP PUBLIC KEY BLOCK-----
|
||
Version: 2.53
|
||
|
||
mQCNAi3aOhkAAAEEAPJ8znEHIYStbdbOxTKkZhutKL+0zTFCIBO7BisWIlVQ1Vns
|
||
qoLJ+pfa79DN9y8xgZH9NNr8/a5SanCtDLhniPmX/6paS0AeQxYTkKNkHRgLC6pR
|
||
FidoNews 11-32 Page: 10 08 Aug 1994
|
||
|
||
8Yz3g3YPxsIRoPPaJHUIxQI/TmhkLZzEPjmgJ1StJQiN//BNi0pSi8D+DhVtAAUT
|
||
tCBNaWtlIFJpZGRsZSAobXJAcmxhdy5vbWFodWcub3JnKYkAlQIFEC3o0W0w1Fqv
|
||
EVhHjQEBn6gD/1PXO0R9OEau5f2issfHOYbNYCXpNauF/DO4+yo4+WAc/0DeCNsh
|
||
4y2C7AuPYZp6qOGqos1oL5E85jegteGU8qfup987uZphbWksu7qIGJqaxLn3Q95P
|
||
zRTYjM9GPhBzxa4ocwsrhyQE1TNqzuTqVzYfD58W/GmrO1VyK9RWIQxkiQCVAgUQ
|
||
LdpzbMmzkeX3rfUNAQE6UAQAtdSTI8b1K5ohk2DKcPWAmlMrmJUaWbeab2uz87Kv
|
||
JgZq1BTFXCQAi1t+f7JE2xpF+TwF5SHQxBWrHeZq8l92z31Kgwu3Mjb0O2CJzYFS
|
||
Y3tEuwMbufwtvwrN3mvPTkEn3RiTSqoAILOtReEUE9AyBR9Z0XjVuKO23jiPgXWC
|
||
kc+JAJUCBRAt2uMZj0k0Hu44+0EBAeBvA/wKrl1sng1QI4mDVSO6KfS6fYmWv3y8
|
||
fxcuck9/6309Rsk9eQroY0tJSEuJNXV/fIyW9YPwyl0cWeTC/e0xF415DAb0++TD
|
||
0MjY3nFefqMwt3gVrQgbuTIHbHi4/LJL/C5wjPe1ASaCbp2zfJG4OAuK3peCpnqB
|
||
H394cWlIcBT/5YkAlQIFEC3aRoTLEDwS+Jok+QEBx0ED+wQT5kDZUnlG6QioSXSx
|
||
TyPudFl/II61nfrKQF+EQlhg1REKOz/OiSeFaoxJ/mMcmWbTD8RbnibJG6Y70AA9
|
||
+mgfRRZO232Qwxk8lU9uwfHbXlrqlIKdpnkOX90V3vVWxdtWpvBr0242/GylkGr3
|
||
3Z0gqthX2jTzWBp6GE6wUuBc
|
||
=1vn9
|
||
-----END PGP PUBLIC KEY BLOCK-----
|
||
|
||
|
||
----------------------------------------------------------------------
|
||
|
||
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
|
||
|
||
A Response to Digitial Signatures and "Fake Articles"
|
||
by Ryan Anderson (1:120/379)
|
||
Net 120 Secure Mail Hub
|
||
|
||
Fidonet appears to be at the center of the controversy regarding
|
||
digital signatures and encryption. With the article by Steve Winter's
|
||
in at least *ONE* of the recent snooz issues we have come to a point
|
||
where there is a great deal of confusion over both digital signatures
|
||
and encryption.
|
||
|
||
A digital signature simply attempts to authenticate the originator of
|
||
the message. Therefore, an article without one has no proof at all of
|
||
it's origins. Via lines and header data are easily faked.
|
||
|
||
SW?> The recent article in the Snooze FIDO1129.NWS was not authored or
|
||
SW?> authorized by me.
|
||
|
||
This statement by Steve has no margin of proof in it right now,
|
||
because we have no verification that he actually submitted the
|
||
article. This is one of the many benefits of learning more about the
|
||
encryption currently available to use in Fidonet.
|
||
|
||
The only way to prevent this from happening in the future is for Steve
|
||
to get himself a copy of PGP, create a key, make it available for file
|
||
request, and get as many signatures added, as fast as possible. Then
|
||
he needs to sign every message leaving his system. Maybe then we can
|
||
determine if Steve Winters wrote the article in question, or if it was
|
||
simply someone annoyed at him making him look like a fool.
|
||
|
||
For more information on digital signatures, look for the PUBLIC_KEYS
|
||
echo. It's available on the backbone, and in most nets. Or get a
|
||
copy of PGP, and read the documentation. (It's amazingly informative)
|
||
FidoNews 11-32 Page: 11 08 Aug 1994
|
||
|
||
|
||
Ryan Anderson
|
||
|
||
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----
|
||
Version: 2.6
|
||
|
||
iQCVAgUBLkM+mTc3ytqHnNyNAQEHngP/f4jOarobd+Nqn+NoZqfb2GBdhuSSZ8va
|
||
hk8JEJB38VudXR9AEYKk25OnLG7BbLQQDJFOmZXs4rCw7Oc0OsYVbDF9CVI1QRTi
|
||
f9QRq2Up4ZkPbu3VnFAx2PV7EykQLYdpVufzBAfwy28SeQ7sikb3tL+1OP4lD/oe
|
||
L4JfP+g51KU=
|
||
=aGtW
|
||
-----END PGP SIGNATURE-----
|
||
|
||
----------------------------------------------------------------------
|
||
|
||
EDUCATOR LOOKING FOR BBS PARTNERS FOR LOCAL SCHOOLS
|
||
|
||
By way of introduction, I am a 6th grade teacher at Morningside
|
||
Elementary School in Brownsville, Texas. I am on the organizational
|
||
committee of NASSE, the National Association of Space Simulating
|
||
Educators, which is comprised of a group of educators involved in the
|
||
use of classroom and school space simulators (including permanent,
|
||
semi-permanent, and temporary simulators). We met at University
|
||
School in Shaker Heights, Ohio, (a suburb of Cleveland) during June
|
||
of 1994 to establish a national organization.
