

Computer underground Digest    Mon June 29, 1992   Volume 4 : Issue 28

       Editors: Jim Thomas and Gordon Meyer (TK0JUT2@NIU.BITNET)
       Associate Editor: Etaion Shrdlu, Jr.
       Newest Authormeister: B. Kehoe
       Ex-Arcmeister: Bob Kusumoto
       Downundermeister: Dan Carosone

CONTENTS, #4.28 (June 29, 1992)
File 1--Proposal: A Market Mechanism for Information Age Goods
File 2--EFF on GEnie's RoundTable

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----------------------------------------------------------------------

Date: Sat, 20 Jun 92 12:39:51 0
From: infoage!bradcox@hsi.hsi.com (Brad Cox, Ph.D.)
Subject: File 1--Proposal: A Market Mechanism for Information Age Goods

The enclosed article, which was written as a column for an
object-oriented programming magazine, proposes an initiative that has
great potential for both good and for harm. I believe that
superdistribution, as discussed in this paper, should be relevant to
EFF's interests, even though it looks at privacy from a viewpoint
contrary to the one that EFF generally endorses.

++++++++++++++

"WHAT IF THERE *IS* A SILVER BULLET...AND THE COMPETITION GETS IT FIRST?"
  (Invited Column; Journal of Object-oriented Programming; June 1992)

Few programmers could develop a compiler, word processor or spreadsheet
to compete in today's crowded software market  The cost and complexity
of modern-day applications far exceed the financial and intellectual
capacity of even the rarest of individuals. Even large-granularity
sub-components like window systems, persistent object databases and
communication facilities can be larger than most individuals could
handle. But nearly any of us could provide smaller (so-called
'reusable') software components that others could assemble into larger
objects; components as small as Stacks and Queues.

So why don't we? Why do we drudge away our lives in companies with the
financial, technical, and marketing muscle to build the huge objects we
call applications? Why don't we start software companies, like Intel,
to invent, build, test, document, and market small-granularity objects
for other companies to buy? Think of the reduction in auto emission
pollution if more of us stayed home to build small-granularity
components for sale! Think of not having to get along with the boss!

Object-oriented programming technologies have brought us tantalizingly
close to making this dream technically, if not economically, feasible.
Subroutines have long been able to encapsulate functionality into
modules that others can use without needing to look inside, just as
with Intel's silicon components. Object-oriented programming languages
have extended our ability to encapsulate functionality within
Software-ICs<1> that can support higher-level objects than subroutines
ever could<2>. Such languages have already made the use of
pre-fabricated data structure and graphical user interface classes a
viable alternative to fabricating cut-to-fit components for each
application. All this is technically feasible already, even though the
software industrial revolution has hardly begun<3>.

Yet these technical advances have not really changed the way we
organize to build software. They've just providing better tools for
building software just as we've done in the past. The pre-fabricated
small components of today are not bought and sold as assets in their
own right, but are bundled (given away) inside something much larger
than any individual could build. Sometimes they are bundled to inflate
the value (and price!) of some cheap commodity item, as in Apple's ROM
software that turns a $50 CPU chip into a $5000 Macintosh computer.
Sometimes they play the same role with respect to software objects, as
in the libraries that come with object-oriented compilers.

There is no way of marketing the small active objects that we call
reusable software components, at least not today. The same is true of
the passive objects we call data. For example, nearly 50% of the bulk
waste in our landfills is newspapers and magazines. Nearly half of our
bulk waste problem could be eliminated if we could break the habit of
fondling the macerated remains of some forest critter's home as we
drink our morning coffee. But this is far more than a bad habit from
the viewpoint of newspaper publishers. If they distributed news
electronically, how would they charge for their labor?

Paper-based information distribution makes certain kinds of information
unavailable even when the information is easily obtainable. For
example, I hate price-comparison shopping and would gladly pay for
high-quality information as to where to buy groceries and gasoline
cheaply within driving distance of my home. This information is avidly
collected by various silver-haired ladies in my community, but solely
for their own use. There is no incentive for them to electronically
distribute their expertise to customers like myself.

What if entrepreneurs could market electronic information objects for
other people to buy? Couldn't geographically specialized but broadly
relevant objects like my gasoline price example be the 'killer apps'
that the hardware vendors are so desperately seeking? Think of what it
could it mean to today's saturated market if everyone who buys gasoline
and groceries bought a computer simply to benefit from Aunt Nellie's
coupon-clipping acumen?

Information Age Economics

These questions outline the fundamental obstacle of the manufacturing
age to information age transition. The human race is adept at selling
tangible goods such as Twinkies, automobiles, and newspapers. But we've
never developed a commercially robust way of buying and selling easily
copied intangible goods like electronic data and software.

