-Caveat Lector- Hi Lauren, Recently recieved and am forwarding to my contact networks your PFIR founding announcement, appended. I have ONE burning question which you might be able to throw some light on: WHY would the U.S. DoD develop darpanet and then put the whole thing in the public domain? To me, this dovetails neatly into the question of: WHY would MAJOR DoD/gov't contractor IBM develop and then "lose control of the marketplace" for the PC, thus ensuring the current situation in which practically EVERY business and many homes currently have an information storage system combined with a communications medium that is connected to what MUST practically be considered to be an infowar Trojan horse- darpanet/arpanet/Internet. Considered in light of the fundamental truth that IP communications are easily interceptable by persons with the right equipment and access (such as the military creators of the Internet, and thus any & all governmentally "connected" individuals with the right credentials or contacts) ... I am left with the clear suspicion that in the same way in which covert operations assume the ends justify the means, that the "ends" in this situation have been either purposefully fostered by the means, or a coincidental series of temporally parallel events has "serendipitously" delivered into the hands of the government's "secrecy" legionaires the means to spy on a great deal of business and personal communications. Beats hell out of having to steam open envelopes, eh? I wonder if you have been monitoring the IETF's discussions on the Raven list, with regard to the "desireability" of building-in to the internet's packet data transports any "ease of surveillance" mechanisms "required" by "law-enforcement." Also, off-topic... I wonder if you have any information on China Lake naval weapons research base (& other's) testing of seismic weaponry. It is interesting to note the incredibly large number of seismic events (over 300 last in the last WEEK !) ( http://www.scecdc.scec.org/recenteqs/Maps/117-35.html ) near China Lake. Feel free to pass this question on to your Privacy or PFIR list, should you decide to devote any considerable time or energy in reply- and let me know if such topics are germane to either of the lists you facilitate. regards, Dave Hartley http://www.Asheville-Computer.com/dave http://www.Asheville-Computer.com/issues ===== PRIVACY FORUM ===== From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] (Lauren Weinstein; PRIVACY Forum Moderator) Date: Tue, 16 Nov 99 12:08 PST Subject: Announcing - PFIR: "People For Internet Responsibility" Greetings! I'm extremely pleased to announce a new effort, aimed specifically at helping to provide some real balance to a wide range of issues affecting the Internet, which are increasingly impacting so many aspects of our lives. I hope that many of the readership will be interested in participating in this project! The PRIVACY Forum will of course also continue as always. Thanks very much. --Lauren-- Lauren Weinstein [EMAIL PROTECTED] Moderator, PRIVACY Forum -- http://www.vortex.com Co-founder, PFIR: People For Internet Responsibility -- http://www.pfir.org *** *** *** ---------------------------------------------------------------------- [ Please feel free to redistribute this announcement as you see fit. ] ANNOUNCING PFIR: "People For Internet Responsibility" http://www.pfir.org ---------------------------------------------------------------------- November 16, 1999 PFIR is a global, grassroots, ad hoc network of individuals who are concerned about the current and future operations, development, management, and regulation of the Internet in responsible manners. The goal of PFIR is to help provide a resource for individuals around the world to gain an ability to help impact these crucial Internet issues, which will affect virtually all aspects of our cultures, societies, and lives in the 21st century. PFIR is non-partisan, has no political agenda, and does not engage in lobbying. PFIR has been founded (in November, 1999) by Lauren Weinstein of Vortex Technology in Woodland Hills, California and Peter G. Neumann of SRI International in Menlo Park, California. Both have decades of continual experience with the Internet and its ancestor ARPANET, Lauren originally at the UCLA lab which was the ARPANET's first site, and Peter at the net's second site, located at SRI. Peter is the chairman of the ACM (Association for Computing Machinery) Committee on Computers and Public Policy, and the creator and moderator of the Internet RISKS Forum. Lauren is a member of that same committee, and he is the creator and moderator of the Internet PRIVACY Forum. With the rapid commercialization of the Internet and its World Wide Web during the 1990's, there are increasing concerns that decisions regarding these resources are being irresponsibly skewed through the influence of powerful, vested interests (in commercial, political, and other categories) whose goals are not necessarily always