Computer underground Digest Sun Oct 20, 1996 Volume 8 : Issue 74 ISSN 1004-042X Editor: Jim Thomas (cudigest@sun.soci.niu.edu) News Editor: Gordon Meyer (gmeyer@sun.soci.niu.edu) Archivist: Brendan Kehoe Shadow Master: Stanton McCandlish Field Agent Extraordinaire: David Smith Shadow-Archivists: Dan Carosone / Paul Southworth Ralph Sims / Jyrki Kuoppala Ian Dickinson Cu Digest Homepage: http://www.soci.niu.edu/~cudigest CONTENTS, #8.74 (Sun, Oct 20, 1996) File 1--Class Action Notice in CCC BBS lawsuit File 2--COMMUNITY CONNEXION SUED IN FRIVOLOUS LAWSUIT File 3--FDA Net-regulations -- "Drug Lords" from HotWired File 4--Another Point of view (in re: FLAMETHROWER Declan McCullagh) File 5--1996-10-10 Background on Next Generation Internet File 6--Cu Digest Header Info (unchanged since 7 Apr, 1996) CuD ADMINISTRATIVE, EDITORIAL, AND SUBSCRIPTION INFORMATION ApPEARS IN THE CONCLUDING FILE AT THE END OF EACH ISSUE. --------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Sat, 19 Oct 1996 12:18:00 -0400 From: Pete Kennedy Subject: File 1--Class Action Notice in CCC BBS lawsuit Editors -- I would appreciate it if you could include the following notice in an upcoming edition of CUD. I believe this lawsuit is the first of its kind -- a class action brought by users of a 5,500-user BBS against the government officials who seized it in a pornography raid on June 16, 1995. The Judge (at our suggestion) has ordered that notice be distributed electronically, as there are some 500 plus non-subscribers whose mail was seized from the BBS Internet gateway. We have modelled this lawsuit after the Steve Jackson Games lawsuit which I participated in back in 1993, but expanded it to a class action on behalf of all users of the system. -------------------------------------------------------------- Peter D. Kennedy George Donaldson & Ford, L.L.P. pkennedy@gdf.com 114 West 7th Street, Suite 1000 (512) 495-1416 (voice) Austin, Texas 78701 (512) 499-0094 (fax) http://www.gdf.com -------------------------------------------------------------- NOTICE OF CLASS ACTION LAWSUIT TO: All persons who, on June 16, 1995, were users, subscribers, or customers of the Cincinnati Computer Connection electronic bulletin board service, and all persons whose private electronic communications were resident on the Cincinnati Computer Connection BBS when it was seized by the Defendants, but not including the actual provider of that electronic bulletin board service or any law enforcement agencies or personnel investigating that electronic bulletin board service. NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN that a lawsuit has been filed in this court that may affect your legal rights. This case has been certified by the Court as a class action. A class action is a lawsuit in which one or more persons can sue on behalf of other persons in the same or similar situation. If you are a person who falls within the group of persons described above, you are a member of the class that the named Plaintiffs represent. The Court has ruled that the named Plaintiffs, Steven Guest, Denise Kelley, Ben Kelley, Nelda Sturgill, Deborah Cummings, Randy Bowling and Richard Kramer, may bring this lawsuit on behalf of all those persons described in the group above. YOU ARE NOT BEING SUED. THERE IS NO REQUIREMENT THAT YOU ATTEND COURT, HIRE A LAWYER, OR PAY ANY OF THE COSTS OF THIS LAWSUIT. IF YOU CHOOSE, HOWEVER, YOU MAY HIRE YOUR OWN LAWYER, AND, IF YOU DO SO, YOU WILL BE RESPONSIBLE FOR PAYING YOUR LAWYER'S FEES. AS A MEMBER OF THE CLASS, YOU ARE HEREBY FURTHER GIVEN NOTICE OF THE FOLLOWING MATTERS: 1. On December 5, 1995, the individual Plaintiffs, Steven Guest, Denise Kelley, Ben Kelly, Nelda Sturgill, Deborah Cummings, Randy Bowling and Richard Kramer, sought certification of this lawsuit as a class action, against the following Defendants: Simon L. Leis, Jr., Hamilton County (Ohio) Sheriff's Department, Hamilton County (Ohio) Regional Electronics Computer Intelligence Task Force, Dale Menkhaus, David Ausdenmoore, and James Nerlinger. 2. The named Plaintiffs have brought this action not only on their own behalf, but on behalf of all the following group of persons ("the Class"): All persons who, on June 16, 1995, were users, subscribers, or customers of the Cincinnati Computer Connection electronic bulletin board service, and all persons whose private electronic communications were resident on the Cincinnati Computer Connection BBS when it was seized by the Defendants, but not including the actual provider of that electronic bulletin board service or any law enforcement agencies or personnel investigating that electronic bulletin board service. 