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Computer underground Digest Wed Oct 23, 1996 Volume 8 : Issue 75
ISSN 1004-042X
Editor: Jim Thomas (cudigest@sun.soci.niu.edu)
News Editor: Gordon Meyer (gmeyer@sun.soci.niu.edu)
Archivist: Brendan Kehoe
Shadow Master: Stanton McCandlish
Field Agent Extraordinaire: David Smith
Shadow-Archivists: Dan Carosone / Paul Southworth
Ralph Sims / Jyrki Kuoppala
Ian Dickinson
Cu Digest Homepage: http://www.soci.niu.edu/~cudigest
CONTENTS, #8.75 (Wed, Oct 23, 1996)
File 1--EU Net-regs; Spanish child porn; Online restraining orders
File 2--Japan's Justice Ministry pushes wiretap, trashing the Const
File 3--Net-censorship reports from Burma, Israel, Singapore, Jordan
File 4--Singapore struggles to control cyberspace, from HKStandard
File 5--Net-freedom roundup: Algiers, Malaysia, Burma, Hong Kong...
File 6--Cu Digest Header Info (unchanged since 7 Apr, 1996)
CuD ADMINISTRATIVE, EDITORIAL, AND SUBSCRIPTION INFORMATION ApPEARS IN
THE CONCLUDING FILE AT THE END OF EACH ISSUE.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Wed, 16 Oct 1996 19:29:17 -0500
From: Declan McCullagh <declan@well.com>
Subject: File 1--EU Net-regs; Spanish child porn; Online restraining orders
From -- fight-censorship@vorlon.mit.edu
[My global net-censorship roundup is at http://www.eff.org/~declan/global/
--Declan]
*************
BRUSSELS, Belgium, Oct. 16 (UPI) -- The executive Commission of the
European Union proposed short- and long-term measures Wednesday to
tackle the growing problem of "harmful and illegal" material
disseminated on the Internet.
"It's not a question of changing the Internet, but we have to do
something," said EU Industry Commissioner Martin Bangemann of Germany.
"If we do nothing at all -- we've had all these cases of child
pornography and also information about how to make atomic weapons --
given that, we do have to react."
The short-term measures contained in a Commission "communication"
represented a range of policy proposals to be considered by the 15
member states.
The long-term approach was couched in the form of a "green paper,"
a call for open debate on the matter among governments, industry and
individuals, leading to possible directives or regulations at the
European level.
Both documents advocate closer cooperation between member states; the
use of filtering software and rating systems by the end user; and the
encouragement of industry self-regulation and a "code of conduct"
among Internet access providers.
[...]
The Commission was asked to prepare preliminary proposals by the
member states during the Sept. 28 council of the 15 telecommunications
ministers. Responses to the green paper are due by Feb. 28, 1997, with
possible new legislation on industry self-regulation by mid-1997.
[...]
Germany is prepared to host a ministerial-level meeting on the
subject by the G-7 industrialized nations sometime next year, Bangemann
said.
***************
MADRID, Oct. 11 (UPI) -- Spanish police claimed Friday to have broken
up the world's most extensive electronic child pornography ring using
the Internet by arresting two engineering students in the northeastern
town of Vic.
"We have approximately 4,000 computer files containing pornographic
pictures and video images, almost all of it involving children," a
police spokesman in the nearby city of Barcelona said.
"The images are of children as young as 3 or 4 years old who, either
with other children or with adults, are practising all kinds of sexual
acts including sodomy, sado-masochism and torture," the spokesman said.
They said there was evidence the material was distributed to buyers
in the United States, Canada and Australia.
Spanish police were tipped off by investigators at the U.S. Treasury
Department, who came across an Internet site where the two students
stored the child pornography. It took four months to track down the
students.
[...]
Police said the students were unlikely to spend much, if any, time in
jail.
Under Spanish law it is not illegal to possess child pornography and
the two students face a maximum prison sentence of 10 months for its
distribution.
[...]
****************
http://www.nando.net/newsroom/ntn/info/101796/info5_28922.html
DALLAS (Oct 17, 1996 00:13 a.m. EDT) -- When
someone began declaring on the Internet that
Teresa Maynard was unfaithful to her husband and
had her breasts surgically enhanced, the couple
was angry.
