1994 Fools: Hey, look, the UVV is famous!
Article: 93894 of news.groups
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From: rdippold@qualcomm.com (Ron "Asbestos" Dippold)
Newsgroups: news.groups,alt.config
Subject: Hey, look, the UVV is famous!
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Date: 1 Apr 94 10:11:39 GMT
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Pretty cool, eh? I got an advance copy since I cooperated on the
story. This should be in your papers tomorrow, hopefully. I think
you'll agree this is all pretty reasonable.
Usenet Volunteer Votetakers to Become First Official U.S.
Government Information Superhighway Task Force Liasons
Washington, DC (Reuters) -- The Information Superhighway Task Force
(ISTF), under the direction of Vice President Al Gore, announced
today that the Information Superhighway of the future is well under
construction. The ISTF has been in intense consultation with members
of the Usenet Volunteer Votetakers (UVV), a group of individuals
which handles new group creation votes for Usenet, the Internet News
message service. The UVV will be the first official U.S. Government
ISTF Internet Liason group.
Usenet, which consists of thousands of discussion groups (BBoards)
carried on the Internet - a huge national network which is considered
by many to be a prototype of the National Information Superhighway.
Creating a new discussion group entails a vote of all Usenet readers,
which is handled by the UVV, a group of volunteers who act as neutral
votetakers.
"We understand the importance of new group creation in the context of
the Information Superhighway," said Gore. "Those who control group
creation control content. Therefore we are of course very interested
in taking a proactive role in this process." The ISTF has been aware
for some time that Usenet is a hotbed of criminal activity including
hacking, child pornography and recruitment, and support of
international terrorism to name just a few. To combat the danger
which unrestrained freedom of discussion poses to the nation as a
whole, it has placed several areas under its scrutiny.
Currently, the Usenet Volunteer Votetakers merely act as neutral
votetakers for any group that wishes to sponsor a new bulletin board.
The ISTF / UVV planning sessions have focused on changes to that
arrangement based on past problems.
First is the votetaker problem. "One valid concern the ISTF has is
that all the votetakers are volunteers," said Ron Dippold, UVV
member. "There's no accountability, and the government is
understandably worried about seditious elements infiltrating the
group." A subsection of the ISTF will act to regulate UVV
membership, screen applicants for suitability and administering a
loyalty oath. ISTF spokesperson Joseph Kannepolous cautions against
reading too much into the latter. "It's just a formality, saying
that you won't run votes for groups which are counter to the national
interest, or commit suicide in ways which could be embarrassing to
the president." Prospective members will be confirmed by a joint
ISTF - House of Representatives body.
Second are the voter problems. Kannepolous claims that from the
voting records they've reviewed, there are two main areas of concern:
voters not following instructions and voter accountability.
Apparently, Usenet provides no way to positively identify voters.
"This will change in the future, but we need to start things moving
now," said Gore. For now, a jointly ISTF/UVV designed set of forms
will take care of both problems.
Beginning August 1, potential voters will need to register with the
the ISTF before voting. Form ISTF-230A, which will be available from
local libraries, will require would-be voters to give their name,
address, phone number, Social Security number or Taxpayer ID, and pay
a nominal registration fee of ten dollars. This will cover the
expenses of the ISTF and help pay for the Clinton Health Care Plan as
well. Users of large on-line services will have things easier - in
July, the charge will automatically added to their bill and user
records will be given to the ISTF for processing. "I think this
shows, more than anything else, how concerned we are about making
things easier for people," beamed Kannepolous. "It has other
advantages as well - we can compare our database against others, such
as that maintained by the IRS. They have expressed considerable
interest in using it to withhold voting privileges from those with
tax problems."
Actual voting will be done by going to the Post Office and presenting
your National Usenet Voter Card, paying a one dollar processing fee,
and filling out ISTF-145. The forms will be processed at ISTF
headquarters by UVV members hired as consultants, and results will be
announced three months after the conclusion of the voting period. "I
must confess that I was worried about significantly slowing down the
processing time," said Ron Dippold, "but the ISTF assures me this is
quite reasonable."
Finally, there is the problem of groups. Usenet relies on the input
of individual users to shape its proposals. Gore expressed grave
concern at this problem. "None of these people are elected. People,
who for all we know could be child molesters, are making Information
Superhighway discussion topic decisions for the entire country.
That's scary. Take a recent group such as soc dot sexuality dot
zoophilia and the entire rec dot terrorism set of groups, for
example. Dangerous groups like these pass every single day, and
children can read them. We have a National Usenet Subject Matter
Crisis." To combat the problem, Gore has declared a War on
Inappropriate Messages and has created a new branch of the ISTF, the
Office of Usenet Group Creation (OUGC) to look into regulating group
creation specifically.
While their report on the subject is not complete, inside sources
claim that recommendations have already been made. First, the ISTF
will have veto power over any proposed group. "This will only be
used when absolutely necessary to the national interest" claims April
F. Ouhul of the OUGC. "But it's vital. Because of twelve years of
neglect, groups such as 'talk-politics-crypto' have been allowed to
flourish, where drug dealers, anarchists and agents of hostile
governments meet to plan opposition to the Clinton Administration's
vital Clipper chip project, with some success." Another proposal likely
to be adopted includes a suite of forms to be filled out by those
interested in Usenet group creation and a substantial filing fee "to
discourage frivolous groups."
Over this year the OUGC intends to retroactively examine all existing
groups and remove those which are inappropriate. They recognize that
it can be a problem removing groups from Usenet: "You have all those
computers, and each site can determine what groups they want to
carry. That's a very dangerous precedent," said Ouhul. Accordingly,
a bill will be sponsored through Congressman Dan Rostenkowsi (D-MA)
this session which makes carrying non-approved Usenet groups a
federal offense.
Kannepolous is proud of what has been accomplished so far, but admits
that there are still problems. "People must realize that there is a
segment of Usenet known as 'Altnet' which is a total anarchy. Groups
such as 'Alt sex fetish Orientals' are routinely created with no control
whatsoever, creating many problems." He has the evidence to back it up.
The NAACP is contemplating filing a suit against Usenet, claiming that
the lack of a complimentary 'Alt sex fetish African-American' is
"discriminatory and racist," and the ACLU has filed suit on behalf of
inmate James Moreno of Joliet penitentiary, claiming that the prison's
refusal to provide Moreno with the group 'alt binaries pictures erotic'
violates his civil rights.
Even the Rev. Donald Wildmon is getting into the act, encouraging
companies to advertise on Altnet so he can encourage the public to
boycott against those who don't fight the "filthy groups." Currently
the ISTF is working with the Secret Service and FBI to determine if all
contributors to Altnet can be classified as malicious hackers under
existing laws. The FCC is also getting involved with another problem -
the prevalence of profanity on Usenet, which it considers a Public
Resource and thus subject to regulation. "We expect eventual
involvement from most levels of government," said Gore.
President Clinton, who is currently vacationing in San Diego, stated
that he was extremely pleased with the work done so far by Vice
President Gore on the Information Superhighway of the future. "This
is vital to our success as a nation and my Health Care Reform
Package. We can not, must not, let the greedy representatives of big
corporate America mortgage our future in this way. I want to let those
of you affected know: I feel your pain! We want to help."
Dippold is confident this is a good direction for the UVV. "It's a step
in the right direction. Next I want to decide who lives and who dies."
- 30 -
Copyright (C)1994 Reuters News Service, All Rights Reserved
Reproduced without permission...
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