From: Duncan Frissell <frissell@panix.com>
Date: Thu, 4 Jan 1996 13:32:59 +0800
To: ecarp@netcom.com
Subject: Re: Why Net Censorship Doesn't Work
Message-ID: <2.2.32.19960102201728.0069e780@panix.com>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain


At 11:29 AM 1/2/96 -0600, Ed Carp [khijol SysAdmin] wrote:

>Tell that to folks in the contries of used-to-be-Russia.  Lots of old 
>Communist leaders getting back into power - some folks are even saying 
>that the old days under the Communists were better than living in a free 
>market economy.

I said "modern" country.  Even so, Russia and the rest are much more market
dominated than they used to be.  Transition will not be easy but I doubt if
they'll go back.  As for an eternity of slavery being superior to too
rambunctious freedom -- we won't let them be that stupid.  The "cancer of
Anglo-Saxon values" is pretty powerful.

>> Where are the pressure points where regulation can be applied?
>
>How about on the backbone itself?  Since everyone goes through the htree 
>major backbones, all one would have to do is control access at those 
>points.  Of course, that would lead to clandestine use of 
>store-and-forward LEOsats, s&f UUCP sites, etc.  UUCP might even make a 
>comeback ;)

That would require outlawry of crypto over the backbone and some way of
convincing the backbone to run government approved code.  Quite a bit of
resistance would ensue.  Have the Feds ever successfully mandated that large
numbers of people run government code?

DCF