F I D O N E W S -- Vol.12 No.29 (17-Jul-1995) +----------------------------+-----------------------------------------+ | A newsletter of the | ISSN 1198-4589 Published by: | | FidoNet BBS community | "FidoNews" BBS | | _ | +1-519-570-4176 | | / \ | | | /|oo \ | | | (_| /_) | | | _`@/_ \ _ | | | | | \ \\ | Editors: | | | (*) | \ )) | Donald Tees 1:221/192 | | |__U__| / \// | Sylvia 1:221/194 | | _//|| _\ / | | | (_/(_|(____/ | | | (jm) | Newspapers should have no friends. | | | -- JOSEPH PULITZER | +----------------------------+-----------------------------------------+ | Submission address: editors 1:1/23 | +----------------------------------------------------------------------+ | MORE addresses: | | | | submissions=> editor@exlibris.tdkcs.waterloo.on.ca | | Don -- don@exlibris.tdkcs.waterloo.on.ca | | Sylvia max@exlibris.tdkcs.waterloo.on.ca | +----------------------------------------------------------------------+ | For information, copyrights, article submissions, | | obtaining copies of fidonews or the internet gateway faq | | please refer to the end of this file. | +----------------------------------------------------------------------+ ======================================================================== Table of Contents ======================================================================== 1. Editorial..................................................... 1 2. Articles...................................................... 2 CyberSmut, the Exon Bill, and Thee:......................... 2 Request for info on Kimberlin............................... 6 3. Fidonews Information.......................................... 6 ======================================================================== Editorial ======================================================================== A very quiet week this week with only two articles. The Germer incident seems to have gone away, as has the net 150 kafuffal. Nothing left to fight about ... mmm. I wonder how much of the bickering that goes on in fidonet is due to simple boredom? It strikes me that there is very little new happening in the net. Perhaps one off the problems with standards is that they also spell stagnation. Policies have the downside of preventing inovation. FidoNews 12-29 Page: 2 17 Jul 1995 ======================================================================== Articles ======================================================================== CyberSmut, the Exon Bill, and Thee: by Langston Goldfinch, SysOp of N.O.P.C.; Fido 1:396/17, Psychotherapist by profession. (langston@nopc.org) Warning, using a computer may hurt you. Or your kids. No doubt soon after Gutenberg had his press, or Bell his phone, alarms went off among the peasants. At my high school students were forbidden to watch Television since it was a tool of Satan. Maybe they had something? At least their answer was to not allow me to see it, rather than trying to make television sets illegal. Well, if your psyche is tender, or you project it upon your offspring, read on. Second warning, this report deviates from previous style. I suppose it is impossible to discuss anything without one's personality and values sneaking through. Objectivity being, as someone said, the myth of immaculate perception. So far my writings here have been instructional, about using your BBS, etc. Here I wish to share with you my thinking and concerns on an issue gaining public attention, namely the dark side of online services, including your own BBS. One common confusion exists on this subject: The meanings of "censorship" and "editorializing". A policy of restricting content enforced or based on Law is Censorship. The current standards in this country (Liberal for the most part) are to Censor "Obscenity" but not all offensive or erotic material. This produced our rating's system, and "adults only" access for movies, etc. In my view "adults" should state "juvenile" only, since that is what the material usually consists of, but then that is my taste. Three different types of activity raise concern. a) The use of offensive language in public echoes. This means not only "Carlin's Seven Forbidden Words", but usage of epithets and derogatory terms in confrontational exchanges. Often the moderator (many echoes have none) will admonish the "offender", and usually can bar participation. Software is to remove words designated, and/or "TWIT" a user. There is a problem with this, as Prodigy is discovering. The moderator or BBS may be liable if they do not continue to edit offensive, or libelous, material. Your SysOp's procedure is not to edit content, but if a user proves to be unusually obnoxious to bar his access to the system. This has been done for reasons other than offense in language (attempting to damage the system, or in one occasion to engage in possible criminal behavior, selling stolen goods.) The "rules" of FidoNet (for example) consist of: 1. Do not be unusually annoying. This would include repeated asking of questions, especially if in the manual! 