From: Alex Strasheim <cp@proust.suba.com>
Date: Thu, 4 Jan 1996 04:21:59 +0800
To: frissell@panix.com (Duncan Frissell)
Subject: Re: Compuserve *hasn't* banned newsgroups
In-Reply-To: <2.2.32.19960103180226.006a9ffc@panix.com>
Message-ID: <199601031919.NAA02071@proust.suba.com>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text


> You mean that the thirty-some odd open news servers listed on
> http://dana.ucc.nau.edu/~jwa/open-sites.html might get swamped.  Then the
> CIS refugees will be forced to pay Sameer the massive $12.50 (?) a month for
> a net-access-only account and read off of c2.org's server.  (Or any of the
> thousands of sites worldwide one can open a shell account on.)

And if the feds come knocking on Sameer's door, the refugees can go to the
Netherlands or some other country with respect for privacy. When netscape
releases an official, untimed browser with ssl news and mail built in, one
that lets users pick their own CAs, we'll have reached escape velocity. 

I think this all comes back to anarchy.  Anarchy as it relates to
cyberspace isn't a political ideology or a vision of how things ought to
be.  Rather it's a realistic analysis of the net dynamic as it is, a
natural and almost unavoidable consequence of the interaction of the
market and the technology.

Our opponents' position is weak, despite their having the massive power of
the government behind them.  In order for them to pull out a victory,
they'll have to impose extraordinarily draconian restrictions on crypto
very quickly, and they'll have to do it in the face of overwhelming public
opposition as well as strong resistance from business.  On top of that,
they'll have to secure an unprecented degree of international cooperation
to enforce rules net wide, something that's probably going to prove
impossibly difficult for them.  Again, they've got to do this quickly,
because genies are popping out of bottles all over the place. 

It's not impossible for them to pull this off, but I think the smart
money's with us.