|
||
|
||
The purposes of the organization are:
|
||
|
||
1. To facilitate the exchange of ideas, information, and technical
|
||
enhancements among simulator using educators.
|
||
|
||
2. To assist teachers interested in developing space simulators.
|
||
|
||
3. To provide consultation services to teachers and schools
|
||
regarding the use of space simulators.
|
||
|
||
4. To encourage the use of the information superhighway as a tool
|
||
for enhancing simulations.
|
||
|
||
5. To provide assistance regarding sources of free or low cost
|
||
resources and materials from the aerospace community, government
|
||
organizations, and information providers.
|
||
|
||
6. To advance the use of simulation as an educational technique in
|
||
all areas of education.
|
||
|
||
7. To support the initiatives for space exploration on the part of
|
||
governmental and other organizations.
|
||
|
||
We currently have well over 50 subscribers to our fledgling
|
||
organization. NASSE has an Internet address (nasse@shadowso.com), and
|
||
I a gopher site at http://chico.rice.edu/armadillo/ for storage and
|
||
retrieval of Ascii and binary files to enhance educational space
|
||
simulations. I hope to begin placing public domain software on the
|
||
Armadillo system very soon.
|
||
FidoNews 11-32 Page: 12 08 Aug 1994
|
||
|
||
|
||
As a Fidonet/K12Net SysOp, I realize that many educators do not have
|
||
full (or even partial) Internet access. I would like to provide those
|
||
educators with a Fidonet echomail area devoted to discussions regarding
|
||
the planning and coordination of educational space simulations. An
|
||
appropriate name for the echomail area would be, simply, SPACESIM.
|
||
|
||
I have been conducting simultaneous educational space simulations for
|
||
the past three years. By "simultaneous," I mean that we coordinate
|
||
our simulations with other sites across the country. When we launch
|
||
a mission with our permanent space simulator, _Columbia II_, other
|
||
schools monitor our progress via Internet email. Remote sites also
|
||
utilize satellite tracking programs to monitor the "flight." A
|
||
Fidonet echomail area would provide a means whereby educators could
|
||
plan for simulations of their own. We could also coordinate
|
||
simulations that had a much longer duration than the "traditional"
|
||
space simulations conducted via Internet.
|
||
|
||
Essentially, five to seven student "astronauts" perform prelaunch
|
||
systems checks as indicated by their preflight launch scripts, see
|
||
and hear a space shuttle launch (we have an EXCELLENT VHS video tape
|
||
developed by Tim Dedula at NASA Lewis), activate switches labeled
|
||
according to _The Space Shuttle Operator's Manual_ in proper
|
||
sequence, perform experiments while in "orbit," communicate with
|
||
Mission Control via wireless FM intercom, utilize satellite tracking
|
||
programs to monitor their progress, and so on. We endeavor to make
|
||
the simulations as realistic as possible.
|
||
|
||
At Mission Control (my classroom), teams of students work together to
|
||
make the mission successful:
|
||
|
||
The Lab Team collects data from the Payload Specialists inside the
|
||
simulator who are performing the experiments;
|
||
|
||
The Medical Team asks the Medical Officer on board the _Columbia II_
|
||
space shuttle simulator to take blood pressure, heart rate, pulse, and
|
||
respiration readings from the astronauts before and after a rest period
|
||
and compares those data to readings taken before and after an exercise
|
||
period;
|
||
|
||
The Navigation Team follows the _Columbia II's_ progess on a
|
||
Shareware satellite tracking program (STSORBIT) and records latitude,
|
||
longitude, and altitude, notes the time (in CST and UTC), and plots
|
||
the shuttle's current position on a large world map;
|
||
|
||
The Data Team sends written data to the astronauts via "fax" (a printer
|
||
inside the simulator connected to an IBM PC outside);
|
||
|
||
The Public Relations Team scurries about, picking up information from all
|
||
teams to post on a large bulletin board;
|
||
|
||
The Communications Team relays all voice communications from the various
|
||
teams to the student astronauts.
|
||
|
||
Those interested in participating conduct their own missions as outlined
|
||
FidoNews 11-32 Page: 13 08 Aug 1994
|
||
|
||
above OR serve as
|
||
|
||
weather stations
|
||
solar flare observatories
|
||
Auxiliary Mission Control nodes (you could supervise the experiments YOU
|
||
design for US to perform)
|
||
NASA tracking stations
|
||
Space Station Freedom
|
||
Moonbase Alpha
|
||
Mars Base 5
|
||
|
||
We communicate with each other via email, but I am working on
|
||
obtaining CuSeeMe connectivity. CuSeeMe is being developed by
|
||
Cornell University and allows for realtime videoconferencing on the
|
||
Internet.