Of course, there are more obstacles to building a robust market in
electronic objects than I could ever mention here. Many of them are
technological deficiencies that could easily be corrected, such as the
lack of suitably diverse encapsulation and binding mechanisms in
today's object-oriented programming languages, insufficient
telecommunications bandwidth and reliability, and the dearth of capable
browsers, repositories and software classification schemes. My second
book, Object Technologies; A Revolutionary Approach, <Cox2> considers
these technical obstacles in detail to show how each one could be
overcome if suitable economic incentives were in place.

The biggest obstacle is that electronic objects can be copied so easily
that there is no way to collect revenue the way Intel does, by
collecting a fee each time another copy of a silicon object is needed.
More than any other reason, this is why nobody would ever quit their
day job to build small-granularity software components for a living.

A striking vestige of manufacturing age thinking is the still-dominant
practice of charging for information age goods like software by the
copy. Since electronic goods can be copied easily by every consumer,
the producers must inhibit copying with such abominations as shrinkwrap
license agreements and copy protection dongles. Since these are not
reliable and are increasingly rejected by software consumers, SPA
(Software Publishers Association) and BSA (Business Software Alliance)
have even started using handcuffs and jail sentences as copy protection
technologies that actually do work even for information age products
like software.

The lack of robust information age incentives explains why so many
corporate reuse library initiatives have collapsed under a hail of user
complaints. "Poorly documented. Poorly tested. Too hard to find what I
need. Does not address my specific requirements." Except for the often
rumored "Not invented here" syndrome, the problem is only occasionally
a demand side problem. The big problems are on the supply side. There
are no robust incentives to encourage producers to provide minutely
specialized, tested, documented and (dare I hope?) guaranteed
components that quality-conscious engineers might pay good money to
buy. As long as these "repositories" are waste disposal dumps where we
throw poorly tested and undocumented trash for garbage pickers to
"reuse", quality-conscious engineers will rightly insist, "Not in my
backyard!"

Paying for software by the copy (or "reusing" it for free) is so
widespread today that it may seem like the only option. But think of it
in object-oriented terms. Where is it written that we should pay for an
object's instance variables (data) according to usage (in the form of
network access charges) yet pay for methods (software) by the copy?
Shouldn't we also consider incentive structures that could motivate
people to buy and sell electronic objects in which the historical
distinction between program and data are altogether hidden from view?

Superdistribution

Lets consider a different approach that might work for any form of
computer-based information. It is based on the following observation.
Software objects differ from tangible objects in being fundamentally
unable to monitor their copying but trivially able to monitor their
use. For example, it is easy to make software count how many times it
has been invoked, but hard to make it count how many times it has been
copied.

So why not build an information age market economy around this
difference between manufacturing age and information age goods? If
revenue collection were based on monitoring the use  of software inside
a computer, vendors could dispense with copy protection altogether.
They could distribute electronic objects for free in expectation of a
usage-based revenue stream.

Legal precedents for this approach already exist. The distinction
between copyright (the right to copy or distribute) and useright (the
right to 'perform', or to use a copy once obtained) are both provided
by existing copyright laws. They were stringently tested in court a
century ago as the music publishers were sorting out the implications
of the emerging music broadcasting industry.

When we buy a record, we acquire ownership of a physical copy
(copyright), but only a limited useright; just the right to use the
music for personal enjoyment. Conversely, large television and radio
companies get the very same records for free, but pay substantial fees
for the useright to play the music on the air. The fees are
administered by ASCAP (American Society of Composers, Authors and
Publishers) and BMI (Broadcasting Musicians Institute) by monitoring
how often each record is broadcast to how large a listening audience.

A Japanese industry-wide consortium, JEIDA (Japanese Electronics
Industrial Development Association) is developing an analogous approach
that analogizes each computer to a station that broadcasts to an
audience of one<4>. Called super%distribution, its premise is that copy
protection is exactly the wrong idea for software. Instead,
superdistribution allows software to be freely distributed and freely
acquired via whatever distribution mechanism you please. You are
specifically encouraged to download superdistribution software from
networks, give copies to your friends, or send it as junk mail to
people you've never met. Spray my software from airplanes if you want.
Please!

This generosity is possible because this software is 'meterware'. It
has strings attached that effectively make revenue collection
completely independent of software distribution. The software contains
embedded instructions that make it useless except on machines that are
equipped for this new kind of revenue collection.

The computers that can run superdistribution software are otherwise
quite ordinary. In particular, they will run ordinary pay-by-copy
software just fine. They just have additional capabilities that only
superdistribution software uses. In JEIDA's current prototype, these
services are provided by a silicon chip that plugs into a Macintosh
coprocessor slot.

Electronic objects (not just applications, but active and/or passive
objects of every granularity) that are intended for superdistribution
invoke this hardware to ensure that the revenue collection hardware is
present, that prior usage reports have been uploaded, and that prior
usage fees have been paid.

