[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index ][Thread Index ]

G7 threat to online privacy and fre



Subject: Re: G7 threat to online privacy and free speech

Dawn Star (Paris)
cd@xxxxxxx

Burmanet
Euro-Burmanet
The Free Burma Coalition
http://wicip.org/fbc

http://www-uvi.eunet.fr/
http://www-uvi.eunet.fr/asia/euro-burma/
http://www-uvi.eunet.fr/asia/euro-burma/nld/
http://www-uvi.eunet.fr/asia/euro-burma/total


Tony Budak wrote:
> 
> FOR YOUR INFORMATION - Please forgive any cross posting
>         Cheers, Peace,
>                 and Fondest Regards,
>                         Tony Budak <abudak@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> 
> <---- Begin Forwarded Message ---->
> Date: Fri, 9 Aug 1996 03:59:18 -0700 (PDT)
> From: Phil Agre <pagre@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> To: rre@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> Subject: G7 threat to online privacy and free speech
> Reply-To: rre-maintainers@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> 
> =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-> =
> This message was forwarded through the Red Rock Eater News Service
> (RRE).
> Send any replies to the original author, listed in the From: field
> below.
> You are welcome to send the message along to others but please do not
> use
> the "redirect" command.  For information on RRE, including instructions
> for (un)subscribing, send an empty message to  rre-help@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-> =
> 
> From: mbaker @ pobox.com (Michael Baker) 08/08/96 01:07 PM
> Subject: G7 threat to online privacy and free speech
> 
> ======================================================================
>    ALERT FROM A COALITION OF ONLINE CIVIL LIBERTIES ORGANISATIONS
> 
>             G7 THREAT TO ONLINE FREE SPEECH AND PRIVACY
> 
>       IN THE NAME OF COMBATING TERRORISM THE G7 IS PLANNING TO
>      CURB THE FREE SPEECH RIGHTS AND PRIVACY OF INTERNET USERS
> 
>                            7 AUGUST 1996
> 
>    PLEASE REDISTRIBUTE THIS DOCUMENT WIDELY WITH THIS BANNER INTACT
>  REDISTRIBUTE ONLY IN APPROPRIATE PLACES & ONLY UNTIL 30 SEPTEMBER 96
> 
> ______________________________________________________________________
> IN THIS ALERT:
>   Summary
>   Background
>   What You Can Do
>   Where Can I Learn More?
>   Organisations
> 
> ______________________________________________________________________
> SUMMARY
> 
> On July 30th the G7 group of nations met in Paris to discuss terrorism.
> Among other responses the G7 have endorsed a number of restrictions and
> controls on the Internet.  These include the prohibition or censorship
> of sources that may contain "dangerous" information, restrictions on
> the electronic speech of unpopular political organisations, and the
> imposition of "key escrow" or other means of allowing governments to
> violate privately encrypted correspondence.
> 
> This particularly serious threat, which originates from recent events
> such as a bombing at the Atlanta Olympics and the crash of TWA Flight
> 800, is another case in a long list of attempts to restrict freedom of
> speech in electronic networks, of which there are alarming examples in
> many countries including Australia, Belgium, China, France, Germany,
> Saudi Arabia, Singapore, the USA and Vietnam, under a variety of
> pretexts ranging from "pornography" to "terrorism" and incorrect
> political opinion.
> 
> * The "offensive" material being targeted is no different from similar
> material available in libraries and bookshops.  *What is legal offline
> must also be legal online*.  If material cannot be censored at the
> newsstand or the university library, it must not be censored in the
> online newsstands and libraries of our future.
> 
> * Legislators and agency officials are pushing for speedy passage of
> censorious and privacy-harming laws, capitalising on fear of terrorism
> to exclude meaningful public input in the process and substance of
> these regulations.
> 
> * Because the Internet is global, and every culture has its own rules
> about what is and is not permissible, the open nature of the Internet
> must be protected.  No local jurisdiction should be allowed to impose
> its rules on the rest of the world.
> 
> ______________________________________________________________________
> BACKGROUND
> 
> This alert is being issued by a coalition of online civil liberties
> organisations that support online privacy, freedom of speech and human
> rights.  The organisations are listed at the end of this alert along
> with contact details.
> 
> Since its inception the Internet has more than doubled in size every
> year.  If this growth continues, more than one billion people will be
> using the Internet by the turn of the century.  Each of these users can
> as easily publish material as they can read it.  The Internet has the
> potential vastly to improve the workings of democratic government and
> to spread liberty across the globe.
> 
> In light of recent bombings in the US and elsewhere, there are again
> calls to ban from the Internet information on explosives, as well as
> any other issues that can be related to "terrorism".  Anti-terrorist
> hysteria has become the excuse for governmental attempts to circumvent
> online freedom of expression, guaranteed by constitutions, laws, and
> the UN Declaration of Human Rights.
> 
> Information on how to make bombs, as well as other things that would be
> "banned", is widely available, often from the very governments pushing