|
||
|
||
Over the past two years, we have developed launch and landing
|
||
scripts, activity guides, and experiments for the astronauts to
|
||
conduct while in orbit. We have amassed a veritable curnucopia of
|
||
space science-related software (e.g., satellite tracking programs,
|
||
mission clocks, GIFs of the space shuttle, space flight simulators,
|
||
etc.). Tim Dedula, an electrical technician at NASA Lewis, has been
|
||
extremely helpful, not only to us, but to educators across the
|
||
country interested in space simulations. He has provided us with a
|
||
wealth of materials, including lesson plans, software, NASA videos,
|
||
and VHS videos HE developed of a space shuttle launching, in orbit,
|
||
and landing. We also coordinate simulations with Bob Morgan,
|
||
director of the National Educational Simulations Project Utilizing
|
||
Telecommunications (NESPUT) under the auspices of Academy One and the
|
||
Cleveland Freenet, who coordinates several 24-hour missions every
|
||
year. Bob is a pioneer in the field of student space simulations and
|
||
has also provided us with lesson plans, ideas for experiments,
|
||
computer software (IBM, Apple, and Mac), space science-related book
|
||
titles, and much more.
|
||
|
||
As you can see, the possibilities for this kind of project are
|
||
practically limitless.
|
||
|
||
Our permanent space simulator, the _Columbia II_, is 10 feet wide and
|
||
20 feet long. An 8 x 8 ft. section was added to provide the
|
||
astronauts with a restroom and shower. The outer covering of the
|
||
simulator is white 4 mil poly. The framework supporting the plastic
|
||
consists of 10-foot lengths of PVC that are inserted into 1" holes
|
||
drilled into the 2 by 4 base. The entire structure took about two
|
||
weeks to build and cost about $1,500.00.
|
||
|
||
*-------------*
|
||
| Restroom |
|
||
* & *
|
||
| Shower |
|
||
*----* *----*
|
||
| |<--- tunnel
|
||
| |
|
||
*----* *----*----*----*----*----*---*
|
||
| | |<--|--- Control Panel
|
||
FidoNews 11-32 Page: 14 08 Aug 1994
|
||
|
||
| | | |
|
||
| Dining / Communications Room | O <-- Outer Hatch
|
||
| Room | Flightdeck | | (entrance)
|
||
|Middeck | | |
|
||
*---*----*----*----*----*----*----*---*
|
||
|
||
Each * is a 1/2" hole in which a 10-foot section of PVC pipe is
|
||
placed. A PVC "cross" joins the two opposite PVC pipes together,
|
||
forming an arch. The plastic sheeting is then placed over the arch,
|
||
forming a structure somewhat reminiscent of a Conastoga wagon. The
|
||
plans for making the Simulator were taken from a book titled _Space
|
||
Simulations_ by Jerry Bernhardt and Larry McHaney.
|
||
|
||
There are two computers in the communications room. One computer, a
|
||
Mac, is used as a space science encyclopedia. The Mac contains a
|
||
variety of space science-related programs (e.g., The Space Educator's
|
||
Handbook, GIF viewers, SatTrak, and so on). A monitor mounted behind
|
||
the control panel is connected to a modem-equipped PC outside the
|
||
simulator. Members from the Data Team use the PC, which is connected
|
||
to a video/keyboard switcher, to run various programs for the
|
||
astronauts, including a shuttle tracking program, GIF viewer,
|
||
telecommunications program, and Space Flight Simulator. The third
|
||
computer - an Apple IIe - is located in the Middeck area and is used
|
||
for additional training on aeronautics and spaceflight.
|
||
|
||
Two lengths of coax cable and a phone line from my classroom provide
|
||
video and audio links to the simulator. A VHS VCR and Panasonic
|
||
laserdisk player are connected to a video switcher which is, in turn,
|
||
connected to the 50-foot length of coax cable so that various video
|
||
segments (e.g., shuttle launch, earthviews from the shuttle,
|
||
thunderstorms, atmospheric anomalies, shuttle landing, etc.) can be
|
||
transmitted to a large screen TV inside the simulator. A video
|
||
splitter located between the video switcher and the 50-foot length of
|
||
coax allows Mission Control personnel to view the launch, earthviews,
|
||
landing, and so on, on a TV inside Mission Control.
|
||
|
||
A surveillance camera is mounted to the middle wall separating the
|
||
Flightdeck and Middeck areas. A 60-foot length of camera cable is
|
||
connected to a B/W monitor in Mission Control for continuous
|
||
supervision. This particular surveillance system provides 1-way
|
||
video/audio communications from the student astronauts and Mission
|
||
Control technicians.
|
||
|
||
A control panel was added to the simulator this year. Various
|
||
aircraft instruments have been placed in the panel to add an extra
|
||
touch of realism. Thirty-two switches have also been installed. Each
|
||
switch is labeled and corresponds to an actual switch found inside a
|
||
real space shuttle. When the switch is depressed, a bulb is lit on a
|
||
control panel in Mission Control. The panel in Mission Control also
|
||
contains switches that light bulbs on the control panel inside the
|
||
Simulator.