2. Do not be too easily annoyed. Give the other user a break! FidoNet is our basic connection to BBSs world. Now connecting to UseNet FidoNews 12-29 Page: 3 17 Jul 1995 has given us a much greater range. Estimates of actual numbers vary widely. InterNet, being world wide, has no "rules" per se. Each user (or Net) may be subject to various regulations due to their own system (a University for example, or Country.) But for a user here to complain that someone in Zambia broke some local rule? Many echoes seem to operate solely for the availability of offense. Fido echo FLAME exists for people to insult each other. These insults are primitive and lack the finesse of the British Parliament. Other echoes deal with topics likely to shock the average "normal" (you?) The names of these echoes will usually warn, or entice, you. Be aware that "Petting Zoo" is not about household pets! Sexual aberrations seem particularly attractive to Americans and "civilized" Europeans, but I understand that these offer nothing for third world countries. If you live on a farm you don't need to read about some things. b) The meeting of juveniles with possible pedophiles. The Times-Picayune (New Orleans 6-12-95) reported a run-away girl (13) found in California far from her Kentucky Home (no music here, please). Apparently she "met" someone with her computer via an online service and was "lured" away. The FBI urges parents to "be more careful about how their children using computers". Gee, Dr. Spock used to give parenting advice! A few months ago "boy" (18) met an older man in a chat room on AOL. This daemon in Cyberspace sent him a bus ticket and he disappeared into the sunset. The parents finally forced AOL to connect the son and now "chat" with him online! Maybe they can raise the ante? Whatever happened to pen- pals and short wave? If Franda in Texas had sent me the fare maybe I would have run for the border? Never crossed my mind till today she may not have been anything like her picture! There is not much that can be done to prevent these encounters if your child has access to your modem. All online services offer total strangers "talking" to each other. I showed my 12 year old the articles mentioned above. She just snickered, like what kind of an idiot was the girl anyway? Better parenting? Smug since it didn't happen to me. I recall several years ago while setting up the BBS getting good technical help from someone online. I finally had occasion to go by the man's house. He came to the door (a few years younger than me) and I said: "David? "What do you want with my son??" The man practically bit my head off! The "expert" was only 14! I had no idea. In Cyberspace, you can be whatever age you can muster, or weight, or gender for that matter! You get measured by your ASCII alone. One user complained about being barred from a BBS because of his "race". He got clobbered by the others on the echo. Obviously, how are we to know his (her?) race. Of course one's name can give matters away. Isn't Harry Lee related to Lighthorse Harry Lee? (R.E.'s daddy, case you forgot). c) The availability of Graphics that are "obscene". FidoNews 12-29 Page: 4 17 Jul 1995 What about the dirty pitchers? (as Archie use to say!). The graphics that upset some people are of three distinct kinds. 1-) My teen sexual fantasies began with bra and girdle ads in Sears' catalogue. Hey! I had a deprived childhood! I still am a little nervous if my mother is watching me scan Macy's or Bloomingdale's "erotica". Most older men will understand me. What is available on K&B shelves (Bikini pictorials) will do just fine, thank you! And what if some pedophile gets his jollies watching Shirley Temple tap dance! Oh that lace! Pretty hard pressed to object to the same thing on BBSs. 2-) Next level are the images not accessible to middle America. Go to the roped off sections at the local News stand for example. Granted this stuff is a little hard for juveniles to possess. About once a year I love walking down Bourbon St. late at night. No longer do I gawk at the shows. What now entices me are the tourists "shocked" by the shows! "Look at that Myrtle, it really a man, can you believe it!" The InterNet also can educate about the back alley of the world. 3-) But what really upsets folks are the graphics (and they include short "moving" pictures) that you won't find in current outlets in this country, commercial or marginal. I was watching one panel this morning arguing the Exon Bill. One person maintained that this "pornography" is readily available and easy to even inadvertently have slammed in your face. She proceeded to show a bondage picture on the screen. She lied, pure and simple, about how "easy" it is to get these pictures. It took me a week! Although not as precocious as the average 14 year old I do know something about how the system works. To make it short: you have to subscribe to the newsgroup (or mailing list) then you have to unencode the file then you have to run a graphics viewer capable of handling jpeg files. Now, think you can do it! Recently in NYC I was walking up Broadway near Columbia Univ. A group was demonstrating against what to them was "porno". Explicit photos from Hustler Magazine (and such) got shoved in my face and I was asked to sign a petition to make such stuff illegal. "Where is was the petition to make what you are doing illegal!" Not really, I love street theater! Hypocrites! I avoid Flynt and his ilk, at least they are honest pornographers! The same strategy now used by the Family Resource Center and other pro- censorship groups. If the material is evidence of a crime then arrest the criminals for the crime, not the picture. But don't shove the picture in my face. Legislation is currently on hold at the Federal level (The Senate Committee is redrawing the Law. Advocacy groups, pro and con, will be airing their views and fanning their flames. Like most discussions concerning this media, a good deal of ignorance prevails. The concerns are: How to protect children from InterLewd?, or at least FidoNews 12-29 Page: 5 17 Jul 1995 