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F I D O N E W S -- | Vol. 9 No. 40 (5 October 1992)
The newsletter of the |
FidoNet BBS community | Published by:
_ |
/ \ | "FidoNews" BBS
/|oo \ | (415)-863-2739
(_| /_) | FidoNet 1:1/1
_`@/_ \ _ | Internet:
| | \ \\ | fidonews@fidonews.fidonet.org
| (*) | \ )) |
|__U__| / \// | Editors:
_//|| _\ / | Tom Jennings
(_/(_|(____/ | Tim Pozar
(jm) |
|
| Newspapers should have no friends.
| -- JOSEPH PULITZER
----------------------------+---------------------------------------
Published weekly by and for the Members of the FidoNet international
amateur network. Copyright 1992, Fido Software. All rights reserved.
Duplication and/or distribution permitted for noncommercial purposes
only. For use in other circumstances, please contact FidoNews.
Electronic Price: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . free!
Paper price: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $10.00US
For more information about FidoNews refer to the end of this file.
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Table of Contents
1. EDITORIAL ..................................................... 1
Editorial: Now less than ever ................................. 1
2. ARTICLES ...................................................... 2
Error in FidoNews 9-39 "REGION25" article ..................... 2
Did I Dream All This, or What ? ............................... 2
Private Communications... Are you listening? .................. 9
Book Review: SYSLAW, 2nd ed. - Legal Guide for Online Servic .. 11
Bucking World Trends : Powermongery in Cold Places * .......... 12
Why No Protection For Us?? .................................... 14
User Origin Door for Remote Access ............................ 19
PUBLIC_KEYS Echo is born! ..................................... 19
Of Controversey and Discovery ................................. 21
3. FIDONEWS INFORMATION .......................................... 22
FidoNews 9-40 Page 1 5 Oct 1992
======================================================================
EDITORIAL
======================================================================
Editorial: Now less than ever
by Tom Jennings (1:1/1)
Look I've got nothing to say this week, so I won't say it. Well, just
this one thing...
I managed to screw up an article sent to me, and apparently totally
garbage it. The format of the file sent didn't conform to
ARTSPEC.DOC, like about 40% of all articles received here. So, I did
my usual, which is to manually edit the three files into an article.
Well, I mashed it.
So from now on, I am going to simply BOUNCE BACK ARTICLES THAT DO NOT
CONFORM TO ARTSPEC.DOC. It is *your* responsibility to get a copy of
it, and read it. I'll run it as an article next week as well. Fair
enough?
* * * * *
PRIVACY: expect to hear lots about privacy in the coming months...
PGP version 2.0 is out, and it's been sufficiently improved to be
useful in FidoNet.
Expect *lots* of "trouble" caused by the privacy issue. I'd always
assumed everyone thought the right to privacy was a good thing. Not
so! Mere days ago, a FidoNet sysop wrote me, saying all this privacy
stuff was fine, but he wants to be able to read all the mail passing
through his system! Innaresting, huh?!
POLICY4 specifically prohibits "encrypted" mail. A very naive
viewpoint. We'll see...
----------------------------------------------------------------------
FidoNews 9-40 Page 2 5 Oct 1992
======================================================================
ARTICLES
======================================================================
From : Peter Burnett - 2:441/80@fidonet
Ref : Fidonews Vol. 9 No. 39 (28 September 1992)
I would like to point out that the below article in the above
mentioned version of Fidonews has some errors.
On page 14, an article called "FIDONET REGION25 ( UK ) EXCEPTION
POLICY" starts and ends on page 18. I would like to point out at
this moment in time 2 items for your attention.
1. The 'Exception Policy' is at this current moment in time is a
discussion document and holds no status other than a discussion
document with Region 25. This was not pointed out by the
contributor of the said document in thier footnotes.
2. The 6 paragraphs that start on line 40 of page 17 and continue
through to line 29 of page 18 are not part of the draft version
D.1 held here at my system and are the thoughts of the contributor
to Fidonews of the said document. The list of authors contained
on lines 32 to 34 inclusive of page 18 is correct, however, in
the manner in which this has been presented as an article for
fidonews, it would seem that Paul Dickie and myself were the
contributors of the whole article to fidonews, including the 6
paragraphs identified above. This is indeed not the case on my own
part and as such, I dissasociate myself with those 6 paragraphs.
I really dont know why the contributor to fidonews did not point out
that the closing 6 paragraphs were his/hers own thoughts and sign them
as such instead of attaching Paul Dickie's and my own name as well as
a lot of other sysops name to them.
(* ED NOTE: This is at least partly my doing. The article in question
came in three separate files, none of which conformed to ARTSPEC.DOC
requirements. I assembled them into a single article, which looked OK
to me, and ran it. Ooops.
This points out *why* ARTSPEC.DOC is important. I will be more
vigilant in enforcing ARTSPEC.DOC requirements. My apologies to Peter
and Nick both, for allowing this to happen. *)
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Did I Dream All This, or What ?
FidoNews 9-40 Page 3 5 Oct 1992
I went to a party. It was held in a multi-room house built on
the side of a rocky hill. The slope led down to a lake. I later
learned it was my house. I remember loud music, dancing and some
kind of small train ride. Was it FidoCon ?
After a while, I was feeling better, finally sitting down to eat at
a large table. Everyone was still there. I guess we never know
quite what to expect.
Well anyway --
I'd slept 3 hours Sat. morning, and 4 hours Sun. morning. I
fell, asleep about 6 pm. Sunday. This was Labor Day morning.
Pretty weird.