Anger turned to fear when the online writer added:
"By the way, I have a .45 too."
On Monday, a judge issued a temporary restraining
order that breaks new ground in barring someone
from using the Internet to transmit certain types
of speech. It also was unusual for the way it was
served -- it was posted on the Internet.
District Judge Joe B. Brown ordered Kevin Massey
to stop transmitting via the Internet
"embarrassing private information concerning the
Maynards."
[...]
But he "wholeheartedly, 100 percent" disputes that
there was anything threatening about the messages.
He claims he was just responding to others online
with the same kind of sarcastic language that is
used on the Internet all the time.
As an example, he cited the tag line he uses to
sign all his computer messages: "Lord, grant me
the serenity to accept the things I cannot change.
The courage to change the things I can and the
wisdom to hide the bodies of the people I had to
kill because they p------ me off."
For his part, Robert Maynard said he and his wife
and company have been harassed and taunted since
September in a Dallas-area Internet newsgroup that
serves his employees, customers and potential
customers.
"His first round out of the gate was to accuse my
wife of sleeping with our employees like it was
some kind of corporate benefit," Maynard said. "He
accused her of having plastic surgery, breast
surgery.
[...]
Kenneth Biermacher, a Dallas attorney representing
the Maynards, said when the postings turned to
threats, Massey crossed the line of free speech.
"This speech is not protected by the First
Amendment," Biermacher said.
------------------------------
Date: Thu, 10 Oct 1996 05:42:00 -0700
From: Gohsuke Takama <gt@twics.com>
Subject: File 2--Japan's Justice Ministry pushes wiretap, trashing the Const
From--fight-censorship@vorlon.mit.edu
Japan's Justice Ministry pushes wiretap, trashing the constitution
"Article 21 of the Constitution of Japan
Freedom of assembly and association as well as speech, press and all other
forms of expression are guaranteed. 2) No censorship shall be maintained,
nor shall the secrecy of any means of communication be violated. "
Analyst of Japanese culture might say Japanese has "Tatemae/Hon-ne" double
standard but it might be more than double. Japanese government often treats
own constitution as imported cosmetics, not a base of the society and the
law. On Oct 8, Japan's Justice Ministry announced they are going to propose
a bill that makes wiretap of communications legal which includes the
Internet and BBSs as well as telephones, is a slap to the constitution. JM
stressed it will prevent organized crimes, some may point out incident of a
religious cult Aum Shinrikyo which blasted nerve gas in Tokyo's subway
system in March 1995 was a tailwind.
But unlike USA, Freedom Of Information Act isn't here yet for national
level. If law enforcement abuses wiretapping, here are no monitoring
entity, no CDT, no EFF, no EPIC, no VTW. Yet another example of how Japan's
police is creative about interpreting the law appeared one week before JM's
announce. On Sep 30, Police of Hiroshima filed prosecution on board members
of local Internet Service Provider "Urban Ecology" contributing to public
exposure of pornography through their web site, provided by some user. But
the thing is the user just set links to other site that contains
pornographic material and it was even not linked to top page of the ISP's.
This is totally an extensive understanding of current law, critics points
out. The ISP already manifested against this using their web page
(http://www.urban.or.jp/ub/uin.html).
Still the timing of JM announce was interesting because it was in the
middle of Japan's senate election campaign hell, also right after OECD in
Paris. Why is it now? Setting up key escrow behind smoke screen or
preparing for the return of fascisms?
Gohsuke Takama
))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))
Gohsuke Takama gt@twics.com
current location: Tokyo
((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((
<>Article 21 of the Constitution of Japan<>
Freedom of assembly and association as well as speech, press
and all other forms of expression are guaranteed.
2) No censorship shall be maintained, nor shall the secrecy of
any means of communication be violated.
------------------------------
Date: Mon, 7 Oct 1996 21:16:16 -0700 (PDT)
From: Declan McCullagh <declan@well.com>
Subject: File 3--Net-censorship reports from Burma, Israel, Singapore, Jordan
[My global roundup is at http://www.eff.org/~declan/global/ --Declan]
*********
INTERNET SUPPRESSION IN BURMA
In an attack on the country's political dissidents, the military
regime in Burma has outlawed the unauthorized possession of a computer
with networking capability, and prison terms of 7 to 15 years in
prison may be imposed on those who evade the law or who are found
guilty of using a computer to send or receive information on such
topics as state security, the economy and national culture.