from negligent parents? Our own grand state also had a bill up for consideration. The effect of this bill would have been similar to charging phone executives with a crime should you receive an obscene call. This bill also is on hold. Even without new laws people get arrested and go to jail, for making some material available online. One man I met got arrested in Lawton Oklahoma by a crusading District Attorney. The "crime" involved selling CD-Roms that any of you can buy from ads in Computer Shopper. He was advertising these on his BBS. Unfortunately the images shocked the local Jury. He has lost his business, his house, his family; just like Job! Although on appeal he wants to go to jail and get it behind him. Now if I were in Singapore I wouldn't spit on the sidewalk, and I have no intention of testing our District Attorney's political disposition. Would be odd to pick on local BBSs however, with Bourbon Street so wide open! Some of you may remember the fracas about the nude Thais a few years back! I realize this controversy has been going on since Comstock was a baby and nothing I say is likely to change any of your minds. As SysOp of your BBS you should know (I think) what my values and policies are. On the few echoes I moderate (NOPC being quite active) I have no rules at all. Any member user can say what they wish. If someone offends, tell them. If someone hurts your feelings, deal with it. If you need my help in suggesting ways to protect and take care of yourself I will give it. If you try anything criminal you will find your access cut. If you offend me then consider yourself among an elite, very few have succeeded! If anything here has offended you then maybe I have not explained myself clearly enough, or maybe, just maybe, you are too easily annoyed. In the mean time don't look for extreme graphics on your BBS. If you have the yearning contact me privately and I will tell you where to search and how. Frankly, graphics, also called binaries, take too much space on the hard drives. They also tie up the system, too much time downloading. I know one or two of you have downloaded all the swimsuit pitchers, you could have gone to K&B and bought them! Secondly, with 100,000 messages a day coming into our system there is absolutely no way for me protect your children. Do it yourselves. We do keep logs for a week or so (again, space), and if you wish I will send any member copies to check whatever you wish. Don't ask me to do it. Behave on echoes as if you were in person, if in doubt about proper way to handle matters read Ms. Manners, she is definitive. FidoNews 12-29 Page: 6 17 Jul 1995 From: Fredric Rice (1:102/890) To: Editor (1:1/23) Subject: Request for Info Request for info on Kimberlin Greetings, netters. This is an unusual article for FidoNews: I'm looking for anyone who has text files on Kimberlin, the political prisoner sent to jail for some drug related crime but kept their for political reasons. It seems he sold pot to Dan Quayle or some such. All I can recall on the case was that Amnesty International registered him as a political prisoner and newspapers and magazines around the country took minor interest. If anyone has any info, I would be thankful to recieve it. I don't know _any_ of the particulars nor do I know whether he's been released yet. Thanks in advance. Fredric L. Rice tstream@centcon.com The Skeptic Tank 1:102/890.0 (818) 335-9601 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- ======================================================================== Fidonews Information ======================================================================== ------- FIDONEWS MASTHEAD AND CONTACT INFORMATION ---------------- Editors: Donald Tees, Sylvia Maxwell Editors Emeritii: Thom Henderson, Dale Lovell, Vince Perriello, Tim Pozar Tom Jennings "FidoNews" BBS FidoNet 1:1/23 BBS +1-519-570-4176, 300/1200/2400/14400/V.32bis/HST(DS) more addresses: Don -- 1:221/192, don@exlibris.tdkcs.waterloo.on.ca Sylvia- 1:221/194, max@exlibris.tdkcs.waterloo.on.ca (Postal Service mailing address) FidoNews 128 Church St. Kitchener, Ontario Canada N2H 2S4 voice: (519) 570-3137 sylvia: (519) 579-8029 FidoNews 12-29 Page: 7 17 Jul 1995 Fidonews is published weekly by and for the members of the FIDONET INTERNATIONAL AMATEUR ELECTRONIC MAIL system. It is a compilation of individual articles contributed by their authors or their authorized agents. The contribution of articles to this compilation does not diminish the rights of the authors. Opinions expressed in these articles are those of the authors and not necessarily those of FidoNews. Authors retain copyright on individual works; otherwise FidoNews is Copyright 1995 Donald Tees. All rights reserved. Duplication and/or distribution permitted for noncommercial purposes only. For use in other circumstances, please contact the original authors, or the eds. OBTAINING COPIES: The most recent issue of FidoNews in electronic form may be obtained from the FidoNews BBS via manual download or Wazoo FileRequest, or from various sites in the FidoNet and Internet. PRINTED COPIES may be obtained by sending SASE to the above paper-mail address. INTERNET USERS: FidoNews is available via FTP from ftp.fidonet.org, in directory ~ftp/pub/fidonet/fidonews. 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' ' disgreement is actually necessary, or we'd all have to get in fights or semethin to amuse ourselves,, and create the requisite chaos." -Tom Jennings -- END ---------------------------------ooh----------------------------------