3. The named Plaintiffs generally allege that the Defendants' seizure, on June 16, 1995, of the Cincinnati Computer Connection electronic bulletin board system violated the civil rights of the subscribers and users of that system. This lawsuit has been filed, alleging that the Defendants' seizure and retention of the contents of the Cincinnati Computer Connection BBS violated the Electronic Communications Privacy Act of 1986, the First Amendment Privacy Protection Act of 1980, the First Amendment, the Fourth Amendment, and Ohio law. 4. The Defendants have denied the Plaintiffs' allegations. YOU ARE ADVISED THAT IF YOU ARE A MEMBER OF THE CLASS, and that if you do not wish to be considered a member of this class and represented by the above-named Plaintiffs, you may be excluded from this lawsuit by notifying the Court in this cause in writing of that wish, within 60 days of the date of this Notice. If you wish exclusion, you should send written correspondence notifying the Court of your wish to be excluded from the lawsuit to: Kenneth J. Murphy Office of the District Clerk United States District Court Southern District of Ohio 100 E. Fifth Street Cincinnati, Ohio 45202 (513) 583-4210 Re: Guest, et al., v. Leis, et al., No. C-1-95-673; U.S. District Court, Southern District of Ohio, Western Division If you are excluded from the class, you will not receive payment from any settlement or judgment entered in this lawsuit. You will not be bound by the terms of any settlement or judgment entered in this lawsuit, and you will be free to pursue any legal rights you may have on your own behalf. YOU ARE FURTHER ADVISED THAT IF YOU ARE A MEMBER OF THE CLASS and you do not elect to be excluded from the class, under Ohio and federal law: 1. You will be bound by the terms of the judgment in this cause, whether such judgment is favorable or not. 2. You may be subjected to a cross complaint or some other affirmative action by the Defendants. 3. Although this action is pending, the Defendants are not prevented in any way from exercising all remedies available to them by contract or law. 4. The named Plaintiffs and the Class in this lawsuit are represented by: Scott T. Greenwood Greenwood & Associates 2301 Carew Tower 441 Vine Street Cincinnati, Ohio 45202 (513) 684-0101 (phone) (513) 684-0077 (fax) stgrnwd@iac.net (internet) Peter D. Kennedy George, Donaldson & Ford, L.L.P. 114 W. 7th Street, Suite 1000 Austin, Texas 78701 (512) 495-1400 (phone) (512) 499-0094 (fax) pkennedy@gdf.com (internet) 5. You may contact the attorneys for the Plaintiffs listed above for further information concerning this action. 6. Be aware that the Court, by initially certifying this lawsuit as a class action, has not expressed any option as to the merits of this lawsuit. SIGNED this 10th day of September, 1996. _____________/S/____________________ JACK SHERMAN JR., UNITED STATES MAGISTRATE JUDGE ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 14 Oct 1996 11:24:01 -0700 (PDT) From: sameer@c2.net Subject: File 2--COMMUNITY CONNEXION SUED IN FRIVOLOUS LAWSUIT Fwd from: fight-censorship@vorlon.mit.edu COMMUNITY CONNEXION SUED IN FRIVOLOUS LAWSUIT For release: October 14, 1996 Contact: Sameer Parekh 510-986-8770 Oakland, CA - Community ConneXion, Inc, dba C2Net, condemns the lawsuit served by Adobe Systems, Inc., Claris Corporation, and Traveling Software, Inc. as a frivolous lawsuit. "As near as we can tell," said C2Net President Sameer Parekh, "we are being sued for being an Internet Service Provider." C2Net is an ISP, providing shell accounts and web hosting services. But the company is primarily a software vendor, selling Stronghold, one of the most popular secure web servers on the market. "We were looking into joining the Software Publisher's Association, who filed the suit on behalf of the plaintiffs," said Parekh, "but it's not very likely to happen at this point." The lawsuit appears to charge C2Net with liability based upon allegations that C2Net's customers provide links to pirated software on other machines and "cracker tools" that allow users to beat copy-protection mechanisms like software serial numbers. "It's completely outrageous that the SPA has nothing better to do than to file frivolous lawsuits against hard-working Internet Service Providers," said Parekh. "We are not aware of any such links on our pages or our customer's pages, and if our customers are breaking any laws, we want to know about it so we can terminate their accounts." (The lawsuit provides no specific examples.) The lawsuit was apparently filed after a single attempt to contact the company with a form-letter e-mail. The copy of the alleged e-mail included as an attachment to the suit shows the SPA's real motive. "They want us to sign a 'Code of Conduct'," said Parekh. "Among other things, we'd have to agree to routinely monitor our customer's web pages, which we won't do. We deal with complaints about our customers on a case by case basis, and we have a firm and clear policy against illegal activity of any sort. We've shut down accounts for less than what they're alleging in this lawsuit." "This is clearly a frivolous lawsuit," said Terry Gross, counsel for C2Net. "The plaintiffs know that an ISP can only be liable if it participates in and has knowledge of the improper activity, and it is clear that they have no such basis." Although the lawsuit does not mention the "Code of Conduct", it appears that most ISPs who received the e-mail ended