Last thangs first :
92 Dallas, Tx
91 Denver, Co
90 Lyndhurst, Nj
89 San Jose, Ca
88 Cincinatti, Oh
87 Alexandria, Va
86 Colorado Springs, Co
First thangs first :
Thurs. afternoon :
The hotel guarantee.
Oh look out.
This is when it gets tough. Not everyone registers early, not
everyone even says "I wanna". How many mouths to feed ? How many
rooms to clean ? This is definately the hard part. Check out the
Fidocon planning session, S9 below.
I had a list of early arrivers. Dropped in on James Smith of Online
Systems, the Frontdoor folks. Boy, did we screw up. I'm going to
say thanks to this guy a lot in this issue, because James hung there
despite our idiocy in trying to do anything like a trade show.
FidoCon is not a trade show, and should never be. Period.
Thurs. evening :
I was pressed. Kevin's baseball practice at 6:30 meant I had to take
him, until Honey got off work and got there to relieve me. When she
shows up, I'm fixing to leave, and I hear : "We need a new
shortstop." Hmmm, Kevin plays shortstop. I turned around to find
him bleeding at the mouth. His very first tooth had come out.
Maybe it was an omen. I need another New Orleans trip to get my
cards read. Hey, New Orleans for Fidocon 93 !
FidoNews 9-40 Page 4 5 Oct 1992
The lounge.
Bless Saint Anthony
Los Gringos from San An-tone had arrived ready to paint the town red.
They hotly anticipated the Echomail Cost Sharing session and came
prepared. Cooked up my little part of the formal presentations just
right ! Thanks guys.
Fri. afternoon
The scramble.
Hey Zues, Remember ?
I had already stole the truck. Loading it was another thing. I took
everything. Needed it too. Got checked in and oriented and then the
work started.
The check-in.
Here they come. Walking in the suite. You get the funniest looks
from, all the nerds you meet. Hey hey we're the Sysops, oh sorry.
People were stopping by in droves. We were passing out schedules and
name tags left and right. Eventually, things settled down, and the
bunch of them took off for the local pizza joint.
Fri. 19:00 Dinner
Who's who.
<
Ron and John will fill you in on the pizza party, since I didn't go.
Hey, somebody had to watch the suite and make huge business deals.
>
So anyway, James was real easy and I bargained Fidocon 93 down from 1
vendor to 0 vendors. Another thang to add to simply signing up for a
Fidocon is to also specify to release your NAME to the world so
everyone begins to get a picture of who all can make it. We knew
there were some big-time-Fido-luminaries going to be there, but we
hadn't made any allowance for non-privacy.
You know, one of problems with working for the conference committee,
is, you don't get much time to visit the gatherings. Next time we
get late fees, let's hire some skirted ones to take money and make
name tags. OK, tight jeans are fine too.
Sat. 9:00 S1 Jeff Rush, Fidonet Newcomers.
10:00 S2 Bruce Bodger, Remote Access.
11:00 S3 Ken Rucker, IBM OS/2.
12:00 Lunch
14:00 S4 John Souvestre, Filebone panel.
15:00 S5 James Smith, Frontdoor.
FidoNews 9-40 Page 5 5 Oct 1992
16:00 S6 Phil Becker, TBBS.
Well, I'm pretty sure all this happened. About the time Phil was
warming up, Ron and I dashed off in a mild frenzy to get computer
oriented banquet prizes. It should be a rule of all FidoCons that
late fees get to be spent by the accountant and the nametag maker
on neat stuff that won't run under OS/2. Everytime I looked in on
one of these conferences, everyone was dead silent listening to the
answer of some extreme import. Cool stuff, indeed.
17:00 Water Volleyball Tournament
Tim Flynn, Patty Pickett : The Sportsters
Tim and Patty won this sporting event hands down. But then, they are
Lake Party alumni, after all. I dare say the hotel management simply
declined to show support for the 'other<tm>' guests.
19:00 Banquet
OK, $30 bucks was too much. Write it down so you remember next year.
Actually it was $24 plus tax and tip. Also, I had the feeling that
everyone was itching to do a repeat, only bigger, of Friday night.
The kind of 'house party', milling about and talking I remember doing
before I got married with children.
Sun. 10:00 S7 Jeff Rush, Privacy.
<
Jeff sent this over. I imagine everyone who reads this having a
differing set of opinions on each issue.
>
In the privacy session at Fidocon'92, the question was raised whether
privacy was truly out of fashion, as some popular authors claim. An
informal poll was taken to determine if the attendees believed
technology was increasing or tearing down individual privacy, with a
vast majority saying it was tearing it down. Also discussed was the
issue of Sysop Rights versus User Rights, addressing the metaphor of
a person's right to know who is at the front door of his home, versus
a person's right to know all about someone coming into his store. The
concept of the traditional "Sysop as Benevolent Dictator" was
explored.
The movement toward availability of Caller ID whereby when the phone
rings you know who is calling was discussed. In Texas, where Fidocon
was being held, caller id is not yet available but some of the
attendees were from states where it is relatively common. They were
asked what impact it had had on both their boards and their personal
lives. Most present were in favor of caller id by far. This was
surprising to the moderator since those with unlisted phone numbers
are usually dead set against it. The use of CDROM databases combined
with caller id to allow a sysop to know the name, address, marital
status, income bracket, education level and names/phone numbers of
physical neighbors was discussed and how the BBS community could draw
upon the technology of collection agencies. Needless to say, this
FidoNews 9-40 Page 6 5 Oct 1992
was not viewed as a positive development.
