From: "Vladimir Z. Nuri" <vznuri@netcom.com>
Date: Tue, 5 Nov 1996 15:30:20 -0800 (PST)
To: cypherpunks@toad.com
Subject: "censorship in cyberspace"???
Message-ID: <199611052329.PAA15991@netcom22.netcom.com>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain



I don't understand why people rant so much about censorship
in cyberspace, given the ease of buying a new tentacle.
a long time ago getting a new internet account was a big
deal, but now they are as prolific as flies.
you can now buy them for $7/mo from Community Connections,
courtesy of another cypherpunk (Sameer Parekh) on this list.
you even get a 5mb web site at this price, as I understand it.

I'd be interested in hearing of any other "tentacle havens" 
out there if anyone has any comment. <g>

my main point is that it's merely a semantic concept to say
that someone is "censored" from a mailing list. it's not
really possible to do such a thing anymore given how easy
it is to get new internet account with no ID necessary.
you can fight it or you can surf on it!! it's quite ironic
that to have the ability for a moderator to have a 
"civilized" forum with a guaranteed ability to obstruct
certain individuals, would require what cpunks would consider
an orwellian identification system. (tying a human to their
cyberspace posts. it could be done.)


p.s. one of these days I wonder if someone is going to mount
a really concerted attack against a mailing list using a
full tentacle arsenal instead of only a single email address
or anonymous remailers, just for the kicks of it.

the "automatic prose generator" technology out there leaves a lot
of other interesting ideas. an ingenious software engineer
with a flair for writing could create some pretty sophisticated
grammars that automatically generate text yet are impossible
to detect over perhaps even dozens of messages output by them.
they could even have their own personalities and writing styles,
if the software engineer were creative and devious enough.

 it's just a matter of time, and
really every mailing list in the world is defenseless against
it. does anyone have a technical solution? you'd solve one
of mankinds most pressing and difficult problems ever
encountered: "spam".

on the other hand, maybe such a thing has already happened
and no one knows about it. or maybe its happening right
now on this list. it would be absolutely impossible to detect
in all the typical noise if the "graffiti artist" were crafty enough.
 (hee, hee)