|
||
|
||
Two sets of wireless FM intercoms that provided for voice
|
||
communications between the astronauts and Mission Control and between
|
||
the astronauts in the Flightdeck and Middeck areas have been removed.
|
||
FidoNews 11-32 Page: 15 08 Aug 1994
|
||
|
||
The surveillance camera described above provides one-way communications
|
||
between the astronauts and Mission Control. An FM tuner connected to
|
||
a stereo mixer with 3 microphone inputs (and 4 additional inputs)
|
||
provides one-way communications between Mission Control and the the
|
||
astronauts. We are experimenting with the mixer, using it to manage
|
||
various sound inputs as sound effects (e.g., laserdisk player, CD-ROM
|
||
player, cassette, etc.)
|
||
|
||
Another modem-equipped computer in Mission Control classroom provides
|
||
a mode of communication that allows the Public Relations Team to
|
||
correspond with students, educators, and space science professionals
|
||
the world over.
|
||
|
||
Activities with our space simulator culminate in a simultaneous
|
||
24-hour mission in which student astronauts and Mission Control
|
||
technicians conduct experiments related to space science, perform
|
||
emergency evacuation drills, and correspond with students in many
|
||
states and countries who also participate in the 24-hour space
|
||
simulation.
|
||
|
||
The project is a cooperative effort involving teachers, parent
|
||
volunteers, and students of all ages, but we focus on 4th thru 6th
|
||
grade students. Once the various roles have been assigned, everyone
|
||
must work together to define his/her responsibilities throughout the
|
||
mission. A firm chain of command must be established. For example,
|
||
as Operations Director, I speak only to Team Leaders.
|
||
|
||
We conduct, on average, one 8-hour long simulation every month
|
||
beginning at 10:00 a.m. CST (16:00 UTC). This type of project
|
||
requires careful planning in order for all teams to know what their
|
||
respective duties and responsibilities are. The date for the next
|
||
simulation will be announced at least two weeks prior to the
|
||
simulation.
|
||
|
||
It is also possible that simulations could be coordinated over a
|
||
period of many days or even weeks. Such would be the case in a
|
||
simulation of an extended journey to Mars.
|
||
|
||
In future, additional echomail areas could be devoted to specific
|
||
aspects of the educational space simulation: Planning, Resources,
|
||
Lessons and Experiments, Scenarios, and so on.
|
||
|
||
I understand that in order for SPACESIM to get on the backbone, I have
|
||
to demonstrate a need for such distribution. If you are a Fidonet
|
||
SysOp and would like to subscribe to the SPACESIM echomail area, please
|
||
email
|
||
|
||
chris@tenet.edu
|
||
or netmail me at
|
||
|
||
Chris.Rowan@f12.n397.z1.fidonet.org.
|
||
|
||
I sincerely appreciate your comments and suggestions, and look forward
|
||
to hearing from you.
|
||
|
||
FidoNews 11-32 Page: 16 08 Aug 1994
|
||
|
||
Respectfully yours,
|
||
Chris Rowan
|
||
chris@tenet.edu
|
||
|
||
|
||
----------------------------------------------------------------------
|
||
|
||
From: (Flesh)
|
||
Helms Amendment passed,
|
||
call your Senators and House Reps (fwd)
|
||
Date: Wed, 3 Aug 1994 19:55:49 -0700 (PDT)
|
||
|
||
This is a forwarded message. The phone numbers are really only relevant
|
||
if you live in Washington, but this is pretty significant, even if it was
|
||
already voted upon
|
||
----------------------------
|
||
Critics of the Helms amendment to the Elementary and Secondary Education
|
||
Bill are claiming that it threatens local autonomy and will increase hate
|
||
and intolerance in schools and in general. Following is a large excerpt
|
||
of a wire story on the vote. I called Senator Murray's office; she voted
|
||
against the amendment. Please call her and let her know how important
|
||
her vote was. I was unable to reach Senator Gorton's office late
|
||
Tuesday. I'll call again Wednesday morning.
|
||
|
||
Senator Murray's Seattle Office: 553-5545
|
||
Senator Gorton's Seattle Office: 553-0350
|
||
Sen Gorton's Opinion Hotline: 1-800-282-8095
|
||
|
||
joe
|
||
--------------------------------
|
||
WASHINGTON (AP) -- School districts with programs that encourage
|
||
acceptance of homosexuality would lose federal funding under a
|
||
Senate proposal.
|
||
Senators voted 63-36 Monday in favor of a proposal by Sens.
|
||
Jesse Helms, R-N.C., and Bob Smith, R-N.H., to cut federal aid to
|
||
districts that ``carry out a program or activity that has either
|
||
the purpose or effect of encouraging or supporting homosexuality as
|
||
a positive lifestyle alternative.''
|
||
Included were distribution of instructional materials,
|
||
counseling and referral of students to gay organizations.
|
||
The vote occurred as the Senate debated reauthorization of the
|
||
Elementary and Secondary Education Act, which spreads $12.5 billion
|
||
in federal funds among the nation's public schools.
|
||
The House included a similar amendment when it passed the bill.
|
||
Differences between the two versions will have to be worked out by
|
||
a conference committee before the bill can be signed into law by
|
||
President Clinton.
|
||
Smith had a stack of pamphlets he said were typical of those
|
||
purchased by school districts that teach about homosexuality in
|
||
social studies or sex education programs.