(Financial Times 5 Oct 96)
**********
[Thanks to Joe Shea for this. --Declan]
> Palestinians accuse Israel of blocking Internet access
>
> RAMALLAH, West Bank, Oct 7 - The Palestinian information ministry
> accused Israel on Monday of blocking service to the Internet for Palestinians
> during the flare-up of violence in the territories late last month.
> The ministry said in a statement that Israeli authorities "instructed
> Bezeq, the Israeli state telephone company, to cut off the territories to
> prevent access to the Internet."
> It said Palestinians had been using the Internet to "inform the world of
> Israel's illegal activities in Jerusalem," which "Israel did not approve of
> and did not want the world to see, so they cut off access to the Net."
> The statement cited disruptions in service to Palestinians throughout the
> violence in late September, sparked by the opening of a controversial tunnel
> in Jerusalem's Old City.
> Bezeq, whose telephone lines are used in the territories as in Israel
> itself to access the Internet, denied the charges, saying it "does not supply
> Internet services and therefore cannot cut them off."
> A spokesman for the company, quoted by the daily Jerusalem Post, said
> Palestinian users experienced problems because an Arab Internet supplier in
> East Jerusalem had had "difficulties" with its phone line.
> Bezeq "went to the site to fix the breakdown and offered the company
> back-up lines in case of another," the spokesman said.
*************
SINGAPORE, Oct. 7 (UPI) -- Singapore's strict measures to police the
Internet may need to be reviewed, the chairman of a new goverment-
appointed advisory committee said Monday.
Many computer users in the tightly controlled island republic have
expressed alarm over new laws aimed at screening out Internet
pornography and monitoring Singaporeans' political discussions on the
worldwide network.
``From our point of view, the regulations that are in place now are
not cast in stone,'' said Bernard Tan, dean of the science faculty at
the National University of Singapore and chairman of the National
Internet Advisory Committee.
``One of the main aims of the committee will be to look at the way
the regulations affect Internet usage and whether there are legitimate
concerns,'' Tan added. ``If there is a need to do so, we want to fine-
tune such regulations.''
[...]
***********
Linkname: The Netizen - Global Network
URL: http://www.netizen.com/netizen/96/39/index0a.html
HotWired, The Netizen
Jordan Rules
by Vince Beiser
New York City, 22 September
Most regimes in the Middle East work diligently to hobble free
speech; but the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan has granted unfettered
debate and public inquiry a new toehold - in cyberspace.
Since this past April - when a Jordanian online service, NETS,
convinced Prime Minister Abdul Karim al-Kabariti to participate in an
online forum - the Jordanian government has been ostensibly
accountable to Jordanians. Dubbed "Ask the Government," the forum
allows subscribers to address questions directly to the prime
minister's office, providing an unprecedented opportunity for users to
query officials on issues as conventional as water policy and as
controversial as governmental corruption.
------------------------------
Date: Thu, 17 Oct 1996 19:27:19 -0700 (PDT)
From: Declan McCullagh <declan@eff.org>
Subject: File 4--Singapore struggles to control cyberspace, from HKStandard
from -- fight-censorship@vorlon.mit.edu
More at http://www.eff.org/~declan/global/ --Declan
_________________________________________________________________
Singapore struggles to control cyberspace
SINGAPORE: Singapore, famous for its social order and regulation, is
struggling to control the chaos of the Internet.
Determined to make the tiny city-state ``an information hub'', in the
words of Information and Arts Minister George Yeo, Singapore is
linking every household through a vast network of high capacity
coaxial cables and super-computers.
Once completed, access to the global computer network will be 1,000
times faster than through normal telephone connections.
Over 150,000 of Singapore's 750,000 households are already on line and
all three million people should be tied in by 1999.
But with this information revolution comes new challenges, testing
Singapore's famous social order, which has been carefully cultivated
by the ruling People's Action Party (PAP) since the country's
independence in 1965.
Long used to a strictly controlled local press and restrictions on
many foreign publications, Singaporeans suddenly have virtually open
access to news, information, films and, most worrying to the
authorities, pornography.
