From: "Phillip M. Hallam-Baker" <hallam@ai.mit.edu>
Date: Tue, 21 Jan 1997 10:48:02 -0800 (PST)
To: cypherpunks <declan@well.com>
Subject: Fighting the cybercensor.
Message-ID: <01BC07A2.1CDA0D80@crecy.ai.mit.edu>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain


Mission:

Singapore and China are blocking certain net groups. I think
this is a bad thing, question is how can we stop it? The Web
was conceived as offering despots and dictators a choice 
between remaining in the dark ages and allowing freedom of
speech. Blocking and filtering schemes threaten this ideal.


Requirements:

A scheme which makes blocking of individual IP addresses 
impractical.


Architecture:

The Web allows for proxies such as provided by the CERN server
(and versions of Apache etc). A proxy server configured to
accept connections from domains enforcing blocking (china, 
Singapore etc) can serve as a means of circumventing the 
restrictions.

The problem then arises, how can the victims of censorship
find out about the holes in the curtain? I believe that it
would not be difficult to persuade large numbers of people to
mirror a list of sites maintained at a central location. The
blue ribbon campaign attracted a lot of interest on the same
topic. Activity that brought to light the political aspect
of Web censorship would help the domestic anti-CDA effort.


Considerations:
[i.e. areas needing brainstorming]

1) Copyright. Clearly copyright holders such as CNN etc would
need to be involved. Although proxies have long been a part of 
the Web and the scheme does not threaten their interests it would
be as well to get them on board at an early stage.

2) How can one prevent the proxies themselves being blocked? Some
ideas that come to mind:

2a) Only issue new sites gradually so that blocking requires
continuous updates.

2b) Use DHCP to change network addresses regularly.

2c) Some crypto hack I can't quite work out (hence the post to
cypher punks). I can phrase the challenge more compactly though.
We have two sets of opposed groups A and M. The A group wish to
establish a continued conversation with groups B and C. M is 
willing to permit communication with group B but not C. Whenever
M discovers that a member of group B is willing to act on behalf 
of group C, M transfers that member to the C group.

The problem is to keep A's channels of communication open despite
the efforts of M for very large group sizes. 

I'm not sure if this is a pure crypto challenge or a game theory
problem.


Comments? If people are willing to work on this I can provide 
some facilities and act as a media contact.


		Phill