|
||
He said some were ``so graphic and so disgusting that I can't
|
||
display them here on the floor of the United States Senate.''
|
||
But Sen. Paul Wellstone, D-Minn., called the proposal ``very
|
||
mean-spirited'' and said it would forbid counseling of gay
|
||
students, who he said are two to three times as likely as other
|
||
FidoNews 11-32 Page: 17 08 Aug 1994
|
||
|
||
teen-agers to commit suicide.
|
||
``We simply can't do that,'' he said.
|
||
Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., chairman of the Senate Labor and
|
||
Human Resources Committee, said the proposal would inject the
|
||
federal government into local decision-making and would ``remove
|
||
the local discretion that is the hallmark of our educational
|
||
system.''
|
||
Some school districts teach acceptance of homosexuality during
|
||
social studies or sex education programs. Such a program in New
|
||
York City led to the ouster of Joseph Fernandez as chancellor of
|
||
the nation's largest school system last year.
|
||
Publishers also are offering some books written especially for
|
||
curricula that teach acceptance of gays.
|
||
``Heather Has Two Mommies'' and ``Daddy's Roommate'' depict
|
||
lesbian and gay male couples in family settings with children.
|
||
Other books designed for AIDS education programs are more graphic.
|
||
Some describe sexual acts and advocate the use of latex condoms
|
||
during intercourse.
|
||
Helms denounced what he called the ``disgusting, obscene
|
||
material that's laid out before school children in this country
|
||
every day.''
|
||
The Elementary and Secondary Education Act also sets the
|
||
distribution formula for federal dollars targeted for disadvantaged
|
||
students.
|
||
More than 90 percent of the nation's school districts receive
|
||
funds from the so-called Chapter I program. But the money is spread
|
||
so thin that many poor children are either not served or
|
||
underserved.
|
||
|
||
----------------------------------------------------------------------
|
||
|
||
An Editorial Policy Is Required
|
||
|
||
An Editorial Policy Is Required
|
||
by Denis McMahon, 2:251/20
|
||
|
||
Listen up Donald & Sylvia, it's about time you put an editorial
|
||
policy in place that stops the Snooze being used for flamewars.eur,
|
||
flamewars.usa, flamwewars.uk etc, and dragged it back out of the
|
||
gutter it seems to have fallen into.
|
||
|
||
I and many others have their own ideas about who is right and who is
|
||
wrong in the various local conflicts, and I probably have the same
|
||
total lack of interest about the conflicts going on elsewhere as
|
||
anyone else.
|
||
|
||
Added to this, just about everyone distorts the truth in some way
|
||
when putting across their side of a dispute, so the information
|
||
posted in the Snooze often varies between the inaccurate and
|
||
downright lies.
|
||
|
||
+++++++++++++++++++++++ ENOUGH IS ENOUGH +++++++++++++++++++++++++++
|
||
|
||
I thought that the Snooze was an important part of FidoNet, it's how
|
||
we're kept up to date with what's going on. However, it seems that
|
||
FidoNews 11-32 Page: 18 08 Aug 1994
|
||
|
||
the current fashion is to use the snooze for:
|
||
|
||
(a) The editors to make profound comments based on their own lives -
|
||
which is probably OK - editors should be able to write what they
|
||
like in an editorial.
|
||
|
||
(b) Flamewars.uk - an ongoing series of allegations and
|
||
counter-allegations that in total contain maybe 5% true fact
|
||
concerning the administration of FidoNet in Zone 2 Region 25.
|
||
|
||
(c) Flamewars.usa - an ongoing series of articles about sysops in
|
||
the usa by sysops in the usa who disagree with each other.
|
||
|
||
(d) Sick humour - which may also be a deliberate attempt by some
|
||
people to upset other people.
|
||
|
||
(e) Net humour - which would be fine if the author wasn't trying to
|
||
score political points with it, and
|
||
|
||
(f) Occasionally something useful like a new echo announcement etc.
|
||
|
||
(a) I don't mind within reason, (b) contains so much lies it could
|
||
never be printed in the UK without major courtroom civil action, (c)
|
||
might yet go the same way on your side of "the pond" (Atlantic
|
||
Ocean), (d) is unneccessary, (e) tolerable and (f) shouild be
|
||
encouraged.
|
||
|
||
So, editors, are you going to allow the continued hands off and
|
||
print the lot policy to continue, or do you have the courage to do
|
||
what any other editor does and, at risk of upsetting contributors,
|
||
chuck the rubbish in the bin.
|
||
|
||
At the end of the day, if someone else wants to start up en ezine
|
||
called fidowars they can do it, but lets kick this rubbish out the
|
||
Snooze!
|
||
|
||
|
||
----------------------------------------------------------------------
|
||
|
||
Date: Wed, 25 May 1994 16:02:22 -0700 (PDT)
|
||
Subject: Fidonet Crackdown in Italy - Follow-up (fwd)
|
||
Precedence: list
|
||
To: eff-activists@eff.org (eff-activists mailing list)
|
||
|
||
---------- Forwarded message ----------
|
||
Date: Tue, 24 May 1994 12:04:27 -0700
|
||
From: Bernardo Parrella <berny@WELL.SF.CA.US>
|
||
Subject: Fidonet Crackdown in Italy - Follow-up
|
||
|
||
From: Bernardo Parrella <berny@well.sf.ca.us.>
|
||
To: All
|
||
Subject: Fidonet Crackdown in Italy - Follow-up
|
||
Date: May 23, 1994
|
||
|
||
"The crackdown needed to be done, software piracy has become a
|
||
FidoNews 11-32 Page: 19 08 Aug 1994
|
||
|
||
National sport in Italy. Unfortunately, the operation rapidly became
|
||
too wide for our forces: right now, here in Pesaro we are only three
|
||
Prosecutors, quite busy with penal trials, in court all day long. We
|
||
will try to do our best with the less possible damage for the entire
|
||
community."