up signing it, largely to avoid legal action from the much-feared SPA. Those that didn't kowtow got sued. "The terms of the 'Code of Conduct' are completely unacceptable," said Parekh. "It basically gives the SPA the right to go on an ongoing fishing expedition through our customer's files, and requires us to do the same as their agent on a regular basis. The Code would classify us as 'publishers', and we would become responsible for everything our customers do. We've built this business on a solid foundation of respect for our customer's privacy. Monitoring their activities without grounds for suspicion is completely inconsistent with maintaining their privacy." "This lawsuit is grossly unfair, and it's going to cost us a lot of time and money, but we don't have any choice but to fight it," said Parekh. "What we have here is three giant software companies and their well-funded bag of lawyers trying to bully a smaller software company into adopting costly policies that invade customers' privacy." A coalition is currently being formed to fight this case and make sure that this form of legal terrorism does not occur in the future against internet providers. The coalition will probably include the three companies that have been served in the suit and other organizations with a stake in creating a rational legal enviroment for ISPs and their customers. C2Net provides high-security encryption solutions for the Internet worldwide. More information about C2Net's products are available at https://stronghold.c2.net/. Information about the forming coalition may be found at https://www.c2.net/ispdc/. ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 18 Oct 1996 05:20:19 -0700 (PDT) From: Declan McCullagh Subject: File 3--FDA Net-regulations -- "Drug Lords" from HotWired From -- fight-censorship@vorlon.mit.edu ============================ http://www.netizen.com/netizen/96/42/global4a.html HotWired The Netizen "Drug Lords" Global Network by Declan McCullagh (declan@well.com) Washington, DC, 17 October Forget the Communications Decency Act and the censor-happy Clinton administration. Instead, it now seems like we have to keep an eye on the pinstriped bureaucrats at the US Food and Drug Administration, who are hatching their own schemes to regulate the Net. I just got back from the agency's two-day conference in the Maryland suburbs, entitled "FDA and the Internet: Advertising and Promotion of Medical Products." Discussions drifted from troublesome-to-the-Feds notions of drug use in America Online chat rooms to emerging international Net-regulatory agreements, but all the talk shared a kind of benevolent paternalism. Consumers can't be trusted to make their own choices. The Federal government must protect us from reading what only doctors are allowed to see. Netizens can't even be trusted to figure out when they're leaving a Web site after they click on a link. Drug industry representatives on the panel this morning appeared less than overly concerned with regulatory threats to free speech. Jamie Marks from Body Health Resources said: "It's very important that drug companies police the sites they link to." The panel also discussed how to prevent sites that celebrate or even talk about illicit drug use from linking to sites operated by pharmaceutical companies. Even search engines like AltaVista could be hit by FDA regulations. Sara Stein from Stanford University noted, "Search engines have begun to sell links ... that's another area of disclosure that's required." Translation: the FDA is looking to have a say in how to label medical advertisements on Web sites. The FDA's also working the international angle. They brought in to the conference speakers from France, Britain, Switzerland, Brazil, and the Netherlands - all of whom were particularly interested in online drug promotion, since US advertising laws are currently so permissive. J. Idanpaan-Heikkila, the World Health Organization's director of drug management and policies, said that real-world claims promoting pharmaceuticals should be "in good taste," adding, "I think this is applicable to the Internet." Cedric Allenou, the French Embassy's health attache, predicted more controls: "In France, as in the United States, there is a lack of regulation on the Internet. But these issues will soon be discussed by the French government." When asked what his country would do if a US server distributes information banned in France, he replied: "If your Web site is not in France, you're not under French rule. This is a problem with French Internet regulation." John Rothchild, an attorney from the Federal Trade Commission - which will announce its own Net-regulation plan later this year - said: "Based on some hasty research I did last night, I can report it is feasible to control access to our Web site based on what country the accesser is in.... I don't know the technical details, but according to the technical people at the FTC, non-US domain names have a two-letter suffix." Rothchild apparently didn't realize that many companies outside the United States have domain names ending in nothing but .com. At the end of the two-day conference, meanwhile, the one question left unanswered by attendees was not whether the FDA should regulate the Net, but how long it will take them, and how far they'll go. ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 14 Oct 1996 11:23:01 -0600 From: Jim Taylor Subject: File 4--Another Point of view (in re: FLAMETHROWER Declan McCullagh) Jim Taylor (jtaylor@tcd.net) Another Point of view on the message from "FLAMETHROWER Declan McCullagh (declan@well.com)" >Private businesses pose the more sinister threat to >free expression on-line. >Take America On-line (AOL), which now boasts over six million members. >In a move akin to the paranoid antics of a kindergarten schoolmarm, >AOL this summer started deleting messages posted in Spanish and >Portuguese since its monitors can't understand them. Undercover AOL >cops continue to yank accounts of mothers who talk about breast >feeding and mention the word "nipple." The company's gapingly broad >"terms of service" agreement allows it to boot anyone, anytime, for >any reason. To me I would interpret this as quit AOL, Compuserve, or any on-line service that censors its customers. Join up with any of the thousands of Internet Service Providers (ISP) that don't censor, but just give you a standard SLIP or PPP type account. >Don't forget net-filtering software. While busily touting itself as >anti-censorship, CyberSitter quietly blocks the National Organization >of Women and Queer Resources Directory web sites. CyberPatrol prevents >teen pornhounds from investigating animal and gun rights pages -- and, >inexplicably, the Electronic Frontier Foundation's censorship archive. >NetNanny cuts off AIDS resources including the sci.med.aids and >clari.tw.health.aids newsgroups. SurfWatch bans domestic partner web >pages and Columbia University's award-winning "Health Education and >Wellness" site. Yes, this is correct, for those that are controlled under net-filtering software. The majority of people affected are children and employees at some company. Since all of the above software come with a setable password, parents can set up what sites they want their children to see. It is not static, and can be setup with different degrees of restriction. Most companies don't provide net access for employees to "surf", but to gather pertinent information. It is the companies, or parents right to control access to information. As for employees, they can AND SHOULD get their own Internet accounts at home so they can see what is in cyberspace, on their own time, and in a non censored way. If we as netizens don't provide a way to control access to children, the government will do it for us, or at least try real hard, as they did with the Communications Decency Act (CDA). >If [censorship] happens, netizens will find their rosy vision of the Net as >the birthplace of a new form of democracy overwhelmed by the sad >reality of a new media oligarchy aborning. Yes I entirely agree, The net as a whole should be censor free, but filters should be in place to protect, those that need it, ie children. The same way I support Alcohol should be able to be purchased by an Adult, but we put restrictions on children from purchasing Alcohol, like it should be. ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 11 Oct 1996 14:04:44 -0500 From: Jerrold Zar Subject: File 5--1996-10-10 Background on Next Generation Internet THE WHITE HOUSE Office of the Press Secretary ________________________________________________________________________ For Immediate Release October 10, 1996 BACKGROUND ON CLINTON-GORE ADMINISTRATION'S NEXT-GENERATION INTERNET INITIATIVE The Internet is the biggest change in human communications since the printing press. Every day, this rapidly growing global network touches the lives of millions of Americans. Students log in to the Library of Congress or take virtual field trips to the Mayan ruins. Entrepreneurs get the information they need to start a new business and sell their products in overseas markets. Caregivers for people with Alzheimer's Disease participate in an "extended family" on the Cleveland FreeNet. Citizens keep tabs on the voting records and accomplishments of their elected representatives. We must invest today to create the foundation for the networks of the 21st Century. Today's Internet is an outgrowth of decades of federal investment in research networks such as the ARPANET and the NSFNET. A small amount of federal seed money stimulated much greater investment by industry and academia, and helped create a large and rapidly growing market. Similarly, creative investments today will set the stage for the networks of tomorrow that are even more powerful and versatile than the current Internet. This initiative will foster partnerships among academia, industry and government that will keep the U.S. at the cutting-edge of information and communications technologies. It will also accelerate the introduction of new multimedia services available in our homes, schools, and