This was not the what the government had in mind.
``We want businessmen to invest in the Internet and develop new
software,'' Mr Yeo said in recent interview. ``We want the department
stores and the purveyors of goods and services to make most use of the
Internet.''
Worried by lack of control, Singapore has announced measures to try to
curb local access to ``undesireable'' Internet sites.
The Singapore Broadcasting Authority (SBA) licences just three
Internet Service Providers (ISPs) for domestic subscribers, all units
of government-linked companies, including state telephone company
Singapore Telecom.
All three have installed ``proxy servers'', giant computers capable of
blocking sites the SBA wants banned.
Singapore-based groups wanting to produce pages for the Internet's
most popular forum, the World Wide Web, must also register with the
SBA and can expect careful vetting if they trespass into the political
or religious arena.
But the anarchic Internet, which lacks any central authority, appears
to be defeating most attempts at control.
``It is impossible to block every site,'' said Ong Su Mann, editor of
the Singapore edition of Asia Online magazine.
``Some adult sites have been blocked _ Playboy, for example _ but if
you are someone that seeks out adult sites, all you need to do is use
a search engine (software search device) such as Yahoo! or Infoseek
and type in a word like `sex' or 'nudity','' he said.
A recent key-word search in Singapore for sites with ``sex'' in the
title found 22,797 responses, many offering free access to
pornographic pictures, videos or interactive chat-lines. A similar
search for ``nudity'' found 88,100 sites.
The biggest problem for would-be regulators is the Internet's size.
With worldwide connections fast approaching 100 million, and new users
coming in by tens of thousands every day, there are simply too many
sites to police.
Even if authorities were able to monitor and shut down offensive sites
as fast as they appeared, users could simply dodge local controls by
dialing into an Internet node in another country at international
phone rates that are falling fast.
Faced with these hurdles, the Singapore authorities have decided to
pick off what they say are the worst sites with ``mass impact'' at
source, while attempting to curb access to pornography by encouraging
control at a local level.
SBA chief executive officer Goh Liang Kwang says it has banned ``just
a few dozen sites'', all of them pornographic.
``We want parents and teachers to put in their own measures like
desk-top software such as `SurfWatch' and `Net Nanny','' Mr Goh told
Reuters in an interview.
Knowing it cannot block the overwhelming majority of sites on the
Internet it dislikes and realising it is impractical to interfere with
key-word searches, the SBA is making a gesture, which it hopes
Singaporeans will respond to, Mr Goh says.
On a political level, the governing PAP has set up its own Internet
sites to counter ``misinformation'' about Singapore.
But opponents of censorship scent victory.
``There is already plenty of censorship in Singapore,'' said Alex
Chacko, publisher of several books about Singapore life which he says
have incurred official displeasure.
``We've had problems in the past getting reviewed in Singapore ... Now
we use the Internet.'' _ Reuter
[1]Asia/Pacific
References
1. http://www.hkstandard.com/online/news/001/asia/asia.htm#8
------------------------------
Date: Thu, 3 Oct 1996 05:59:08 -0700 (PDT)
From: Declan McCullagh <declan@well.com>
Subject: File 5--Net-freedom roundup: Algiers, Malaysia, Burma, Hong Kong...
[Update on situations in Algiers, Malaysia, Burma, Singapore,
European Union, U.K., Hong Kong, China, and Germany. More at
http://www.eff.org/~declan/global/ --Declan]
********
SUSPENDED ALGERIAN DAILY OFFERED INTERNET PAGE
Copyright 1996 Reuter Information Service
PARIS (Sep 30, 1996 1:24 p.m. EDT) - A press freedom watchdog on
Monday offered the suspended Algerian daily La Tribune a page on its
Internet site to give it an airing during the six-month ban.
"Thanks to this initiative, these journalists, banned from writing by
the Algerian authorities, will be able to practice their trade again,"
the Paris-based Reporters without Borders (RsF) said.
An Algiers court suspended La Tribune for six months on September 3
over a cartoon mocking the Algerian flag.
[...]