Also covered was the pros and cons of using 'handles' or aliases on
various systems. While most were against handles, some attendees had
legitimate uses for them, such as to hide gender in conferences
likely to attract the adolescent male element. Some of the men
present did not seem to understand this issue, considering this is a
male-dominated hobby. The need for handles in potentially dangerous
international situations was brought up, where the rights we expect in
the US are not respected. It was mentioned that most Sysops who
collect information about users do not publicly state that it is only
for internal use only and several pondered the possibility of Sysops
making money on the side by selling mailing lists to firms. And then
the hybrid case of where the Sysop knows a caller's true name but not
the other users was mentioned.
Lastly, there was some talk about the reading of private mail by a
Sysop, the editing of mail-in-transit, and whether the Fidonet
community would even tolerate encrypted messages being exchanged,
with or without prior notice, across international links. In
particular, between Croatia citizens who fear for message
interception and those who wish to correspond with them. The FBI
bill to build a backdoor into all encryption devices was discussed
toward the end.
The session was lively and there were very strong but diverse opinions
held by all. Privacy is definitely a sensitive area for the Fidonet
community and I believe, an important one for the future. If we do
not take intentional steps to safeguard it, we will, by default,
construct an environment hostile to privacy without realizing it. The
various US agencies are pleased to see this movement toward an 'open
and self-accountable' communications environment where what a person
says can be directly traced back to them, for good or ill.
11:00 S8 Henry Clark, Echomail Cost Sharing.
In an open discussion between members of a dozen or so networks, I
started by soliciting procedures and plans for Echomail Cost Sharing.
What we arrived at were two basic methods for payment of a long
distance bill to receive echomail. We called them
The Voluntary Sugar Daddy Methods, and
The Mandatory Cooperative Methods
It was noted that some nets have lots of Sugar Daddys who pay for
echomail, and some nets have one Sugar Daddy who pays. Both are
voluntary payment methods. On the other hand, the Cooperative
approach generally divides the echomail cost amougst the participants
of the cooperative with a mandatory payment plan. You don't pay, you
aren't a participant. There were arguments for flat-rate and pay
by the volume.
FidoNews 9-40 Page 7 5 Oct 1992
Prior to the session, I had received from the San Antonio bunch a
draft of their new cost sharing plan, and they had decided on the
flat-rate approach at 3 dollars per month. About 10 cents per day.
Then we heard about the highly successful Denver net plan, also, 3
dollars per month. What was it about this figure ? It is very
important to realize that 10 cents per day is about what it
would cost to make a one minute long distance call every day. So
that the question for any sysop becomes, "Do I go get echomail
myself, or do I join the co-op".
Well, is that such a hard question ? If your echomail volume fits
into one minute, or you don't need to have daily responsiveness, then
you might save money compared to the co-op's rate.
Looking at the cost from the other end, it was estimated that at 1600
characters per second, about 1 hour per day was required to get ALL
the backbone echos; ie. about $150 per month. At 3 dollars per
sysop, you can see how having 50 people in your co-op would be
perfect.
Everyone agreed that long distance costs were the primary costs to
recover regardless of the sharing method chosen. When you get
sufficient support for the cost sharing plan, the group can decide to
purchase hardware, such as a hard disk or even an entirely dedicated
machine. Historically, the equipment used was rarely counted as a
part of the cost because that equipment belonged to the echomail hub,
and usually would be in use anyway by the sysop. The advantages for
having a dedicated machine include security, responsiveness and
easier accounting for usage.
I did receive a note suggesting that a "Flat rate promotes a 'get my
monies worth' attitude that increases the distribution workload
unnecessarily". There were other concerns about low speed modems and
their affect on the distribution system and responsiveness. Local
networks may or may not have free local calling available for local
distribution. There is ample room for differences in the way any
local plan is implemented.
The Backbone Operating Procedures document was mentioned with
reference to a sysops ability to choose between a sharing plan and
getting a separate feed for him/herself. The backbone seems to
desire a structured routing plan for the purpose of problem solving.
A related issue concerning 'unauthorized' distribution was raised.
The basic question is "If a sysop pays the coop for mail, can he/she
then route it to other sysops, who do not participate in the coop".
Here we have the essential echomail question, and it should be
obvious to everyone that no definitive answer is available. Perhaps
this a part of the evolution that we haven't gotten to yet.
Certainly with respect to Policy4, a sysop's membership in Fidonet,
and inclusion in the nodelist, should be completely independent of
these echomail cost sharing issues.
FidoNews 9-40 Page 8 5 Oct 1992
Having worn out the 'receive' side issue, we attacked the 'transmit'
side. How significant are the costs to send the upstream side?
Estimates ranged from none ( using a bi-direction protocol ) to about
5%. When you send echomail to someone else, they probably incur a
cost to forward it on towards the backbone. Most participants felt
that this cost was negligible and could be included and accounted for
more easily in the flat-rate. Now the picture emerges.
The coops that have reached sufficient size locally to support a full
feed, are in a natural position to begin providing regional hub
functions. Rising closer to the backbone systems provides better
responsiveness ( turnaround ) for their echomail. There is no doubt
that the Souvestre backbone system is well supported by the sysops of
the New Orleans area. In terms of reliability, the cooperative
stands a better chance of remaining in place than the individual who
is acting on behalf of the members of a voluntary plan.
Finally, we entered into the dark realm of business, taxes, the IRS
and Accounting 101. Hold on to your checkbook. In fact, keep
records of everything. While we didn't have any tax theologians
available, it was pretty well understood that keeping good records
was of primary concern. It may be harder for the keeper of the
voluntary fund to maintain proper records than it would be for a
separate and legal 'cooperative entity'. It is definately harder for
an individual to claim the income and report the expenses than it
would be for a separate legal entity.