businesses. Economic benefits: The potential economic benefits of this initiative are enormous. Because the Internet developed in the United States first, American companies have a substantial lead in a variety of information and communications markets. The explosion of the Internet has generated economic growth, high-wage jobs, and a dramatic increase in the number of high-tech start-ups. The Next Generation Internet initiative will strengthen America's technological leadership, and create new jobs and new market opportunities. The Administration's "Next Generation Internet" initiative has three goals: 1. Connect universities and national labs with high-speed networks that are 100 - 1000 times faster than today's Internet: These networks will connect at least 100 universities and national labs at speeds that are 100 times faster than today's Internet, and a smaller number of institutions at speeds that are 1,000 times faster. These networks will eventually be able to transmit the contents of the entire Encyclopedia Britannica in under a second. 2. Promote experimentation with the next generation of networking technologies: For example, technologies are emerging that could dramatically increase the capabilities of the Internet to handle real-time services such as high quality video-conferencing. There are a variety of research challenges associated with increasing the number of Internet users by a factor of 100 that this initiative will help address. By serving as "testbeds", research networks can help accelerate the introduction of new commercial services. 3. Demonstrate new applications that meet important national goals and missions: Higher-speed, more advanced networks will enable a new generation of applications that support scientific research, national security, distance education, environmental monitoring, and health care. Below are just a few of the potential applications: Health care: Doctors at university medical centers will use large archives of radiology images to identify the patterns and features associated with particular diseases. With remote access to supercomputers, they will also be able to improve the accuracy of mammographies by detecting subtle changes in three-dimensional images. National Security: A top priority for the Defense Department is "dominant battlefield awareness," which will give the United States military a significant advantage in any armed conflict. This requires an ability to collect information from large numbers of high-resolution sensors, automatic processing of the data to support terrain and target recognition, and real-time distribution of that data to the warfighter. This will require orders of magnitude more bandwidth than is currently commercially available. Distance Education: Universities are now experimenting with technologies such as two-way video to remote sites, VCR-like replay of past classes, modeling and simulation, collaborative environments, and online access to instructional software. Distance education will improve the ability of universities to serve working Americans who want new skills, but who cannot attend a class at a fixed time during the week. Energy Research: Scientists and engineers across the country will be able to work with each other and access remote scientific facilities, as if they were in the same building. "Collaboratories" that combine video-conferencing, shared virtual work spaces, networked scientific facilities, and databases will increase the efficiency and effectiveness of our national research enterprise. Biomedical Research: Researchers will be able to solve problems in large-scale DNA sequencing and gene identification that were previously impossible, opening the door to breakthroughs in curing human genetic diseases. Environmental Monitoring: Researchers are constructing a "virtual world" to model the Chesapeake Bay ecosystem, which serves as a nursery area for many commercially important species. Manufacturing engineering: Virtual reality and modeling and simulation can dramatically reduce the time required to develop new products. Funding: The Administration will fund this initiative by allocating $100 million for R&D and research networks to develop the Next Generation Internet. This increase in FY98 funding will be offset by a reallocation of defense and domestic technology funds. As with previous networking initiatives, the Administration will work to ensure that this federal investment will serve as a catalyst for additional investment by universities and the private sector. Implementation: The principal agencies involved in this initiative are the National Science Foundation, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, the Department of Energy, NASA, and the National Institutes of Health. Other agencies may be involved in promoting specific applications related to their missions. INTERNET TIMELINE 1969 Defense Department commissions ARPANET to promote networking research. 1974 Bob Kahn and Vint Cerf publish paper which specifies protocol for data networks. 