From edtjda@magic322.chron.com Thu Jul 11 16:43:31 1991 Return-Path: Date: Thu, 11 Jul 91 14:43:03 CDT From: edtjda@magic322.chron.com (Joe Abernathy) To: com-priv@psi.com Subject: Text of chron-internet Cc: nren-discuss@psi.com Since so many of you asked, and since the previous excerpt was not what I wrote ... By JOE ABERNATHY Copyright 1990, Houston Chronicle Westbury High School student Jeff Noxon's homework was rudely interrupted recently when he stumbled across the world's most sophisticated pornography ring. He investigated briefly for the novelty, then went on to other studies. But the catalog of erotic art and literature grows daily, offering titles such as Cindy's Torment and The Education of Rachel. It's supported by taxes and brought into town by the brightest lights of higher education. Half an hour or half a world away from the personal computer in Jeff's bedroom, an isolated, historically black university is propelled to the cutting edge of high-energy physics by the world's most capable research and communications tool. This institution is becoming a role model for the brightest young black people, along with all the citizens of Texas. Somewhere between the extremes, you will find a grand undertaking referred to as the Internet. It's revolutionizing research and education at a giddy pace, while raising fundamental issues of free speech and social responsibility in the age of the global village. The Chronicle actively monitored Internet for four months through various access points. Material found on the network during that period included hundreds of sexually explicit stories and pictures, heated discussions about freedom of expression, and details of underground political strategy ^- in addition to the scientific exchange that is Internet's stated purpose. The material is accessible to any reasonably experienced computer user with equipment common to most personal computers. "When the entire country learns about alt.sex.bestiality, people are going to make known their disapproval,'' Noxon predicted, referring to one interactive news group published on the network. "There are a lot of 12-year-olds getting their heads filled with a lot of ideas they're probably not ready for yet.'' Massachusetts Institute of Technology scientist David Clark, one of Internet's founding fathers, has described the network as "anarchic democracy at its best.'' It is hailed by policymakers as the most significant technological innovation since the telephone. An example can be found about 60 miles from Houston -- a distance that was once an unbridgable chasm in the scientific mainstream. Prairie View A&M University is working on a crucial element of the Superconducting Super Collider. All it took was one man's vision ^- along with Internet to bring it alive. "Prairie View has a real role in the SSC in the future, simply because of that network,'' said Dennis Judd, the human catalyst for Prairie View's ascent. "Few people know how much we really use this.'' Using Internet, Prairie View researchers browse the library at the Stanford Linear Collider in California. They interact with Fermilab in Chicago; Beijing University; and the Houston Advanced Research Center in The Woodlands. Prairie View's new research partner is Rice University ^- one of seven Internet outreach collaborations matching historically black universities with traditional rsearch giants. The network arose from the shared desire of the research, military and education communities to better communicate. It works like this: The computers at a given institution are wired together in a network, allowing individual users to share information and expensive resources. Each such network in turn is connected via phone lines, fiber optics or satellite to other networks, ultimately allow ing the users at scattered locations to work together almost as if they were in the same room. Baylor College of Medicine offers an example. Researchers there are working on an image management system that will let specialists in Houston consult electronically with patients' hometown doctors, giving them instant access to the scans and tests performed in Houston. Medical students will soon be granted regular access to Internet ^- once they've received an education about Internet. "We need to be sure that the students are cognizant of the respon sibilities they have,'' said Stan Barber, director of networking. "We don't want some of the problems students have caused in the past to be caused by Baylor College of Medicine students.'' These problems ^- created by other users as well as students ^- include hacking and the use of valuable computer facilities to circulate pornography. In both cases, Internet emerges as a key battleground of free speech and social responsibility. People are encouraged to experiment,'' allowed Rice University's Guy Almes, who has become a national figure as primary director of Internet operations in Texas. There's no Gestapo watching over this thing.'' Since there are virtually no rules, the catalog of information includes voluminous pornography, along with advice on recreational drugs, satan ism, paganism, and sex slaves. Some users find such material offensive. "Someone is paying for the computers that this filth is stored in. Someone is paying for the phone time so that this trash can piggyback in with the useful communications,'' said Rick Miller, a student at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. "Am I asking for censorship when I ask that my money not be spent to bring this harmful material to my community?'' When Miller protested to university officials, his electronic mailbox was barraged with pornography from other users objecting to what they viewed as Miller's intrusion into