|
||
|
||
Here are the explanatory words of Gaetano Savoldelli Pedrocchi, the
|
||
Pesaro Prosecutor who is managing the investigations that last week
|
||
led to a nationwide crackdown on Fidonet Italia BBSes
|
||
|
||
During the operation - confidentially known as "Hardware 1" - more
|
||
than 60 (some sources go up to 130) Bulletin Board Systems have been
|
||
visited and searched by police officials.
|
||
|
||
In the central and northern part of the country, several Fidonet
|
||
nodes were closed and dozens of operators were charged of "conspiracy
|
||
with unknown for distribution of illegally copied software and
|
||
appropriation of secret passwords."
|
||
|
||
Some figures say the seizures included more than 120 computers, 300
|
||
streamer-cassettes and CD-ROMs, 60,000 floppy disks, an imprecise
|
||
number of modems and other electronic devices.
|
||
|
||
In some cases, police officials sealed off rooms and garages where
|
||
the BBSes were operated or closed all the hardware they found in a
|
||
closet. Several Fidonet operators (generally students, professionals,
|
||
small-company owners) lost their personal data because every magnetic
|
||
support was "suspected to carry pirated software".
|
||
|
||
Aimed to crack a distribution ring of illegal software run by two
|
||
people using the publicly available Fidonet nodelist, investigators
|
||
searched and seized every single site of the list - even those that
|
||
had never had any contact with the two suspected.
|
||
|
||
Also, many operators not inquired by police were forced to
|
||
immediately shut down their systems, searching for possible illegal
|
||
software covertly uploaded on their BBSes.
|
||
|
||
As a consequence of such indiscriminate operations, the real, very
|
||
few pirate boards had the chance to quickly hide their businesses -
|
||
sources say.
|
||
|
||
"I do not believe to this scenario," said the Pesaro Prosecutor in an
|
||
interview by SottoVoce Magazine. "We acted after precise information
|
||
about the activities of a specific data-bank: if some operators have
|
||
nothing to do with the charges, we'll verify it as soon as possible."
|
||
|
||
Questioned about further investigations against BBSes users, the
|
||
Prosecutor said: "We'll see later....at the present, users can sleep
|
||
peacefully: otherwise, I cannot imagine how many people should be
|
||
investigated. I do not want to criminalize the entire population.
|
||
Even if the inquiry has become so vast, this is not a subject of
|
||
vital importance for our country. It is mostly a fiscal and
|
||
bureaucratic issue, a matter of small-scale but spread illegality."
|
||
|
||
FidoNews 11-32 Page: 20 08 Aug 1994
|
||
|
||
However, rumors say other inquires are currently underway in other
|
||
cities, and even the Criminalpol is working on similar issues.
|
||
|
||
Assisting the investigated people, some lawyers already asked for the
|
||
immediate return of the confiscated materials, while others suggested
|
||
to wait for better times. In any case, it will probably take months
|
||
(years?) before receiving official answers regarding the seizures.
|
||
|
||
Struggling to re-open in some way their systems, Fidonet operators
|
||
are also working to get the attention of mainstream media on the
|
||
issue - with little success, so far. After an article published by La
|
||
Repubblica, two local newspapers, Il Mattino and Il Giornale di
|
||
Brescia, run brief reports on May 15, both centered on "a wide
|
||
software piracy ring cracked by police officials".
|
||
|
||
But the real activity is happening inside and around electronic
|
||
communities.
|
||
|
||
MC-Link and especially Agora' Telematica (the biggest Italian
|
||
systems) are doing a great job, offering space for news, opinions and
|
||
comments - also acting as connection links between the decimated net
|
||
of BBSes and worried individuals scattered in the country.
|
||
|
||
Here is just one example: "....police officials seized everything,
|
||
including three PCs (one broken), a couple of modem (just fixed for
|
||
some friends), floppies, phone cables, phone-books. Now Dark Moon is
|
||
off, hoping to have at least one line available in a few days, maybe
|
||
at 2400. I fear that more raids will soon follow elsewhere. So,
|
||
please, stay alert..."
|
||
|
||
A catching dynamism flourishes from the BBSes linked to Cybernet.
|
||
Although some of them are currently not operating, a special issue of
|
||
the Corriere Telematico was just released over the net and their
|
||
printed voice, Decoder Magazine, will soon distribute news,
|
||
testimonies, comments on "Operation Hardware 1".
|
||
|
||
PeaceLink has set up a defense committee-news center in Taranto and
|
||
its spokesperson, Alessandro Marescotti, will sign an article for the
|
||
next issue of the weekly magazine Avvenimenti.
|
||
|
||
Promptly alerted, the International online community gave good
|
||
response - quickly redistributing the news over the Net and sending
|
||
supportive messages.
