~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ eye WEEKLY July 14 1994 Toronto's arts newspaper ...free every Thursday ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ EYE NET EYE NET NAMES WILL NEVER HURT ME ON THE 'NET by K.K. CAMPBELL Faithful Readers, you are by now aware that the first indication of net.virginity is the incessant use of the highway metaphor when talking about the Internet. Along similar lines, another telltale sign is the invocation of lawyers. I can't count the times I've seen human beings, in the middle of some nasty flame-fest, suddenly inform their opponent they're-calling- their-lawyer-soon-as-they-finish-typing. No matter how mad you get, don't resort to this. People will only laugh at you. Much like they laugh at Usenetter Laurence Godfrey, who is always claiming he's suing someone for calling him an imbecile. Godfrey is some U.K. weenie who hangs out in soc.culture.canada and loves to insult Canadians. He supposedly quit some job he had when he lived here and blames the entire population for it. (He also loves to hate Germans, so we shouldn't feel too special.) But there have been lawsuits resulting from 'Net-ish activity -- exclusively initiated by businesses, as far as I've seen. CompuServe was once sued by a business over a post by one of its users. The court ruled that CompuServe is not responsible for the traffic it carries -- effectively, it's a common carrier. This was a very astute decision, and one the Ontario Attorney General should keep in mind in its struggle to understand cyberspace. EMAIL SCAM The New York Times (which, I'm very pleased to say, has a passionate lust for the 'Net) reports on another case, an electronic newsletter being sued for libel for flaming a business on the Internet. This is different than suing a private company like CompuServe -- this is suing an individual for an opinion. Virginia-resident Brock Meeks, 38, a reporter for a trade publication called Communications Daily, came across a sales pitch on the Internet from Ohio-based Suarez Corporation Industries. Suarez's Electronic Postal Service promised free Internet access and other goodies. Certain it was a scam, Meeks signed up to investigate. He immediately received a direct-mail ad for a "$159 book-and- software package that promised to make him a millionaire" and a cover letter in which company prez Benjamin Suarez spent six pages massaging his penis over his supposedly unbelievable personal fortune. So Meeks slammed Suarez in his newsletter Cyberwire Dispatch with a story entitled "Cybersucker." He called prez Suarez "a slick direct-mail baron" and the Electronic Postal Service "a shell company for a direct-mailing scam." Suarez filed a defamation lawsuit against Meeks, whining the newsletter lost him business. He also demanded an "injunction to block him from thwarting its efforts to do business on the Internet." (The Washington State attorney general once accused Suarez of misleading the public in his fake-diamond peddling. He's also suing CBS for its reporting of that case.) Suarez's lawyer tried to intimidate Meeks into retracting his statement, but Meeks refuses. Point being -- remember you are broadcasting internationally when on the 'Net. Much like newsmedia, you have to consider libel, at least until the legal system figures out what the Internet is. DAVE RHODES SUCKS EGGS While on the subject of net.scams -- will you idiots stop uploading the "Hi, my name is Dave Rhodes!" chainletter to Usenet newsgroups?! You know who you are. This electronic chain letter refuses to die. It asks Internetters to send money to the first person on a list of names. It's a Ponzi scam, it's illegal, and Rhodes is serving time in jail for mail fraud. MOTHER JONES Mother Jones is on the 'Net. You'll find their July/August issue out. There's a good article on how we commoners are exploited by big corporate scams like check cashing, rent-to-own, etc. To connect via World Wide Web, http://www.mojones.com/motherjones.html or gopher to mojones.com . You can write mojones-info@igc.org for info. MEDIA ALGAE Actually, you'll find more and more media organisms online. They vary wildly in terms of net.comfort -- some are braindead, some are very intimate and friendly. Remember the useful acid test: "If they use the highway metaphor more than once, treat them like lepers." CTV actually paid a PR firm to announce that it's "accelerating on the infohighway." Bad enough that it's CTV, but if I'm not mistaken, this PR firm also handles Intel, computer-chip-maker extraordinaire. You'd think they'd know better. Anyway -- there's a global list of media addresses that circulates the 'Net, called "Media List." Anonymous ftp to ftp.std.com and look in directory customers/periodicals/Middlesex-News for the "medialist" file. To contribute to the list, write adamg@world.std.com . The wise compiler of the list counsels: "Please consider NOT using this list to send a mass mailing to every single listed media outlet. A bicycling magazine is unlikely to be interested in your thoughts on abortion, no matter how cogent they are, for example." Not that it does any good. Since eye was added to the list, we receive daily updates about evil Palestinians, evil Congressmen and evil feminists. The list is international and includes my favorite paper, The Namibian (tom@namibian.com.na) in Windhoek, Namibia -- wasn't Ren a breed of windhoek? Here are a couple of local addresses: Ottawa Citizen -- ottawa-citizen@freenet.carleton.ca ; Winnipeg Free Press -- letters@freepress.mb.ca ; Montreal Mirror -- mirror@fc.babylon.montreal.qc.ca ; Frank -- ag419@freenet.carleton.ca . NET FIND People are always asking how to find addresses. There is no guaranteed method, no true " 'Net phone book." There are various net.phone.book projects kicking around. Be wary of offering your name for them. You'll probably end up receiving lots of junk mail. You can try NetFind. Telnet or gopher to bruno.cs.colorado.edu , select NetFind and follow the steps. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Retransmit freely in cyberspace Author holds standard copyright Full issue of eye available in archive ==> gopher.io.org or ftp.io.org eye@io.org "Break the Gutenberg Lock..." 416-971-8421