12:00 Lunch
The checkout.
Those fool Washington 'Sunburns' football, they think, playing team
were wanting their little hospitality suite. Oh, dear. I'm glad the
Cowboys kicked their butts. Anyway, it was all I could do to stack
everything on a cart and push it down to the lobby by 1. Then, of
course, the 'Final Bill Settling'. Probably like getting an echomail
hubs long distance bill. The real question is would they have us
back. I'll call 'em sometime and ask.
14:00 S9 Ron Bemis, Planning FidoCon '93.
Early planning. Earlier planning. Earliest planning. We didn't do
things far enough in advance. Change the name of Late Fee to Normal
price, and change Normal Price to Early Discount. Tie all other
revenues directly to costs. It works. You can put together a good
convention with 40 good man- ( uh-hum) person-hours.
15:00 S10 Question and Answer
Where's the door ? Where's my keys ? How do I get home ? Did I
survive ?
FidoNews 9-40 Page 9 5 Oct 1992
Sun. evening.
The sleep. The dream. See you next year.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Privacy - Do you have when you think you do?
by: G. K. Pace 1:374/26@Fidonet <gk.pace@f26.n374.z1.fidonet.org>
Welcome to the future... new technology abounds! Today we have the
ability to see and hear further than man could have imagined a mere
hundred years ago... We cook our food with RF energy... we command
huge databases of information from our homes with little gagits that
give us the ability to communicate around the world in minutes... Life
is wonderful for those of us fortunate to live in the "developed
world".
This technology advances at an ever increasing rate... as engineers
and scientists around the world continually build upon the dreams of
yesterday. But is it all for the good of the people? What about
those scientists and engineers employed by those who feel a need to
insure that the people are obeying laws, living as they would have
them, those who would manipulate public events if they could? Is
there a technological void in the tool kits of those who would invade
the privacy of an individual? NO! The tool kits of those interested
in monitoring the lives and actions of private individuals find
themselves armed with a virtual array of sophisticated tools that
enable them to monitor communications of any type, undetected.
There are ways to make such eaves-dropping more difficult. The use of
"Public Key encryption" to protect private files and E-mail is one
method that can make the job of monitoring such communications more
difficult and add a degree of "privacy"!
A new Echo-Conference named "PUBLIC_KEYS" has been formed for the
purpose of discussing and promoting the use of Public Key encryption
schemes. The echo-conference is being monitored by Chrisopher Baker
@1:374/14, and myself. If it isn't being carried in your area, it can
be obtained from either of us (my system runs a 2400 baud, Chris has
9600+) just ask...!
For you that have a copy of PGP 2.0, I have drafted an encrypted story
as an example (the rest of you may want to get PGP 2.0). To read this
story you should edit the following block to a separate file and run
PGP on it. PGP will ask you for the password used to encrypt it, you
would then enter the word: "privacy" (that is privacy without the "")
The story follows:
-----BEGIN PGP MESSAGE-----
Version: 2.0
FidoNews 9-40 Page 10 5 Oct 1992
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gfWxTkS+pJeihUBISRZuBPycKihMx6Lbv4JVsl6Gx4iCrv/rlyvgalXCbfYObU9F
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w6mO2v/hpC9XSxG7PfKHEBj8I/VOaCr4Nz+voy+hKPdnGCV6VrXGq4VJBD3gkoMI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 9-40 Page 11 5 Oct 1992
H4oA2WE7mcHTjxFejoEm3PY0Po1Wc6YKg9FyG+CfiaffdkL8UdwomCoNF/ROPBPU
ggXyp+SLc+smY0qHsXljvUI24wMEo5hWINh5dxxMKOYqG5eiRRmOLmLi8lmGYlbF
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ZAFhtG9k2wHtEK+TGYk5En49BfS1
=7mJt
-----END PGP MESSAGE-----
Privacy is a right every person should have... but to have it you must
often demand, and hold it. Once lost it is not easy to regain!
-gk
(* ED NOTE: you'll need to edit out page breaks if they occur in the
middle of the PGP block. If for some reason PGP won't digest this
FIDONEWS formatted article, you can filerequest it from the FidoNews
BBS as magicfilename "PRIVACY.ART". *)
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Michael H. Riddle, Esq.
Riddle Law Office
1:285/27.151
SYSLAW, 2nd Edition
A Legal Guide for Online Services
First, an announcement:
> Newsgroups: misc.int-property
> From: elrose@well.sf.ca.us (Lance Rose)
> Subject: SysLaw, 2nd ed. - Legal Guide for Online Service Providers
> Date: Thu Oct 1 16:27:51 1992
>
> NEW SYSLAW BOOK! MASSIVELY REVISED AND EXPANDED!
>
> SysLaw, Second Edition: The Legal Guide for Online Service
> Providers
> by Lance Rose, Esq., and Jonathan Wallace, Esq.
>
> SysLaw provides BBS sysops, network moderators and other online
> service providers with basic information on their rights and
> responsibilities, in a form that non-lawyers can easily understand.
> Subjects covered include the First Amendment, copyrights and
> trademarks, the user agreement, negligence, privacy, criminal law,
FidoNews 9-40 Page 12 5 Oct 1992
> searches and seizures, viruses and adult materials. SysLaw not
> only explains the laws, it gives detailed advice enabling system
> operators to create the desired balance of user services, freedom,
> and protection from risk on their systems.
>
> SysLaw is available from PC Information Group, 800-321-8285 or 507-
> 452-2824, and located at 1126 East Broadway, Winona, MN 55987. You
> may order by credit card or by mail. Price is $34.95 plus $3.00
> shipping and (if applicable) sales tax. Price is subject to change
> after January 1, 1993. For additional information, please contact
> publisher Brian Blackledge at 800-321-8285.