their freedom of expression. "There was over 1.27 megabytes of article dumps from alt.sex.bond age,'' recalled Miller, whose private mail from the Chronicle also was answered by a UWM consultant who had intercepted the letter. "It's an open network,'' said William Bard, director of Internet operations for the University of Texas system. "That's one of the things that makes it as useful as it is.'' It can link a researcher with a supercomputer nearly anywhere in the world. This can reduce the time between research and publication >from years to days. The fundamental questions of science can be addressed by the world's best minds working in collaboration. Students may join the process, gain ing unique experience and insight. "I want this country to have the most capable network to support higher education and research that we can possibly get,'' said Stephen Wolff, who oversees Internet for the National Science Foundation, the network's primary federal funding agency. "We already do. We have the best in the world, and I aim to keep it that way and make it better.'' Congress and President Bush share Wolff's goal. Tenn. Sen. Albert Gore's $2 billion Federal High-Performance Computing Act, due for funding consideration this week, would make Internet the centerpiece of the nation's drive for technological pre-eminence, using it as the launching point for a more widely available successor to Internet, to be called the National Research and Education Network. "The administration supports the National Research and Education Network, and, obviously ,does not think that pornography is an appropriate incorporation into this network,'' said Alixe Glen, deputy White House press secretary. No direct administration action is planned against the pornography. The bill seeks to multiply direct federal spending by a factor of 20, to $400 million. Under the National Science Foundation's funding poli cies, this will trigger several billion more in spending on the local level. The bill would include another $1.5 billion for related endeavors. The money would benefit a maze of Internet connections that has grown up piecemeal in 35 nations over the past two decades. Up to 10 million people now have access to the network. Experts no longer know the full extent of Internet, its value, or who is using it for what. Texas has more than 60 distinct Internet sites, including Johnson Space Center, businesses, and educational institutions. Each may provide direct service to anyone associated with it, and may also propagate the network further into the community. Two of the nation's 13 regional Internet backbones are in Texas ^- the Texas Sesquicentennial Network maintained by Rice, and the Texas Higher Education Network. Recent legislation will provide the state's secondary schools with net working ^- likely with Internet. The volume of network activity doubles every two months, while the number of participating universities doubles every 13 months, Almes said. "Part of the good and the bad of this is that people are going to be using the network in ways I never hear about,'' he added. Electronic mail is the great innovation of the network. E-mail works just like U.S. Mail ^- prepare the materials to send, type the address of the recipient, post the package. Since computers do the sending, however, it's possible to address a single package to a mailing list of recipients with a shared interest in the subject matter ^- be it cold fusion or hot pornography. When a mailing list becomes popular enough, it can become a public newsgroup, readily available to everyone on the network. Those reading and contributing to mailing lists and newsgroups range >from teen-agers to the world's leading scientists. The popularity of individual newsgroups is not officially monitored, but one unofficial survey conducted recently by Digital Equipment Corp. indicated that alt.sex was the second most popular newsgroup, with an estimated audience of 100,000. (Rec.humor.funny ^- a controversial humor digest ^- was the most popular.) Some of the activity on Internet probably violates state and federal obscenity laws, said Russel Turbeville, chief of the economic crimes- consumer fraud division of the Harris County district attorney's office. But as a practical matter, prosecution would be difficult or impossible. "Where you start dealing with computer frauds especially, where you have thousands, tens of thousands, maybe a million victims, how do you deal with that in the indictment, and how do you prove things in court?'' Turbeville said. Clear Lake High School honors students will receive Internet access beginning this summer. The school knows about the network's explicit content, but hopes the honor system and the threat of a bad grade will discourage students from exploring where they shouldn't. They signed a form saying they would use the tool as intended. UT's Bard noted that high school students doing research projects could benefit from online electronic catalogs associated with many research and education libraries. "It would provide an indispensable and limitless source of information that could be used to supplement or even replace that found in the school libraries,'' said Noxon, a 17-year-old who will be a junior next year. On the Internet, every controversial story or letter is followed by a ringing debate ^- often stimulating the interest of hundreds of people who missed the original article. In the case of Cindy's Torment, a vi cious tale of rape and torture, this resulted in its being reposted and privately mailed to a wide audience. Often, erotic stories are posted in installments. One recent series about pedophilia and incest turned out to be chapters from a published novel, and the publisher's