From: angels@wavenet.com (CyberAngels Director : Colin Gabriel Hatcher)
Date: Wed, 1 May 1996 15:52:01 +0800
To: perry@piermont.com
Subject: Re: Freedom and security
Message-ID: <v01510102a9e6b9e2e417@[198.147.118.163]>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain



>You will pardon my asking this, but, security from what? Who are the
>evil Network Terrorists throwing Bit Bombs or whatever? The only
>security you need on the internet is keeping your site from being
>broken in to, which is mostly a matter of setting it up
>properly. What, exactly, is the "Security" that you are offering us?
>
>Perry

I am not offering "you" anything unless you have a problem and are looking
for some assistance.  Just because you feel safe / immune from becoming a
victim of internet crime does not mean that there are no victims at all.

Site security is not at all the only problem.  Are you not aware of spams
and scams going on all the time?  Are you not aware that sexual predators
operate in IRC? Or that child pornography is a world wide trading game?
Have you never heard of email forgeries or impersonation?  What about tthe
victims of harassment and hatred who don't know how to deal with it?  What
about all the people who have never heard of killfiles?  Who don't know how
to report a problem nor who to report it to?   Haven't you ever been mail
bombed and wished you could find out who did it?

Maybe you feel like a veterano and can afford to look condesendingly at all
the thousands of fresh-faced netizens just arriving online and say "well if
they can't take the heat they should stay out of the fire" - but if we are
to call ourselves an emerging "community" then we must take responsibility
for our city, and that means caring about other people's problems.

The internet is not just a collection of bits and bytes - it's real people
doing real things to each other.

When your address is forged and you get flamed and bombed, or if you start
receiving anonymous death threats, your freedom is under threat.  It's not
enough to say "Well I just turn off my monitor"

The Internet is a city - it needs 911 services and it needs Neighborhood
Watches.  And neither professional law enforcement nor neighborhood watch
are by definition a threat to anyone's freedom.  Freedom within the context
of Community does not and never has meant the freedom to kill your
neighbor, or rob someone, or rape someone, or harm someone.  In the context
of the internet Community too, freedom is not the individual's right to do
whatever he or she likes - because then the Community is no longer free.

Freedom is under threat from two directions - from selfish individuals who
care little for the Community, and from the over zealousness of governments
who seek greater and greater control over individual thought and action.

The first step is to acknowledge that we have a problem within the Internet
Community - because if we don't address it responsibly then we have only
ourselves to blame when the governments try to take it over.  We can face
our problems or we can deny that they exist.

By asking me the question: "What crime?" you are indicating to me that you
prefer denial.


*********************************************************
Colin Gabriel Hatcher - CyberAngels Director
angels@wavenet.com

"Two people may disagree, but
that does not mean that one of them is evil"

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