Second: I have the book at my office, and (third?) have actually read
it. Messrs. Rose and Wallace have done an excellent job in explaining
the law as applied to BBSes, including the places where the law is
"unsettled."
In the places where the law is unsettled, they do a good job
explaining the legal, social and sometimes moral considerations that a
court would consider if the question arose. They sometimes tell you
what they think the result might be, or what they think it should be.
They caution at the start that until courts consider several cases,
and/or until we get appellate decisions, the users and operators incur
some degree of risk in engaging in certain activities, such as
XXX.GIF.
Overall, well worth the cost.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
By: Gordon R.V. Chapman
Sysop, Grace and Danger, 1:163/150, Ottawa, Canada
It snowed here yesterday, Unseptember the 30th, 1992. This
represents a couple of firsts as far as I know - even in this cold
part of the world, the snow usually holds off a few more weeks.
And, we usually have September this time of the year, but this year
we seem to have missed it. Not that it isn't cold here a lot, but
it's getting much colder up here all of the sudden, and a lot of
us aren't too happy about it. This has nothing to do with the
weather, either. This has to do with the removal of our democratic
privileges. Here in Net163 we happily elect an NC, and, in Region
12, we've elected our RCs in the past.
Democratic traditions are mixed blessings. Up here we know that you
folks below the 49th parallel (I believe you call yourself
"Murricans") are rabidly democratic, voting on everything that
moves, or doesn't - everything from county sheriff to proposition
13 to installing your president. We folks up here (you can call us
"Canajans") vote a lot too, even if our political system is
incomprehensible. In Region12, we've traditionally held a one-vote
per sysop election for our RC. We *have* had some bad luck with
RCs, though.
FidoNews 9-40 Page 13 5 Oct 1992
One RC experimented with a Fax machine on his line to the point
that many local sysops wore out their nerf bats and bit the arms
off their mirror shades. Another RC suddenly resigned last June,
leaving us RC-less a few months prior to our usual election.
Strangely, despite the inconvenience of democracy, our region works
well. The mail gets through, the nodelist gets updated, and, all
sysops are, or rather, *were* franchised by their right to vote.
June is a funny time for it to start to get cold, even up here, but
as soon as the ZC appointed an interim RC, it started getting
chilly. The interim RC indicated that he was only an interim
appointment, and that he would attend to sorting out a problem in
one of the nets, keep the nodelist working, and, sooner or later,
we'd have an election.
This lack of commitment on a time for an election did not go down
well. The regional sysop echo has been peppered for months with
messages from sysops in all our nets to request an election. We
were told that something would be done about it in September.
While much grumbling ensued, most of us hunkered down to wait. A
straw poll was taken among NCs as to whether or not an election was
wanted at this time. It was reported that fully three quarters of
the NCs did not want an RC election at this time. Then we found out
that not all NCs had even bothered to ask us grunt sysops what we
thought. My NC did, and 26 to 1 voted in favour of an election. We
also found out that some NCs did ask grunts, and decided that "I
don't care" votes should be lumped in with the "No" votes. NCs from
nets with only a few nodes were given one vote, the same as nets
with hundreds of nodes, entirely distorting the response.
Whether or not this obviously flawed poll was used to impress
George Peace, we grunts will never know. What is certain is that
September never arrived, because on Unseptember 29, our interim RC
posted a message stating that he had put the mechanism in place to
have an election, but that the ZC, George Peace, had declined to
call it, and that the ZC would wait another 30 days to see "what
happened." We, of course, only have the messages of Mr. Peace
transmitted to us via the interim RC, so we have to assume that
George actually said such things. (Yes, I've tried, but Mr. Peace
doesn't answer the netmail of mere grunts.)
It looks like we'll have a cold winter here in Region12. All over
the world, democracy is flourishing. The USA will hold a
Presidential election this year, Canada will vote on its
constitution, France voted to join the ECM, the entire Warsaw Pact
has collapsed for the chance to become democratic, but here, in
Darkest Region12, the palace coup is complete - our democratic
tradition has evidently been ordered out of existence by the whim
of George Peace. I hope my snowblower works.
FidoNews 9-40 Page 14 5 Oct 1992
It's hard to imagine that the ZC, a citizen of the USA, Home of
the Brave, Land of the Free, Bastion of Democracy would be the one
to stomp democracy out in our region. I'd have thought you folks
south of the border would send the Marines in to preserve
democracy, if anything.
Say it ain't so, George. Call an election.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
By Janis Kracht
IC Programmer's Distribution Network, 1:272/38
After I survived the assault on my BBS described in this article, I
thought the rest of FidoNet might profit from hearing of my experience.
One thing I've realized from this episode and the resulting court case
is that there is really very little "protection" or "recourse" for the
sysop of a BBS. The legal system (at least in this part of the
country) needs to be made computer literate to a much greater degree,
especially at lower levels (i.e., the police departments) and that some
type of legislation encompassing the rights of Sysops who run BBS
systems might benefit us all.
Towards the middle of March, 1992 (or there about) I agreed to take
over the Programmer's Distribution Network from Erik VanRiper. By the
beginning of April, 1992, my hook-ups were in full swing, enabling me to
distribute and receive files for the PDN as well as other file areas on
the FileBone.