1981 NSF provides seed money for CSNET (Computer Science NETwork) to connect U.S. computer science departments. 1982 Defense Department establishes TCP/IP (Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol) as standard. 1984 Number of hosts (computers) connected to the Internet breaks 1,000. 1986 NSFNET and 5 NSF-funded supercomputer centers created. NSFNET backbone is 56 kilobits/second. 1989 Number of hosts breaks 100,000. 1991 NSF lifts restrictions on commercial use of the Internet. High Performance Computing Act, authored by then-Senator Gore, is signed into law. World Wide Web software released by CERN, the European Laboratory for Particle Physics. 1993 President Clinton and Vice President Gore get e-mail addresses. Mosaic, a graphical "Web browser" developed at the NSF-funded National Center for Supercomputing Applications, is released. Traffic on the World Wide Web explodes. 1994 White House goes on-line with "Welcome to the White House." 1995 U.S. Internet traffic now carried by commercial Internet service providers. 1996 Number of Internet hosts reaches 12.8 million. President Clinton and Vice President Gore announce "Next Generation Internet" initiative. [Source: Hobbes' Internet Timeline, v. 2.5] Business and University Leaders Endorse the Administration's Next-Generation Internet Proposal "Silicon Graphics applauds the current Administration for recognizing the power and limitless value of the Internet. Their forward-thinking Next Generation Internet initiative sets an example by leadership that will encourage organizations, in both public and private sectors, to fully leverage the Internet, and to become a part of the Information Age." Edward R. McCracken, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Silicon Graphics "I include myself among the many who have encouraged judicious Government sponsorship of research beyond the horizon of normal product development. The Next Generation Internet initiative builds on the foundation of earlier research sponsored by far-sighted funding agencies seeking to solve real problems but willing to take risks for the sake of high payoff. As in the recent past, the results of this program will almost surely trigger serendipitous discoveries and unlock billions of dollars in corporate product/service development. With any reasonable success, America will enter the 21st Century surfing a tidal wave of new networking technology unleashed by the Next Generation Internet." Vinton G. Cerf, Senior Vice President of Data Architecture, MCI "There is no question that the Internet would never have happened without the leadership of the government and universities working together. The Next Generation Internet will have an even bigger impact on the world." Eric Schmidt, Chief Technology Officer, Sun The continued advance of computer networking technology is fundamental to our nation's continued leadership in scientific research. Just as higher education, in partnership with industry and government, led in the development and realization of the Internet, this effort will once again focus our best minds on another significant advance in the use of network technology. The result will not only strengthen our research capability, but will also lead to innovations that provide broader access to education. Homer Neal, President, University of Michigan "The promise of a new generation of networks that will enable collaborative, multi-disciplinary research efforts is essential to meeting national challenges in many disciplines, and to ensure a continuing leadership role for the United States' academic community. Higher Education welcomes the opportunity for a renewed partnership with the federal government and industry to develop the advanced network infrastructure upon which these networking capabilities depend." Graham Spanier, President, Pennsylvania State University Qs and As on Next-Generation Internet Initiative October 10, 1996 Q 1. Why does the government need to do this, given that the commercial Internet industry is growing so explosively? The U.S. research community and government agencies have requirements that can not be met on today's public Internet or with today's technology. For example, the Department of Defense needs the ability to transmit large amounts of real-time imagery data to military decision-makers to maintain "information dominance." Scientists and engineers at universities and national labs need reliable and secure access to remote supercomputers, scientific facilities, and other researchers interacting in virtual environments. The productivity of the U.S. research community will be increased if they have access to high-speed networks with advanced capabilities. These new technologies will also help meet important national missions in defense, energy, health and space. An initiative of this nature would not be undertaken by the private sector alone because the benefits can not be captured by any one firm. The Administration believes that this initiative will generate enormous benefits for the Nation as a whole. It will accelerate the wide-spread