|
||
|
||
Here is an email from Michael Baker, Chairman of Electronic Frontiers
|
||
Australia: "To that end I am writing to offer assistance to anyone in
|
||
Italy who wants to set up such an organisation. Recently I (along
|
||
with others) have set up Electronic Frontiers Australia, and I am now
|
||
its Chairman. Other national EF groups have been, or are being, set
|
||
up in several other countries (Canada, Ireland, Norway, UK and
|
||
Japan)....if there is anything we can do to help, please ask."
|
||
|
||
Shifting toward politics, on May 19, the first working day of the new
|
||
Italian Cabinet, six Members of the Reformers group presented a
|
||
written question to the Ministers of Justice and Interior.
|
||
FidoNews 11-32 Page: 21 08 Aug 1994
|
||
|
||
|
||
After a short introduction about telecom systems, the document gives
|
||
an account of the facts and asks three final questions to the
|
||
Government: "- if it will intend to open an investigation to verify
|
||
if the raids ordered by the Pesaro Prosecutor's office were
|
||
prejudicial to the constitutionally guaranteed freedom of expression;
|
||
- if it is not the case to set up a better and greater team of
|
||
computer experts in order to avoid further random seizures of
|
||
electronic devices that lead to shut down the BBSes; - if it is not
|
||
the occasion to confirm that current legislation does not charge
|
||
system operators with objective responsibility for users' activities
|
||
on telecom systems."
|
||
|
||
Although the Fidonet sysop community (about 300 people) is still
|
||
quite uncertain regarding its future, many of them feel the urgent
|
||
need to overcome a sort of cultural and social isolation that clearly
|
||
surrounds the telecom scene in Italy.
|
||
|
||
At the moment the main issue is how to raise public interest and
|
||
political pressure to obtain clear laws in support of civil rights in
|
||
the electronic medium.
|
||
|
||
Ideas and proposals are developing from several electronic
|
||
laboratories, such as the Community Networking conference on Agora'
|
||
Telematica as well as on Cybernet.
|
||
|
||
"We underestimate our strength: if we could just be able to set up an
|
||
Italian Association of Telecom Users we could put pressure on
|
||
political and legislative bodies." "Overwhelm newspapers, radio and
|
||
tv stations with faxes, letters, phone calls!" "We must attract
|
||
common people, through hundreds of tables and events in the streets
|
||
more than online, even if we do not have a Kapor to support us."
|
||
"There should be press-conferences in several cities, with the
|
||
presence of investigated people along with famous persons,
|
||
politicians." "What about a 24-hours silence from any system in the
|
||
country with simultaneous events in each city and village where a BBS
|
||
operates?"
|
||
|
||
The situation is rather fluid and in e-motion. Stay connect!
|
||
|
||
- Bernardo Parrella
|
||
|
||
<b.parrella@agora.stm.it>
|
||
<berny@well.sf.ca.us>
|
||
|
||
< - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - >
|
||
electronic distribution of this posting is greatly encouraged,
|
||
preserving its original version, including the header and this notice
|
||
< - - - - - - - -- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - >
|
||
FidoNews 11-32 Page: 22 08 Aug 1994
|
||
|
||
|
||
Can we stop telling other people what to believe, please?
|
||
Matt Clauson (1:306/54.1)
|
||
CoSysOp, Message Bases, AudioVisual Resources BBS (1:306/54.0)
|
||
|
||
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
|
||
|
||
I have been reading the "articles" that our fellow Fidonaut Steve
|
||
Winter has been posting over the past 52 issues... And I am getting
|
||
VERY TIRED of what I see as "My Christianity is the only real
|
||
Christianity, all the rest can go to hell!"
|
||
|
||
Correct me if I'm wrong, but this is what *I* believe Mr. Winter is
|
||
putting into the snooze... I'm not saying that his view of
|
||
Christianity is not correct, but who is he to tell us if our view of
|
||
Christianity is not correct? Isn't this like why the Puritans and
|
||
other religous groups came to our dear land? So they wouldn't have to
|
||
be told that their views are wrong?
|
||
|
||
I know, and I AM admitting, I do not go to church every weekend, or
|
||
read the Bible every day for eight hours... But I do believe that He
|
||
does have a plan for us... And I am willing to be a part of it. But
|
||
that plan is not for you or any other human being to decide,
|
||
Mr. Winter...
|
||
|
||
I'm not saying that religion should not be in FidoNet, but, please,
|
||
Mr. Winter, do not condemn other Christians because they are not
|
||
"your brand" of Christian. And please feel free to contact me by
|
||
netmail or by an open article in the snooze if you want to correct me
|
||
as to the reasons behind your views...
|
||
|
||
For those of you with PGP who wish to reply by netmail, please
|
||
send me an encrypted message. My key lays below... Along with
|
||
my signature...