On May 25th, 1992, I received a disturbing call on my BBS on Node 1 (my
mailer node with Dual Standard). I watched as a "user", who logged on
with an obvious phony name, proceeded to leave me an obnoxious and
obscene message. Now, obscene messages don't bother me per se; I just
delete them and take appropriate action with the author of such
nonsense, but this one drew my attention because he was so malicious in
his language. Insults in this message were directed at myself and
specifically to members of my family, causing me to wonder who could
know such details of our life. I disconnected this person, figuring
someone was having a bad day ;-)
At least three more calls were logged that day, obviously from the same
person, since reference was made to earlier messages. I deleted his
messages and his accounts. The next morning around 7:00AM the same
nonsense started again.
At this time, I was polling for new files three times a day - my 5:30PM
and Midnight polls were not getting through since the "activity" of this
caller had intensified dramatically. He alternated calling (and
immediately disconnecting from) both nodes of my BBS attempting to
disrupt all functioning of my BBS. As the calls continued, my husband
decided to get a trace on the phone lines to find out where the calls
were originating.
FidoNews 9-40 Page 15 5 Oct 1992
Around the same time, the caller started calling my voice line and
screaming obscenities at whoever picked up the phone when both nodes
were busy with legitimate users... I put an answering machine on that
line, and recorded some choice ones...
Initiating a phone trace in New York requires that a complaint be filed
with the police. My husband took a day off from work to take me to the
phone company (to get the appropriate forms), the police station to file
the complaint and get the forms filled out, and back to the phone
company to initiate the trace. I found it interesting that the police
officer who took the original complaint thought that all we really
needed to do was to "change the phone number".
The trace was activated by the phone company at 1pm on May, 27th, 1992.
To prevent any more grief than had already been caused, I made node 1
available to high speed callers only (I'd noticed that this person
always called at 2400). Later, the phone company told me that on the
day that the trace was initiated 28 calls had come in from same source.
I was told when I initiated the trace that if the calls did not
originate from our local phone company (GTE) I'd be out of luck. In our
area we have a number of different companies serving a fairly small
area. The calls to my BBS might be 'local' with respect to billing but
originate with another company. If they were from a neighboring
telephone company, the other phone company would have to agree to
trace the calls as well. The other phone company was under no obligation
to trace these calls.
Two days after initiating the trace, the GTE repair service, which
handled "nuisance calls", told me that they had determined the calls
were 'local' but were originating from another phone company. They were
very sympathetic to my plight and indicated they would contact the
neighboring company to extend the trace through their lines.
My board is, foolishly some may think, a very open system in that I
don't really mind if all you want to do is download, or all you want to
do is read messages, or use Online games or whatever. I put up <<PRISM
BBS 3 years ago because I had the resources, and because I remembered 10
years ago what it was like to call a long distance board and be asked to
UPLOAD C source code in order to download some <Grin>.
This had to change during the course of this assault, and bothered me
more than I suppose anything else did... Callers had to be validated,
like I didn't trust a single human on earth, and severe limits had to be
put on first time callers.
I successively disabled new user capabilities as I watched this caller
upload 'trojans', leave insulting messages to other users in local
message areas and doors, and try to send ANSI keyboard remapping codes
via my message area (thank you Scott Dudley for filtering out ANSI). His
obscene and insulting 'new user' messages and disruptive calling
patterns continued.
FidoNews 9-40 Page 16 5 Oct 1992
He actually did let me know in a few of his inane messages that he
intended to continue until I was 'old and gray' or I took my board down.
He also stated clearly his intent to tie up the board in ways that would
(1) make it impossible for me to function as an FDN head, and (2)
frustrate my users so much they would stop calling.
As the calls continued, I was informed by GTE that the other phone
company had agreed to trace the calls, and we'd have some results (they
hoped) in a few days. These calls had now been going on for over 7 days
and I was wearing thin trying to limit the damage he could do.
Figuring his unmasking was near, I temporarily made my board a private
board, restricted to only those who had previously been validated. This
didn't stop him from trying, however, and my BBS logs filled with his
inane messages in the User name field. My log caught it all. He asked
if I had read any messages in SWASHNET or in MagNet, two other networks
to which I did not belong.
He had left messages in these networks inviting "pirates" to log onto
<<PRISM, and boasted of over 4gig of the latest "warez" (and me, at the
time, with my 240 meg of disk space!). He left these messages as my son
Matt, who is also my co-sysop. He also posted my voice number as the
"third node" of <<PRISM BBS.
The message posted in MagNet had an obviously phony origin line. One of
my sysop friends had a friend of his who was a MagNet sysop trace the
path back through the phony origin line. This seemed to indicate the
origin was a local pirate board, who has always had it in for my
"easy-going" ways with users. Things started to make sense...
I was waiting now for the police to contact me, since GTE indicated
they'd gotten clear confirmation that all these nuisance calls I
reported had originated from one number in the Highland Telephone
Company. GTE and Highland Telephone wouldn't give me any more
information other than what they had. For any details I'd have to wait
for the City of Middletown Police department to call me.
In the meantime, my nuisance caller had been busy again. Since he now
realized I'd limited the damage he could do on my board, he'd found a
BBS in the my net, in which he could post FidoNet Echo messages without
being validated. He logged on as my son and posted in three FidoNet
echo messages similar to the one which had appeared in SWASHNET and in
MagNet. The apologetic sysop of this board net mailed me to say he was
sorry it had happened, and that in re-working some of his message areas
he had inadvertently allowed new users to post in a few echoes. He
deleted the account and plugged the holes in his security.
I net mailed moderators of the appropriate echoes telling them of the
circumstance at <<PRISM, and that they should know that any messages
which did not originate on my board were not from myself or Matt.
I net mailed my NC to let him know what was going on. I posted a message
in our SENY Net sysop echo letting everyone know to keep their guard up.