Fifty-seven journalists have been murdered by suspected rebels. RsF
said authorities had suspended or seized newspapers on 55 occasions
and 23 journalists had been held for more than 48 hours since the
conflict broke out over the 1992 cancellation of a general election
fundamentalists were poised to win.
********
UNITED NATIONS, Sept 27 (Reuter) - Malaysia's prime
minister accused the West on Friday of spreading smut and
violence, particularly on the Internet.
In his speech to the U.N. General Assembly, Mahathir bin
Mohamad said that although the information age facilitated
worldwide knowledge, it also demeaned moral values.
``Smut and violence gratuitously distributed by criminals
in the North is no less polluting than carbon dioxide
emissions nor less dangerous than drug trafficking.''
In a reference to the United States he said if one great
power could apply its laws to citizens of another country for
drug trafficking ``why cannot countries with different moral
codes extradite the traffickers of pornography for legal
action?''
``Before the whole world sinks deeper into moral decay, the
international community should act. Abuse of the ubiquitous
Internet system must be stopped,'' he said.
Politically, he said the monopoly of the West's electronic
media should be broken on so-called world news networks.
``Not only are distorted pictures of our countries being
broadcast but our own capacity to understand what is happening
is being undermined,'' he said.
[...]
``It is boring almost. And yet nothing much has been done
which could bring about amelioration of this sad state of
affairs, `` he said.
*********
RANGOON, BURMA, 1996 SEP 27 (NB) -- Burma has made owning, using,
importing or borrowing a modem or fax machine without government
permission a crime, punishable by up to 15 years in jail,
according to a report by United Press International.
Burma's military government has imposed what's called "The
Computer Science Development Law" which empowers the Ministry of
Communications, Posts and Telegraphs to specify what exactly can
be restricted, UPI reports.
UPI quotes the government-run newspaper New Light of Myanmar as
saying the same punishment is prescribed for anyone who sets up a
link with a computer network without the prior permission of the
ministry, or who uses computer network and information technology
"for undermining state security, law and order, national unity,
national economy and national culture, or who obtains or
transmits state secrets."
UPI reports that in July a diplomat, Leo Nichols, died in prison
after he was sentenced to a lengthy term for illegal possession
of fax machines.
***********
SINGAPORE, Sept. 28 (UPI) -- Internet users in Singapore are
complaining that a new system to police the massive global
communications network is slowing down access to websites rather than
speeding it up as promised by government officials, news reports said
Saturday.
Earlier this month, special computers called proxy servers began
censoring all requests for websites from Singapore Internet users,
blocking access to those deemed ``objectionable'' by the government.
The proxy servers, which began regulating cyperspace Sept. 15, delay
access to the Internet because they first have to check a list of banned
websites before retrieving requested homepages, the Straits Times
reported.
``I've found that it can take twice as long to access the sites I
commonly access,'' said Teo Mei Chin, a 22-year-old undergraduate.
Users pointed out that slower access translated into longer on-line
time and higher telephone bills.
Although many Internet subscribers in the tightly-controlled city-
state anticipated such delays under the new system, the Singapore
Broadcasting Authority assured users access to certain websites would
actually be quicker since the proxy servers are able to store frequently
requested homepages.
But Internet users say the filter computers also are dishing up
outdated homepages.
Walter Wu, who uses the Internet for up-to-date stock market and
business data, said some financial websites he requested were at least a
day old.
[...]
***********
LONDON, ENGLAND, 1996 SEP 27 (NB) -- By Steve Gold. The British
government has added its support to plans to handle the problem of
child pornography on the Internet. The proposals, which have been
drawn up by the Home Office with assistance from Peter Dawe, the
founder of Pipex, the UK's largest Internet service provider (ISP),
are known as Safety Net.
According to Dawe, recent discussions in the industry, culminating in
a letter from the police to the various ISPs in the UK, has meant
there is considerable pressure on the ISP industry to exercise a
degree of self-regulation.
"Public opinion said that something had to be done. I came to the
conclusion that it was going to be impossible to establish industry-
wide consensus on how to tackle this issue," he said, adding that the
idea of Safety Net is gathering support in the UK ISP community.
According to Dawe, Safety Net has the backing of the Internet Service
Provider's Association (ISPA), as well as the London Internet
Exchange, two groups which claim to represent most of the ISPs
currently operating in the UK.