aligned with the concerns of individuals and the people at large. Such incompatibilities have surfaced in areas including domain name policy, spam, security, encryption, freedom of speech issues, privacy, content rating and filtering, and a vast array of other areas. New ones are sure to come! While corporate, political, and other related entities most certainly have important roles to play in Internet issues, it is unwise and unacceptable for their influences to be effectively the only significant factors affecting the broad scope of Internet policies. There are numerous examples. While e-commerce can indeed be a wonderful tool, it is shortsighted in the extreme for some interests to treat the incredible creation that is the Internet as little more than a giant mail order catalog, with ".com" associated hype on seemingly every ad, billboard and commercial. Protection of copyrights in a global Internet environment, without abusive monitoring, is a challenge indeed. The Internet can be a fantastic tool to encourage the flow of ideas, information, and education, but it can also be used to track users' behaviors and invade individuals' privacy in manners that George Orwell never imagined in his "1984" world. PFIR is a resource for discussion, analysis, and information regarding Internet issues, aimed at providing a forum for *ordinary people* to participate in the process of Internet evolution, control, and use, around the entire world. PFIR is also a focal point for providing media and government with a resource regarding Internet issues that is not controlled by entities with existing major vested financial, political, or other interests. This is accomplished through the PFIR Web site, the handling of telephone and e-mail queries, and through digests, discussion groups, reports, broadcast and Internet radio efforts, and other venues. For full details about People For Internet Responsibility, including information regarding how you can participate in or keep informed about PFIR activities (including the PFIR Digest mailing list), please visit the PFIR Web site at: http://www.pfir.org Individuals, organizations, media, etc. who are interested in more information regarding PFIR or these Internet issues are invited to contact: Phone, Fax, or E-mail: Lauren Weinstein TEL: +1 (818) 225-2800 FAX: +1 (818) 225-7203 [EMAIL PROTECTED] Please send any physical mail to: PFIR c/o Peter G. Neumann Principal Scientist Computer Science Lab SRI International EL-243 333 Ravenswood Ave. Menlo Park, CA 94025-3493 USA Thank you very much. Be seeing you! ============ Lauren Weinstein Peter G. Neumann November 16, 1999 ------------------------------ The Internet PRIVACY Forum is a moderated digest for the discussion and analysis of issues relating to the general topic of privacy (both personal and collective) in the "information age" of the 1990's and beyond. The moderator will choose submissions for inclusion based on their relevance and content. Submissions will not be routinely acknowledged. All submissions should be addressed to "[EMAIL PROTECTED]" and must have RELEVANT "Subject:" lines; submissions without appropriate and relevant "Subject:" lines may be ignored. Excessive "signatures" on submissions are subject to editing. Subscriptions are via an automatic list server system; for subscription information, please send a message consisting of the word "help" (quotes not included) in the BODY of a message to: "[EMAIL PROTECTED]". Mailing list problems should be reported to "[EMAIL PROTECTED]". All messages included in this digest represent the views of their individual authors and all messages submitted must be appropriate to be distributable without limitations. The PRIVACY Forum archive, including all issues of the digest and all related materials, is available via anonymous FTP from site "ftp.vortex.com", in the "/privacy" directory. Use the FTP login "ftp" or "anonymous", and enter your e-mail address as the password. The typical "README" and "INDEX" files are available to guide you through the files available for FTP access. PRIVACY Forum materials may also be obtained automatically via e-mail through the list server system. Please follow the instructions above for getting the list server "help" information, which includes details regarding the "index" and "get" list server commands, which are used to access the PRIVACY Forum archive. All PRIVACY Forum materials are available through the Internet Gopher system via a gopher server on site "gopher.vortex.com". Access to PRIVACY Forum materials is also available through the Internet World Wide Web (WWW) via the Vortex Technology WWW server at the URL: "http://www.vortex.com"; full keyword searching of all PRIVACY Forum files is available via WWW access. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER ========== CTRL is a discussion and informational exchange list. Proselyzting propagandic screeds are not allowed. Substance—not soapboxing! 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