From: "Deranged Mutant" <WlkngOwl@unix.asb.com>
Date: Sat, 13 Jul 1996 17:30:01 +0800
To: "E. ALLEN SMITH" <EALLENSMITH@ocelot.Rutgers.EDU>
Subject: Re: Another bad idea
Message-ID: <199607130436.AAA15452@unix.asb.com>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain


Note that my main point was sort-of vague.  Let me re-iterate it: 
crypto-activism should go along with the other activism for 
democratizing countries like China, Iraq, Burma, etc.  Most of the 
activists involved with those issues know about the culture (and many 
are already PGP-aware)... so for specific situations some of the 
ideas presents may not be appropriate for others.  It might be ok to 
direct-mail someone in one country, but dangerous for someone in 
another.

Also don't take for granted the relative access of privacy one has in
the US or Europe compared to some regime where you can 
only net surf with a policement watching over your shoulder at the 
police station's internet kiosks (hypothetical...).  Using an 
anonymous remailer or web anonymizer may be reason enough to get 
somebody in another country in trouble.

The thought of  blindly being a k00l krypt0 activist and getting some
poor guy in another country thrown in jail doesn't do much to help
democratize that country.

Spam and unsolicited mail aren't the way to go.  Better, more subtle 
ideas, might be to say 'check out this page' ot 'i've got source code 
for that on my page at...', which has techie or  even entertainment info
but also has political info (that already happens quite 
unintentionally).

I wonder what web users in places like Singapore thought when they 
kept running across blacked-out anti-CDA pages...

If one is familiar with the culture, one can even be really subtle 
and seem to be talking about an unreleated story or even techie or 
sports but actually be discussing the political situation in that 
country (look at many Soviet films, some Chinese films, Spanish films 
under Franco's regime, Cuban films, etc.)


On 12 Jul 96 at 18:30, E. ALLEN SMITH wrote:
[..]
> 	If these countries didn't value their technical people and what they
> can do, they wouldn't be allowing them on the Internet (even in a restricted
> way) in the first place. The above would only be a likely scenario if the
[..]
Don't underestimate people's stupidity.  The party loyalists or 
bootlickers may get away with more naughtiness on the 'net, but those 
borderline techies who are about due for another month at a 
re-education camp or loyalty counseling may get screwed. If such 
countries really valued their techies, then why do they allow them to 
emmigrate to Western countries?

[..]
> 	How, precisely, is one going to filter out graphics from web sites in
> Chinese? Ascii text and ideographs don't exactly get along. One interesting
[..]
By filtering out all photographs, which from what I heard the Chinese 
were contemplating.  Whether is it truly feasible is another matter, 
of course.  But since when has infeasability prevented anyone from 
trying it?

Rob
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        AB1F4831 1993/05/10 Deranged Mutant <wlkngowl@unix.asb.com>
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