[...]
Quite how the ISPs will tackle the problem, such as blocking access to
those Web pages, remains to be seen, but Dawes claims that the ISPs
will have no excuse in law of being unaware of offending Web pages and
Usenet newsgroups.
[...]
**********
BRUSSELS (Reuter) - European Union telecommunications
ministers, reacting to a child-sex scandal in Belgium, pledged
Friday to consider ways to keep illegal material that could harm
children off the Internet.
Belgian Telecommunications Minister Elio Di Rupo announced
that his government planned to implement new measures requiring
Internet access providers to monitor and report material
featuring sexual abuse or exploitation of children.
He asked his colleagues to join forces with him.
``Today a big legal vacuum exists, for legislation is
falling behind technological evolution,'' he said, according to
a speaking note that was distributed to reporters.
``There is a big risk that it will create an enormous market
of children fed on by criminals.''
The ministers agreed to expand a working party that has
already been set up to look at the question of illegal material
on the Internet and asked it to come up with concrete proposals
before they meet again in November.
The group will include representatives of the 15 EU telecoms
ministries and of companies that provide access to online
services or prepare the content, a statement adopted by the
ministers said.
The accord follows an agreement by EU justice ministers in
Dublin Thursday to extend the scope of the EU police agency
Europol so it can fight the sex trade in women and children. The
moves come in the wake of the discovery in Belgium of a
paedophile network and the murders of four young girls.
But some of the telecoms ministers, including those from
Britain and Sweden, warned that the EU could not wander into
censorship and had to focus on fighting truly illegal material.
[...]
********
CENTRAL, HONG KONG, 1996 SEP 26 (NB) -- By Eric Lai. A Hong Kong
Internet enthusiast is claiming that his Web site, featuring
sexually suggestive photos of himself, was forcibly removed by his
Internet service provider (ISP) two days ago in a seeming act of
premature censorship.
Donald Tu, 32, is a former radio and TV presenter and aspiring
bodybuilder and model. In May, he put up his Web site,
http://members/hknet.com/~hkstud/ , which featured photos of himself
topless, often wearing nothing more than wet, slightly transparent
briefs, posing in a studio and outdoors at scenic locations around
Hong Kong.
Tu, who was interviewed on last night's premiere of the Dataphile
On-Air radio show, says his site has received thousands of "hits"
coupled with encouraging e-mail, especially after a local Chinese
language newspaper on September 17 reviewed his Web site.
But a single complaint outweighs those thousands of positive comments,
at least according to his Web host, HKNet. After receiving a single
complaint from a member of the public, HKNet wrote to Tu on Tuesday
that "the government may take action against the site because of its
content and 'exposure,' based on the letter of the law governing
obscene and indecent materials, and recent experiences in its
enforcement. Therefore, we have made the decision to bar access to
the questionable materials for the time being."
But ISPs which censor and regulate content are not currently being
compelled by the government, according to a spokesperson at the
Broadcasting, Culture, and Sport Branch. The Branch has been devising
Internet content regulations all summer which should be announced
soon.
[...]
*********
BEIJING, Sept 27 (Reuter) - China's Communist Party chief
Jiang Zemin moved on Friday to tighten the communists' grip on
the state media and to strengthen his position with a blaze of
publicity before a party plenum.
He used a visit to the Beijing offices of the People's
Daily, the party mouthpiece, to deliver a hardline speech on the
importance of maintaining communist control of all media, the
newspaper reported, splashing the news and three photographs of
Jiang across its front page.
Diplomats said the speech by Jiang was aimed at bringing
back into line Chinese writers and more daring media
organisations that have tried to push the limits of propaganda
[...]
``Historical experience has proved repeatedly that whether
guidance of news is right or wrong has to do with the party
growing strong ... the solidarity of the people and the
prosperity of the nation,'' Jiang said.
[...]
********
HotWired
27-29 Sept 96
The Netizen
by Wendy Grossman
London, 26 September
Last Monday, a unified front of British police, government, and
representatives of leading ISPs announced proposals for cracking down
on illegal material available on the UK's portion of the Internet. The
first target is child pornography, but the protagonists have already
said they've set their sights on other types of illegal material such
as copyright violations, obscenity, and possibly hate speech.