FidoNews 9-40 Page 17 5 Oct 1992
I was sick of waiting for the police to call by now, so I called them
myself. After three calls the detective in charge of the case finally
spoke to me and asked me if a particular name meant anything to me...
something Johnson... It didn't at first, until I was suddenly reminded
of a caller I'd had on my board last year by the name of Max Johnson...
Max Johnson had become only the second person to be locked out of my
board. He logged on as a neighbor of his (who didn't even have a
computer or modem) and left insulting messages about this neighbor. I
was able to piece this together by contacting the 'new user'. The next
time Max logged on, I asked him about this incident and he immediately
got abusive.
I told the detective this story and told him I wanted to press whatever
charges possible... he assured me with a "Don't worry, Ma'm.., we have
to question this boy first" - somehow I felt like not much was going
to happen to Max...
When confronted by the material I'd brought to the police, Max said that
he, age 19, was not the only one involved in this. He had left some
messages, but younger brother, Seth, age 16, had posted a number of
them.
My experience with the local police was very disheartening. They never
seemed to understand the nature of electronic communications - they
insisted in having the "originals" of all of Max's messages. It didn't
take long for me to realize that the detective in charge never took this
case seriously, or considered Max's calls dangerous or annoying.
I decided to see who else I could question about what had been
happening on my board. I began calling various agencies since I thought
there must be laws against the type of calls Max had made to my home and
BBS. There must be laws that govern the transmission of false
information across state lines... but FCC regulations only pertain to
calls originating outside your state, except if they are from 1-900
numbers. The NYS Public Service Commission representative I spoke with
told me that he had a similar experience, with voice communication
alone, and there was 'basically nothing anyone could do'.
The FBI told me that since the communication was intra-state they would
not get involved. The problem here was that the pest lived in the same
state. Even though he had posted messages that traversed the states, it
was the system doing the transferring, not the individual who posted the
messages, who would get in trouble.
I called Lance Rose, a lawyer who'd I heard was involved and
knowledgeable about computer related cases. Unfortunately for me, Mr.
Rose informed me that unless I was running a business I was out of luck
as not many lawyers would want to become involved in the case.
Max and his brother were finally arrested (and this, probably because I
would give the Police Dept. no rest). The detective informed me that
the case was now in the hands of the Assistant District Attorney,
Melissa Eisenberg.
FidoNews 9-40 Page 18 5 Oct 1992
I called the city court to find out what charge had been brought against
Max and his brother - Aggravated harassment, I was told. The court
explained that the case had scheduled for the end of June, 1992.
I called the DA's office in Orange County NY to find out what exactly
the charges would mean to Max and she told me that she hadn't received
anything from the detective. When I explained the nature of the case
she became very interested in seeing Max stopped.
When my husband and I attended the subsequent court dates we learned an
interesting lesson. The laws involved take no account of electronic
communication and BBS's. The law enforcement personnel who had
experience with computers and electronic mail, the Judge and the
Assistant District Attorney, were the only ones who took the case
seriously. Their ability to do anything was seriously limited by the
applicable laws. The penalties for conviction of even the most serious
charges were not enough to justify the cost and effort of a trial.
After three court appearances Max and Seth were allowed to plead guilty
to a violation. Their punishment was 20 hours of community service
(served during the month of August) and a public apology to me, to be
mailed to my home. And this incident will stay on their record. They
will be watched for a year to make sure they don't repeat this
behavior.
This incident taught me that a BBS is very vulnerable to assault from a
malicious caller. Our situation affords us very little protection. The
normal protections you would expect do not work well for us. The first
officer's belief that we didn't need to file a complaint - all we had to
do was change our phones numbers - was the start of our understanding
that this was not going to be easy. The detective's request for the
"originals" of the communications was the confirmation that we were in
for a struggle. The laws that apply were not written with BBS's in mind,
and the police, at least in our locality, have no specialized training
in dealing with such issues and no experience in applying the laws to
electronic communication. We were very fortunate in our case that the
frequency and content of the harassment (racist, anti-Semitic, obscene,
and threatening) caused the telephone company service department, the
Assistant District Attorney, and the Judge to pursue the case far enough
to effect what little punishment was possible. I was more than a little
disappointed that the death penalty was out of the question.
I am waiting for Caller-ID to be enabled in our area. I have little
faith that the threat of 'legal' punishment will stop callers like Max.
I am convinced that he and his brother hid behind the anonymity of the
modem and stopped calling only because they had been unmasked.
I am returning my board to it's 'old' self...but I watch calls that
come though now with a bit more interest than before. I still get
callers asking me for access to the board's "special" section, and I
tell these callers that ads they saw about pirated software here were
someone's idea of a bad joke, meant to make long distance callers waste
their money.
FidoNews 9-40 Page 19 5 Oct 1992
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Fredric L. Rice. The Skeptic Tank, 1:102/890.0
FileRequest U-ORIG.LZH
SYSOPS WHO PROVIDE Users access to Echo Mail pseudo-reality by using
Remote Access may allow their Users to design their own origin lines.
This is done through the program called "User Origins" or U-ORIG.LZH.
An 'execute shell' command is placed within the WELCOME.* screen which
executes the project, searching for the Users entry in a data file and
then writing the users origin line to the Remote Access folder file.
That's how each User get an origin line of his or her making. If the
User doesn't exist in U-ORIG, the SysOps default Origin Line is used.
The User may request the Door (type 7) to update his or her origin line.
This is done by the argument 'update' being offered on the command
line by Remote Access type 7 shell. U-ORIG maintains everything.
As usual, the sourCe code is included.