|
||
|
||
BTW -- I have plenty of hard drive space for the flood of messages that
|
||
will arrive! <very large grin>
|
||
|
||
Best Regards, and me He be with you,
|
||
Matt
|
||
|
||
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----
|
||
Version: 2.6
|
||
|
||
iQCVAgUBLjdXjxLg2ZL4fdjDAQFDLwP+NTFNyeITfnM9PoGBIV7AM3+jNLArv1vQ
|
||
2LEzANwM2CeMUR/lzC/uGmnLFYuR/BrprWq88xtnBAu4ZXWwcFQYILk6/Qb63c4K
|
||
XeQ6FrR3LknXt0A+YnbZDPArNJtWH5xeg0kqud9CLDdmWJ4RvQnjKccxTw9sB+ge
|
||
A2PdRIfXv8s=
|
||
=MIxa
|
||
-----END PGP SIGNATURE-----
|
||
|
||
-----BEGIN PGP PUBLIC KEY BLOCK-----
|
||
Version: 2.6
|
||
|
||
mQCNAi4wlvoAAAEEANd0QJRV3/AJDR3ZHfkBSbgLjEFNl+P5FgmoZnYMERll0Q+J
|
||
FidoNews 11-32 Page: 23 08 Aug 1994
|
||
|
||
RwjjISwn+hSVHfmvMtzZbOImzPWjUNIfhZDqi1/emU7D3hyiDmjDkShXsoy0H9DA
|
||
FJthyVbQopIftsZXpkpM/oofEoYPKMQh0JS03YhxbaG90CvP9xLg2ZL4fdjDAAUR
|
||
tClNYXR0IENsYXVzb24gPE1hdHRfQ2xhdXNvbkBjbHViLm5jZGwuY29tPrQxTWF0
|
||
dCBDbGF1c29uIDxNYXR0X0NsYXVzb25AY2x1Yi5uY2RsLmNvbT4gUFJPSkVDVLQp
|
||
TWF0dCBDbGF1c29uIDxNYXR0X0NsYXVzb25AY2x1Yi5uY2RsLmNvbT6JAJUCBRAu
|
||
MKxoEuDZkvh92MMBAf2tA/9n72PD5sEBJ4wy1Dz2tCNGhwieahpIrgjWaAB2gHuY
|
||
TDb0WtGZ011eqB3At/7p+FSpRoq8x4CcJoDKyK8ITwJL8vHu5MLm41EWpMkKce+K
|
||
MgupuQsMiyLeFPW+1g9/PjIbx4M/C8K/8uPOxNIXjeKmJSQnXTcT6CdZa216bV/l
|
||
hg==
|
||
=qxw4
|
||
-----END PGP PUBLIC KEY BLOCK-----
|
||
|
||
----------------------------------------------------------------------
|
||
|
||
========================================================================
|
||
Fidonews Information
|
||
========================================================================
|
||
|
||
------- FIDONEWS MASTHEAD AND CONTACT INFORMATION ----------------
|
||
|
||
Editors: Sylvia Maxwell, Donald Tees
|
||
Editors Emeritii: Thom Henderson, Dale Lovell,
|
||
Vince Perriello, Tim Pozar
|
||
Tom Jennings
|
||
"FidoNews" BBS
|
||
FidoNet 1:1/23
|
||
BBS +1-519-570-4176, 300/1200/2400/14400/V.32bis/HST(DS)
|
||
Internet addresses:
|
||
Sylvia -- max@exlibris.tdkcs.waterloo.on.ca
|
||
Tim -- pozar@kumr.lns.com
|
||
|
||
(Postal Service mailing address)
|
||
FidoNews
|
||
128 Church St.
|
||
Kitchener, Ontario
|
||
Canada
|
||
N2H 2S4
|
||
|
||
Voice: (519) 570-3137
|
||
|
||
Published weekly by and for the members of the FidoNet international
|
||
amateur electronic mail system. It is a compilation of individual
|
||
articles contributed by their authors or their authorized agents. The
|
||
contribution of articles to this compilation does not diminish the
|
||
rights of the authors. Opinions expressed in these articles are those
|
||
of the authors and not necessarily those of FidoNews.
|
||
|
||
Authors retain copyright on individual works; otherwise FidoNews is
|
||
Copyright 1994 Sylvia Maxwell. All rights reserved. Duplication
|
||
and/or distribution permitted for noncommercial purposes only. For use
|
||
in other circumstances, please contact the original authors, or
|
||
FidoNews (we're easy).
|
||
|
||
OBTAINING COPIES: The most recent issue of FidoNews in electronic
|
||
form may be obtained from the FidoNews BBS via manual download or
|
||
FidoNews 11-32 Page: 24 08 Aug 1994
|
||
|
||
Wazoo FileRequest, or from various sites in the FidoNet and Internet.
|
||
PRINTED COPIES may be obtained by sending SASE to the above snail-mail
|
||
address, or trade for copy of your 'zine.
|
||
|
||
INTERNET USERS: FidoNews is available via FTP from ftp.fidonet.org,
|
||
in directory ~ftp/pub/fidonet/fidonews. If you would like a FAQ, or
|
||
have questions regarding FidoNet, or UUCP<==>FidoNet gateways, please
|
||
direct them to David Deitch (1:133/411@fidonet) at
|
||
deitch@gisatl.fidonet.org.
|
||
|
||
SUBMISSIONS: You are encouraged to submit articles for publication in
|
||
FidoNews. Article submission requirements are contained in the file
|
||
ARTSPEC.DOC, available from the FidoNews BBS, or Wazoo filerequestable
|
||
from 1:1/23 as file "ARTSPEC.DOC". Please read it.
|
||
|
||
"Fido", "FidoNet" and the dog-with-diskette are U.S. registered
|
||
trademarks of Tom Jennings, and are used with permission.
|
||
|
||
"the pulse of the cursor is the heartbeat of fidonet"...
|
||
-- END
|
||
----------------------------------------------------------------------
|
||
|