Called R3/Safety-Net, the proposals were presented to the media by
Science and Technology Minister Ian Taylor and representatives from
the Internet Service Providers' Association (ISPA), the London
Internet Exchange (LINX), and the Home Office, which is the government
department charged with law enforcement.
[...]
As it turns out, Demon and the Department of Trade and Industry had
been talking without publicity for months about taking action against
obscenity on the Net. But the media raised the pressure, as did
complaints on uk.censorship about a list of 133 newsgroups that
Superintendent Mike Hoskins of the Clubs and Vice unit of the
Metropolitan Police had sent ISPs as a guide to the location of
illegal material. Hoskins and the ISPs all swear no threat was
intended or taken, but the underlying tone was still: You do something
about it, or we'll do something about it. R3/Safety-Net is that
something.
[...]
No one is going to oppose these measures. How can they, when the 1994
revision of the Criminal Justice Bill allows the police to arrest,
without warrant, people suspected of obscenity and certain child
pornography offenses? Child pornography is, of course, illegal to
create, distribute, or possess in Britain. For the purposes of the
Obscene Publications Act and the Protection of Children Act, if
something looks like a child in a sexual act, it is child pornography.
[...]
So it seemed like with Monday's announcement, everybody wins - almost.
The government gets to look like it's doing something big. The ISPs
get to stay out of jail. The police get to arrest people. Peter Dawe
gets to be a hero. Britain gets to be a world leader. And we get ...
well, what do we get? We get the certain knowledge that they will not
stop here. They have already said so. Books like the Anarchist's
Cookbook are banned here in print, and in a country where last Monday
police seized a massive haul of IRA explosives intended to rearrange
the landscape, the argument for letting people read
alt.engr.explosives is likely to lead to the withdrawal of reference
books from the public libraries. Britain has an Official Secrets Act,
not a Freedom of Information Act.
Government can proceed only with the consent of the governed, and on
Monday what that unified panel asked for was our trust. They will not
censor free speech; it's just the small percentage of illegal stuff
they want cleaned up. So we're left asking before every move, "Daddy,
is this illegal?"
**********
Subject--Germany Bans Web Pages for Minors - and ALL
To--fight-censorship@vorlon.mit.edu
Date--Mon, 30 Sep 1996 13:37:52 +0100 (MET)
Reply-To--um@c2.net (Ulf Moeller)
Organization--private site, Hamburg (Germany)
From--um@c2.net (Ulf Moeller)
The report is essentially correct. In Hamburg, the prosecutors
decided themselves that AOL had done nothing illegal, so as far as I
know there was no court decision.
Also, it appears that said Federal Office is neither responsible
for electronic nor for foreign publications. I think the minister
is trying to spead FUD.
>From--taxbomber@taxbomber.com
>Newsgroups--alt.censorship,alt.privacy,alt.security,news.admin.censorship
>Subject--Germany Bans Web Pages for Minors - and ALL
>Date--Sat, 28 Sep 1996 06:46:58 GMT
>Message-ID--<324cc9c7.7567566@news.c2.net>
>NNTP-Posting-Host--md19-017.compuserve.com
According to Germany's leading tabloid paper "Bild" (Saturday
edition), Federal Minister for Familiy Affairs, Claudia Nolte
(Christian-Democrat), in an unprecedented decision
has formally had several Web pages banned
for being "X"-rated by the "Federal Office for the Evaluation
of Literature Hazardous to Minors".
These are pages featured by Ernst Zuendel, a leading political
revisionist located in Canada whose purportedly "Neo-Nazi"
views have been the subject of much controversy in Germany.
Ms Nolte is quoted as saying: "It is not tolerable that the
Internet should be an island with special privileges, on which
thoughtless or unscrupulous providers may pursue their infamous
activities with impunity."
This effectively forces Internet providers to restrict minors'
access to said pages - a technical impossibility since most
minors accessing the net are be using their parents' accounts.
No "Netwatch" or other self-censorship software will
suffice to conform with this provision, as it is THE PROVIDERS,
not the kids' legal guardians who have to comply with this
restriction.
Following a recent decision by the State of Hamburg's Supreme
------------------------------
Date: Thu, 21 Mar 1996 22:51:01 CST
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