> for censorship.  Banning such publications from the Internet won't
> make it any less widely available.  However it could become the tool
> for the censorship of any debate or opinion which happens to displease
> the authorities, or "pressure groups" that do not share those opinions.
> This is a pure and simple violation of free speech, no matter how it
> is disguised.
> 
> Currently, communicating via the Internet is like sending messages on
> postcards.  Anyone between the sender and receiver can read the
> message.  Encryption (data scrambling) technology can be used to ensure
> the privacy of communications.  It's like placing  messages in
> envelopes.  Although widely available the technology has not yet become
> a part of the Internet because of pressures from the "intelligence" and
> law enforcement agencies.
> 
> Some countries, such as the United States, treat cryptography as if
> were a weapon, like missile or a machine gun, and ban its export.
> Other countries, such as France, have an outright ban on cryptography.
> Such policies threaten to undermine information infrastructure not only
> locally, but globally, leaving computer networks open to industrial
> espionage, and as we are seeing in recent news of electronic spying on
> the European Parliament, even governmental espionage, as well as
> criminal exploitation.
> 
> What the G7 have called for is a way to read all messages sent by
> terrorists.  The only way they can achieve this is to have some way of
> reading messages sent by anyone.  What the G7 are demanding is that the
> privacy of all communications be compromised in the name of protection
> from terrorism.  However, no real terrorist is going to use such a
> compromised system when uncrackable alternatives already exist and are
> freely available.  Effectively G7 are demanding that we all compromise
> the privacy of our communications - for NO benefit.
> 
> ______________________________________________________________________
> WHAT YOU CAN DO
> 
> 1. Be alert to what your government is doing or planning.  Contact your
>    law-makers and urge them to protect privacy and free speech on the
>    Internet.  Write to or call publications in your area and suggest
>    that they report on any anti-freedom government action you hear
>    about.
> 
> 2. Join an online civil liberties organisation.  See the end of this
>    release for contact information for several such organisations.
> 
> 3. If there isn't an online civil liberties organisation in your
>    country, why not start one?   Some suggestions on how to start an
>    online civil liberties organisation are available at:
> 
>    http://pobox.com/~mbaker/creating.html
> 
>    and
> 
>    http://www.well.com/~jonl/bonfire.html
> 
> ______________________________________________________________________
> WHERE CAN I LEARN MORE?
> 
> Further details on the G7 meeting and its effect on the Net can be
> found in a press release from the Global Internet Liberty Coalition:
> 
>   http://www.aclu.org/gilc/index1.html
> 
> For a summary of efforts around the world to censor the Internet see
> the "10 May 96 Silencing the Net" report on the Human Rights Watch
> gopher site:
> 
>   gopher://gopher.igc.apc.org:5000/11/int/hrw/general
> 
> For background on global efforts to muzzle the Net see these web sites:
> 
>   http://www.eff.org/~declan/global/
> 
> and
> 
>   http://www.io.org/~sherlock/doom/threat.html
> 
> For information on global and international online freedom issues see
> the Electronic Frontier Foundation web site:
> 
>   http://www.eff.org/pub/Global/
> 
> Translations of this alert will be available as follows:
> 
>   Catalan:  http://www.lander.es/~jlmartin/
>   French:   pforsans@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
>   Italian:  http://www.nexus.it/alcei.html
>   Spanish:  http://www.lander.es/~jlmartin/
> 
> ________________________________________________________________________> ORGANISATIONS
> 
> The following organisations have issued this alert:
> 
> ALCEI - Electronic Frontiers Italy * http://www.nexus.it/alcei.html
> CITADEL - Electronic Frontier France * pforsans@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> EFF-Austin (Texas) * http://www.eff-austin.org
> Electronic Frontier Foundation (USA) * http://www.eff.org
> Electronic Frontier Canada * http://www.efc.ca/
> Electronic Frontier Ireland * http://www.efi.ie/
> Electronic Frontiers Australia * http://www.efa.org.au
> Elektronisk Forpost Norge (Electronic Frontier Norway) *
>   http://www.sn.no/~efn
> Fronteras Electronicas Espan~a (Electronic Frontiers Spain) *
>   http://www.lander.es/~jlmartin/
> HotWired * www.hotwired.com
> Human Rights Watch * http://www.hrw.org
> 
> Press Contacts:
> 
> Please choose an organisation above and visit their web site for contact
> information.
> 
> ________________________________________________________________________>                            End Alert
> ========================================================================> 
> --
> Dr Michael Baker, EFA Board Member, PO Box 5, Flaxley SA 5153, Australia
> Ph:08 388 8439 Fax:08 262 3633 08=+618 mbaker@xxxxxxxxx
> http://pobox.com/~mbaker
> Internet censorship won't protect Children, but it will destroy their
> future
> Join the STOP! Campaign <http://www.efa.org.au> or <campaign@xxxxxxxxxx>
> 
> <----  End Forwarded Message  ---->
> 
>          abudak@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> 
>  "Failure is impossible."- Susan B. Anthony