lawyers wanted it to stop. Publicly, it did, after all but three chapters were posted. The entire book is now distributed privately via E-mail. The publisher has become a victim of Internet's capacity to support hidden theft of services. The most vivid example of this is digitized pictures. Thousands of X- rated pictures are available ^- most scanned in from men's magazines in violation of copyright law. The pornographic libraries on the network also include political com mentary. For example, North Carolina Sen. Jesse Helms' campaign against government funding of erotic art inspired the "Jesse Helms Erotic Literature Contest.'' The object was to produce erotica that might please the Republican senator ^- keep it reasonably clean, mention fidelity or the church without ridiculing them. The contest originated at the University of Iowa. The collected en tries are now available in the Internet libraries of Tulane University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Questionable Legacy MIT is the leading presence in Internet's cultural heritage. The heart of this heritage may be found at MIT's Media Lab, which has variously been called visionary, flaky, and the luna tic fringe of MIT. They say they're inventing the future of publishing, but you won't find any journalists there. They don't like journalists. Among the accomplishments the lab touts are an interactive video disk of the Aspen, Colo., ski resort. It cost the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency $300,000, and earned for the Lab former Sen. William Proxmire's Golden Fleece award dishonoring questionable use of tax dollars. Another time, DARPA unwittingly funded development at the Media Lab of an album cover for the eclectic rockers Talking Heads. This is the intellectual atmosphere that gave electronic life to the Church of the Subgenius, a Dallas cult ostensibly formed to ridicule cults. Members, who can be legally ordained, worship a yuppie diety called Bob. The Media Lab's Subgenius Digest is an interactive church newsletter. It provides the phone numbers of practicing Christians, along with tips on how best to harass them. All in the name of Bob, of course. Also at MIT, you will find the closely guarded, lesbian-oriented Sappho mailing list. Sappho was an effective tool in the successful fight to overturn Mills College's decision to admit males. It motivated the troops, communicated strategy, and gave progress reports on the battle. Last but not least is MIT's electronic library. It may be one of the best research tools around, but at night it becomes one of the world's most capable instruments of pornography. "It comes back to free speech,'' said Howard Jares, Internet director at the University of Houston. "The actual content is secondary. (Intel lectual freedom) fosters the whole creative process, and that's the kind of thing we're going to have to do to succeed as educators.'' Turbeville said Internet pornography raises constitutional issues: "You have the right to speak your mind, but do you have the right to (in effect) walk into somebody's home and say it? That's interesting.'' In general, according to various legal sources, computer use and abuse represent developing areas of law, with few issues settled. Beyond pornography and free speech, the technology raises broad fears of vulnerability. Even as Internet is finding its way into all walks of society, society is realizing the network wasn't designed to be secure. In late May, federal and state agencies intensified a nationwide sweep of computer hackers. Noting that more than 40 computer systems and 23,000 data disks had already been seized in the last two years, network experts launched a counterattack. A legal defense fund is now being put in place. The hackers reacted to the crackdown in predictable fashion ^- they're using the Internet to build support. They published a special electronic edition of 2600, the hackers' magazine, detailing the govern ment's two-year-old campaign. T"here are civil rights and civil liberties issues here that have yet to be addressed,'' wrote one. "Every time there is a perceived crisis, law enforcement agencies and legislators overreact, and usually due process and civil liberties suf fer,'' said Rep. Don Edwards, D-Calif., reacting to the crackdown. The most famous hacking case is that of former Cornell University student Robert Tappan Morris, 25. Last month he was placed on three years' probation, fined $10,000 and ordered to perform 400 hours of community service for unleashing a worm program that paralyzed thousands of Internet-linked computers nationwide in 1988. He was the first person convicted under the Federal Computer Fraud and Abuse Act prohibiting interference with the performance of a government computer. At least one longtime user thinks answers can be found. "I think (Internet) is a terrific social experiment from which there's an enormous amount to learn, but I think it's time somebody took the lessons and built something of more lasting value,'' said com puter luminary Mitch Kapor, the founder of Lotus Technology. He believes the medium must find a sense of social responsibility. "Regional-based systems like the WELL (Whole Earth 'Lectronic Link) in San Francisco that draw a constituency and see themselves as members of an electronic community ... are a much better basis for beginning this sort of global electronic community,'' he said. "I don't think it's the government's business to ban (controversial mate rial), or to take any position on it. I don't know how to solve it without causing all sorts of First Amendment problems. If there's a paying market for alt.sex.bestiality, we should tolerate it. I" just don't think the government ought to fund it.''