O O OOO OOOO O O OOOOO O O OOO
O O O O O O O OO O O OO O O
O O O OOOOO OOOO O O O O O O O O OOO
OO OO O O O O O OO O O OO O O
O O O O O O O O OOOOO O O OOO
Someone mentioned that the U-ORIG.DAT file must have an entry in it
before the project will work. I've not encountered the problem yet
it should be considered. Any text editor can create this file and
the following entry would be fine:
user name has this origin line
By the time you read this, however, if the problem really existed,
it has been violently liquidated.
- Fredric
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Christopher Baker
Rights On!, 1:374/14
GK Pace
PaceSoft Utilities, 1:374/26
PUBLIC_KEYS Echo Announcement
This is to announce the PUBLIC_KEYS Echo. The purpose of the
Echo is to provide a place to post and find public-keys for
data encryption within FidoNet and elsewhere and to discuss
data and software encryption and the various schemes thereof.
FidoNews 9-40 Page 20 5 Oct 1992
This is a technical Echo with very few rules. Those very few
rules are:
1. Stay on-topic. Topics of keys and encryption are welcome.
Others are not.
2. No politics [except as it relates to privacy issues] and
no religion.
3. No personal attacks, slurs or innuendo. Stick to issues
not personalities.
4. No Private flagged messages in Echomail! Encrypted
traffic using public-keys is permitted for the exercise
so long as it is on-topic.
5. This Echo may be traveling around the world so try to be
concise. Avoid excessive quoting for one-liner responses.
6. Be aware that Echomail is NOT secure. Don't take anything
at face value.
7. The posts in this Echo are the sole responsiblity of the
poster. If you need verification, use Netmail.
8. The Moderators will deal with off-topic traffic. Don't
respond for them. Links to this Echo will only be
curtailed when absolutely necessary so please don't make
it necessary. [grin]
The Moderators are Christopher Baker [KeyID: 1024/4B9A59
1992/10/03] and GK Pace [KeyID: 1024/B6B823 1992/09/28] at
1:374/14 and 1:374/26, respectively.
It is recommended that public-keys be made available via
Netmail or by file-request with the magic filename: PGPKEY
and that the public-key provided for that request by given
a distinctive filename using part or all of each provider's
name and address. For example, on my system, a file-request
of PGPKEY will give BAK37414.ASC to the requesting system.
This will avoid duplicate overwriting and make it easier to
track the keys. Using a standard magic filename will make it
easier to find keys on different systems.
This Echo is not currently on the Zone 1 Backbone
distribution list but that is expected to change as soon as
the word gets out. This Echo will be EListed in ELIST211
next month. Please feel free to announce and distribute this
Echo to all interested participants in your area.
The Echo is currently available from 1:374/14, 1:374/26,
1:374/98, 1:216/21, 1:377/14, and the Southern Star at
1:396/1 if you normally connect there for Echomail.
Thanks.
TTFN.
Christopher Baker & GK Pace
Moderators
FidoNews 9-40 Page 21 5 Oct 1992
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Of Controversey and Discovery, A Tale of Two Technologies
by Margaret Romao (1:3603/150)
Courtesy of a certain software company that is located somewhere in
the Pacific Northwest, a minor development in what I like to call "The
Great OS Holy War" appeared on the scene in early September. This
curious little wrinkle, which is a strange mutation of two separate
BASIC compilers from two different environments, has become the
subject of some controversey in several echoes. Anyone who tunes into
Quik_Bas, Windows, or Windows.Prog knows that I am, of course,
referring to the new DOS-based version of Visual Basic.
Aside from being quite interesting reading material, this news brought
to light a situation I thought to be hopeless. I had all but given up
on my career as an echo moderator, thinking that the topic I had
chosen was of little or no interest to anyone but myself, when I noted
several posts that told the tale of a long lost conference that I
believed to be dead. Imagine my surprise when I discovered cries of,
"There is a Visual Basic echo!" wafting up through the smoke of the
scattered flamettes.
These events have sparked an investigation into the inner workings of
the backbone links of the Visual Basic echo. As I type these words,
"The Mystery of the Lost Link" is in the process of being solved. I
hope this will come as good news to all the VB-WIN/VB-DOS programmers
out there who have been looking for a proper forum where they can
discuss the techniques involved in the use of these two beasts.
VISUAL_BASIC is alive and well and available on the FidoNet backbone.
Tune in and spread the word! If all goes well, I'll see you there!
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FidoNews 9-40 Page 22 5 Oct 1992
======================================================================
FIDONEWS INFORMATION
======================================================================
------- FIDONEWS MASTHEAD AND CONTACT INFORMATION ----------------
Editors: Tom Jennings, Tim Pozar
Editors Emeritii: Thom Henderson, Dale Lovell, Vince Perriello
"FidoNews" BBS
FidoNet 1:1/1
Internet fidonews@fidosw.fidonet.org
BBS (415)-863-2739 (2400 only until further notice!)
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FidoNews
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Published weekly by and for the members of the FidoNet international
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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
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distribution permitted for noncommercial purposes only. For use in
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OBTAINING COPIES: The-most-recent-issue-ONLY of FidoNews in electronic
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PRINTED COPIES may be obtained from Fido Software for $10.00US each
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BACK ISSUES: Available from FidoNet nodes 1:102/138, 1:216/21,
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FidoNews 9-40 Page 23 5 Oct 1992
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
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"Fido", "FidoNet" and the dog-with-diskette are U.S. registered
trademarks of Tom Jennings of Fido Software, Box 77731, San Francisco
CA 94107, USA and are used with permission.
Asked what he thought of Western civilization,
M.K. Gandhi said, "I think it would be an excellent idea".
-- END
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