availability of networked multimedia services to our homes, schools and businesses, with applications in areas such as community networking, life-long learning, telecommuting, electronic commerce, and health care. Q 2. What are some of the capabilities that the "Next Generation Internet" will have that today's Internet does not? Below are just of the few of the possibilities. Many new applications will be developed by those using the Next Generation Internet. o An increased ability to handle real-time, multimedia applications such as video-conferencing and "streams" of audio and video -- very important for telemedicine and distance education. Currently, the Internet can't make any guarantees about the rate at which it will deliver data to a given destination, making many real-time applications difficult or impossible. o Sufficient bandwidth to transfer and manipulate huge volumes of data. Satellites and scientific instruments will soon generate a terabyte (a trillion bytes) of information in a single day. [The printed collection of the Library of Congress is equivalent to 10 terabytes.] o The ability to access remote supercomputers, construct a "virtual" supercomputer from multiple networked workstations, and interact in real-time with simulations of tornadoes, ecosystems, new drugs, etc. o The ability to collaborate with other scientists and engineers in shared, virtual environments, including reliable and secure remote use of scientific facilities. Q 3. Is it still Administration policy that the "information superhighway" will be built, owned, and operated by the private sector? Absolutely. The Administration does believe that it is appropriate for the government to help fund R&D and research networks, however. Partnerships with industry and academia will ensure that the results of government-funded research are widely available. Q 4. Will this benefit all Americans, or just the research community? By being a smart and demanding customer, the federal government and leading research universities will accelerate the commercial availability of new products, services, and technologies. New technologies have transitioned very rapidly from the research community to private sector companies. For example, Mosaic, the first graphical Web browser, was released by the National Center for Supercomputing Applications 1993. By 1994, Netscape and other companies had formed to develop commercial Web browsers. Today, millions of Americans use the Web. The public will also benefit from the economic growth and job creation that will be generated from these new technologies, the new opportunities for life-long learning, and research breakthroughs in areas such as health. Q 5. What will it do about "traffic jams" on the Internet, or the ability of the Internet to continue its phenomenal rate of growth? The lion's share of the responsibility for dealing with this problem lies with the private sector. Internet Service Providers will have to invest in higher capacity, more reliable networks to keep up with demand from their customers. However, this initiative will help by investing in R&D, creating testbeds, and serving as a first customer for many of the technologies that will help the Internet grow and flourish. One of the goals of the initiative is to identify and deploy technologies that will help the Internet continue its exponential rate of growth. Examples include: o Ultra-fast, all-optical networks; o Faster switches and routers; o The ability to "reserve" bandwidth for real-time applications; o A new version of the Internet Protocol that will prevent a shortage of Internet addresses; o "Multicast" technology that conserves bandwidth by disseminating data to multiple recipients at the same time; o Software for replicating information throughout the Internet, thereby reducing bottlenecks; o Software for measuring network performance; and o Software to assure reliability and security of information transmitted over the Internet. Q 6. How does this initiative relate to existing government programs, such as the High Performance Computing and Communications Initiative? Will this be a totally new network? The initiative represents an increase in the HPCC budget. The initiative will include both: (1) an expansion and augmentation of existing research networks supported by NSF, the Department of Defense, the Department of Energy, and NASA; (2) new networks;and (3) development of applications by agencies such as the National Institutes of Health. Q 7. Are more technical details on the initiative available? The Administration intends to consult broadly with the research community, the private sector, and other stakeholders before developing the final technical details for this initiative. ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 21 Mar 1996 22:51:01 CST From: CuD Moderators Subject: File 6--Cu Digest Header Info (unchanged since 7 Apr, 1996) Cu-Digest is a weekly electronic journal/newsletter. Subscriptions are available at no cost electronically. 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