From: rarachel@prism.poly.edu (Arsen Ray Arachelian)
Date: Sat, 16 Apr 94 13:57:40 PDT
To: cypherpunks@toad.com
Subject: anti-clipper autobomber
Message-ID: <9404162045.AA22719@prism.poly.edu>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text


I found this on comp-privacy.  Maybe we can use a scheme like this one to send
anti-clipper information over the net...  Does toad.com have a usenet news
feed?  If so, maybe we can have a program written that scans for keywords
and mails the author of the message some info about cypherpunks and clipper
and digital telespying 2.  

I do however strongly suggest that the automail bomber keep records of who
it sent a particular anti-clipper message to.  We don't want to actually
mailbomb people with 500 copies of the same message.  Just one article would
do.

We could also have this program autobomb different articles based on different
keywords.  It would be a good idea to also keep a list of names of those who
complained so we don't send'em anything again, and separate "already-sent-to"
lists for different articles with a central universal "no-send" list.

I would guess that this could be done with a daemon and a couple of scripts,
or perhaps some atrun'ed program.  The 1st program would scan all the articles
for the keywords and useraddresses.  It would then append any usernames it
finds that have sent messages with keywords that may indicate a favorable
response to the article to the article's mail list.  The second program would
then take the mail list for each article and remove any names found in the
universal "send-no-mail-to-me" list, and in the "already-sent-to" list.

The resulting list could be fed to perhaps majordomo(?) or just passed to
a mailer along with the text of each article.  The name would then be
thrown in the "already-sent-to" list after the message completed. 

Perhaps at the bottom of the mailed article we can have some instructions
on subscribing to cypherpunks, or telling this autobomber to put the name
into the "no-send" list.  Perhaps a message to majordomo with "remove
autobomber" or something...

I'd imagine that this would create quite a lot of traffic for toad.com, not
to mention the requirements of huge names lists...  Maybe if the articles
are periodic and are no longer sent after a month, it can help keep the
storage and traffic in check???


Anyway, here's the article:



Article 1117 of comp.society.privacy:
Path: prism.poly.edu!cmcl2!yale.edu!yale!gumby!newsxfer.itd.umich.edu!gatech!howland.reston.ans.net!vixen.cso.uiuc.edu!uwm.edu!computer-privacy-request
From: "Paul W. Robinson" <PAULW@TDR.COM>
Newsgroups: comp.society.privacy
Subject: Every Move You Make...I'll Be Watching You
Date: 14 Apr 1994 23:41:27 GMT
Organization: Computer Privacy Digest
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X-Computer-Privacy-Digest: Volume 4, Issue 052, Message 5 of 19
Originator: levine@blatz.cs.uwm.edu

    "Paul W. Robinson" <PAULW@TDR.COM> stated:  Here's something which
    might be of interest to you.  A large Educational Instuitution's
    computer is watching everything sent in newsgroups and possibly in
    some mailing lists.  I am using a modified address of PAULW@TDR.COM
    instead of PAUL because that computer has already sent me a message
    to PAUL@TDR.COM.  I want to try to see what it does this time.

In one list I mentioned that the Massachusetts Institute of Technology
(you know what the 3 letter abbreviation is) has a system that collects
E-Mail addresses of people who post to newsgroups.  That site used to
be called "pit-manager".

I am writing this message in this way to see what happens.  Apparently,
any time one of the Institute's computers sees a reference to
"pit-manager"  it mails a message to the sender telling them that the
site was changed to the address "rtfm".

I am not referencing the internet address that ends in .EDU here for
that educational Institution because I want to see if the Massachusetts
Institute of Technology's computer is checking based upon someone using
the name "pit-manager" or is it because of reference to the Institute's
domain name with that term used within the message?

I don't know if a program that is sending out messages based on it
scanning the contents of messages that it saw is a good idea.  Consider
a program that checked for spelling errors and criticized people who
misspelled words by telling them of all the words they misspelled.
(Considering how bad some people's writing is, that might not be a bad
idea.)

This sort of practice could be prostituted into to all sorts of
interesting political correctness tactics by having automated programs
that watch for comments someone doesn't like and mailing the writer
complaints.

---
Paul Robinson - Paul@TDR.COM