From: tcmay@got.net (Timothy C. May)
Date: Sun, 31 Dec 1995 08:48:25 +0800
To: cypherpunks@toad.com
Subject: Guerilla Internet Service Providers
Message-ID: <ad0b11c0300210046f19@[205.199.118.202]>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain


At 6:18 PM 12/30/95, Lucky Green wrote:

>At best, Cypherpunks can hope to provide the infrastructure that will allow
>an underground to communicate semi-securely. We are unable to stop the
>global tidal wave of fascism. Let's not waste our time on bemoaning the
>freedoms crushed in its path. We have more important work to do.

And support your local ISPs!

(Or, even better, direct connection to the Net, though this is harder for
most of us to arrange.)

This CompuServe situation should be a great recruiting opportunity.
Cypherpunks in various parts of the country (and outside the U.S.) can get
active in local AOL, Prodigy, and Compuserve groups (and maybe even Netcom
chat groups, as Netcom is large enough to be a ripe target for harassment
by some zealous prosecutor or tort-crazed lawyer, as the Church of
Scientology case showed). They can tell the folks about local alternatives.

Having lots of small, decentralized providers makes censoring the Net all
the harder. Guerilla Internet Service Providers.

(I'm not disparaging Netcom. Tom Klemesrud not only fought the CoS, he has
also spoken out against CompuServe's action. I just understand that the
"deep pockets" effect means that any ISP large enough to register on the
radar screens of the statists will be targetted for regulation and
sanctioning. Better to have a thousand services, melting into the jungle
when the heavy artillery arrives.)

--Tim May

We got computers, we're tapping phone lines, we know that that ain't allowed.
---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:----
Timothy C. May              | Crypto Anarchy: encryption, digital money,
tcmay@got.net  408-728-0152 | anonymous networks, digital pseudonyms, zero
W.A.S.T.E.: Corralitos, CA  | knowledge, reputations, information markets,
Higher Power: 2^756839 - 1  | black markets, collapse of governments.
"National borders aren't even speed bumps on the information superhighway."