------------------------------------------------------------------- F.A.C.T.Net, Inc. (Fight Against Coercive Tactics Network, Incorporated) a non-profit computer bulletin board and electronic library 601 16th St. #C-217 Golden, Colorado 80401 USA BBS 303 530-1942 FAX 303 530-2950 Office 303 473-0111 This document is part of an electronic lending library and preservational electronic archive. F.A.C.T.Net does not sell documents, it only lends them according to the terms of your library cardholder agreement with F.A.C.T.Net, Inc. ===================================================================== Anarchy looms in electronic world The computer web known as the Internet, has for years been a nearly perfect laboratory for testing the democratic principles of free speech and self- governance. By PETER LEWIS New York Times Hostility and repression are spreading in one of the most popular public forums in the global web of computer networks known as cyberspace. And network experts are wor- ried about the future of this community, whose rapid growth seems to be undermining its tra- dition of rational self-govern- ment and the democratic ex- change of ideas. A certain frontier freedom has always been part of the allure of computer networks, particularly Usenet, a loose affiliation of thousands of computers and electronic bulletin boards that link some 10 million people around the world. But lately, the freedom has seemed more like anarchy. Turks and Armenians have brought their decades-old ha- treds onto the digital stage, ac- cusing one another of using elec- tronic mail forgeries and software that seeks and destroys an enemy's messages to the broader community. Bomb threats Elsewhere, computer pro- grammers are preparing elec- tronic mail "bombs" that will be used to knock out the computers of two lawyers intent on flooding the network with unsolicited ad- vertisements. The lawyers received death threats from Usenet users, some of whom have also tried to sabo- tage their telephone and fax ma- chines. The decline of net civilization appears not to be confined to Usenet. On other computer net- works, hucksters use phony identities to shill for stocks. Pe- dophiles are caught trolling local bulletin board systems and na- tional on-line services for young boys. Pornographic pictures are traded in great volume. Virtually every network, large and small, has crackpots and sociopaths who seek to bully others with ob- scenities and threats. Unlimited freedom Such activities have signifi- cance beyond the computer screens because Usenet, the largest subset of the global com- puter web known as the Inter- net, has for years been a nearly perfect laboratory for testing the democratic principles of free speech and self-governance. "It's the first medium we have seen in which these principles have been allowed to play out unhindered," said David Sobel, a lawyer for the Electronic Privacy Information Center, a public in- terest lobbying group in Wash- ington. "It really is a free and open marketplace of ideas." The Usenet is perhaps the closest thing the world has ever had to an electronic "global vil- lage.'' But longtime citizens of cyberspace, who for more than a decade had the networks to themselves, are gloomy about the prospects of millions of new settlers unsteeped in Usenet tra- dition. Popular phenomenon The influx of newcomers is a result of growing public aware- ness of computer networks, and the mounting popularity of ser- vices like Prodigy, Compuserve and America Online, which offer consumers access to the Usenet and Internet. "I'm beginning to think this sort of Usenet abuse is going to continue growing exponentially as the medium itself grows," Nell K. Guy of Simon Fraser University in Burnaby, B.C., wrote in an electronic posting to his network colleagues. "The abuse will continue to grow, various mechanisms to control it will be installed to pre- vent a collapse of the system, and the openness and freedom of ideas exchanged upon which Usenet was based will become something rather different." The event that seems most likely to touch off open war is the conflict between self-appoint- ed "protectors" of the electronic frontier and the two Arizona law- yers, who created a stir last month by posting advertise- ments throughout the Usenet, soliciting as clients immigrants who wanted legal help in seek- ing "green card" work permits. Last week the lawyers, Laur- enCe Canter and Martha Siegel, announced that they had formed a company called Cybersell, which will insert ads for itself and clients in every public space in Usenet, regardless of whether the users want to see them. Harassment Not only have Siegel and Can- ter drawn countless scornful messages -- called "flames" on the network -- but also they have been the targets of elec- tronic harrassment that has in- eluded listing their home ad- dress and advocating arson, threats to post their credit re- port and credit card numbers and numerous suggestions on how to make their lives miser- able, such as by forging mes- sages in their names calling for the assassination of President Clinton. "I do not condone. these things," said Jurgen Botz, a computer consultant in North- ampton, Mass. "But disproportionate re- sponse or not, they knowingly in- cited the wrath of the Net com- munity by flagrantly abusing a communal resource shared on a cooperative basis by millions of people all over the world, and did this in such a fashion that the users of that resource felt its existence to be threatened. When you do something like that, a lynch-mob style reaction is to be expected." It was only a matter of time, other experts agree. Network citizens fear that au- thorities might try to regulate the network because of the abuses of a small number of ex- tremists, like the Arizona law- yers and the virtual vigilantes who seek to tar, feather and run them out of cyberspace. Although law enforcement agencies have the right, of course, to control crimes com- mitted within their jurisdictions and the ability to monitor com- puter bulletin boards for evi- dence of criminal activity, the federal government has a long- standing policy of not attempting to regulate Usenet communica- tions. Indeed, Usenet, and the larger Internet web of networks to which it connects, are global communities, not American ones. By the end of this year more than half the networks that make up the Internet will be out- side the United States. Thus, the Usenet war is being fought be- yond the walls of American law and First Amendment protec- tions. The rules of engagement will be on the agenda next month in Prague at the meeting of the in- ternational board of directors of the Internet Society, the closest thing to a United Nations in the electronic world community. The group has no enforcement authority, but it can issue guide- lines for appropriate network be- havior -- and perhaps urge the companies providing access to the Internet to spell out contrac- tual rules governing subscribers' activitities. Such rules would en- able the service providers to cancel subscribers' accounts if they stray beyond too far. ================================================================= If this is a copyrighted work, you are acknowledging by receipt of this document from FACTNet that on the basis of reasonable investigation, you have not been to obtain a copy elsewhere at a fair price, and that you are and will abide by the following copyright warning. 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