The hardware is not complicated (the main complexities are
tamper-proofing, not base functionality). It merely provides several
instructions that must be present before superdistribution software can
run. The instructions count how many times they have been invoked by
the software, storing these usage counts temporarily in a tamper-proof
persistent RAM. Periodically (say monthly) this usage information is
uploaded to an administrative organization for billing, using public
key encryption technology to discourage tampering and to protect the
secrecy of this information.

The end-user gets a monthly bill for their usage of each top-level
component. Their payments are credited to each component's owner in
proportion to the component's usage. These accounts are then debited
according to each application's usage of any sub-components. These are
credited to the sub-component owners, again in proportion to usage. In
other words, the end-user's payments are recursively distributed
through the producer-consumer hierarchy. The distribution is governed
by usage metering information collected from each end-user's machine,
plus usage pricing data that is provided to the administrative
organization by each component vendor.

Since communication is infrequent and involves only a small amount of
metering information, the communication channel could be as simple as a
modem that autodials a hardwired 800 number each month. Many other
solutions are viable, such as flash cards or even floppy disks to be
mailed back and forth each month in the mails.

A Revolutionary Approach

Whereas software's ease of replication is a liability today,
superdistribution makes it an asset. Whereas software vendors must
spend heavily to overcome software's invisibility, superdistribution
thrusts software out into the world to serve as its own advertisement.
Whereas the personal computer revolution isolates individuals inside a
standalone personal computer, superdistribution establishes a
cooperative/competitive community around an information age market
economy.

Of course, there are many obstacles to this ever happening for real. A
big one is the information privacy issues raised by usage monitors in
every computer from video games to workstations to mainframes. Although
we are accustomed to usage monitoring for electricity, telephone, gas,
water and electronic data services, information privacy is an explosive
political issue. Superdistribution could easily be legislated into
oblivion out of the fear that the usage information would be used for
other than billing purposes.

A second obstacle is the problem of adding usage monitoring hardware to
a critical number of computers. This is where today's computing
establishment could be gravely exposed to those less inclined to
maintain the status quo.

It is significant that superdistribution was not developed by the
American computer establishment, who presently controls 70% of the
world software market. It was developed by JEIDA, an industry-wide
consortium of Japanese computer manufacturers. The Japanese are clearly
capable of building world-class computers. Suppose that they were to
simply build superdistribution capabilities into every one of them, not
as an extra-price option but as a ubiquitous capability of every
computer they build?

Review the benefits I've discussed in this column and then ask: Whose
computers would you buy? Whose computers would Aunt Nellie and her
friends buy? What if superdistribution really is a Silver Bullet for
the information age issues I've raised in this column? And what if the
competition builds it first?

[Footnotes]

<1>   ) Software-IC is a registered trademark of The Stepstone
Corporation.

<2>   Brad J. Cox; Object-oriented Programming; An Evolutionary Approach;
Addison Wesley; 1986.

<3>   Brad J. Cox; Object Technologies; A Revolutionary Approach; Addison
Wesley; late 1992. Also see Planning the Software Industrial
Revolution; IEEE Software; November 1990, and There is a Silver Bullet;
Byte magazine; October 1990.

<4>   Ryoichi Mori and Masaji Kawahara; Superdistribution: An Overview
and the Current Status; ISEC 89-44; and Superdistribution: The Concept
and the Architecture; The Transactions of the IEICE Vol. E 73 No 7 July
1990. Also seeWhat lies ahead; Byte 1989 January; pp 346-348 and On
Superdistribution; Byte 1990; September; p 346.
                              * * * * *
Brad Cox, Ph.D.                (203) 868-9182 voice / -0780 fax
Information Age Consulting     Best: infoage!bradcox@hsi.com

------------------------------

Date: 21 Jun 92 19:49:14 EDT
From: Gordon Meyer <72307.1502@COMPUSERVE.COM>
Subject: File 2--EFF on GEnie's RoundTable

  ______________________________________________________
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                   Real-time Conference: Free Speech Online
                                     with
                                 Jerry Berman
                                (May 31, 1992)
     ====================================================================
         (C) 1992 by GEnie (R) and Public Forum*NonProfit Connection
              This file may be distributed only in its entirety
                         and with this notice intact.


       Who gets to control the content of electronic communication
       and the telephone system through which it travels?

       Is the First Amendment well-served by current public policy
       and legislation?

On May 31, at 9 pm ET, Jerry Berman, formerly chief legislative counsel for
the ACLU, joined us in RealTime Conference to talk about electronic free
speech. Founder of the ACLU Privacy and Technology Project, Jerry currently
directs the Washington, DC, office of the Electronic Frontier Foundation.

Don't miss lively discussion of Science, Technology and Society in bulletin
board category 7, and check out the files on technology and society in our
library.  See Cat 7/Topic 1 for details.

                                  -=-=-=-=-

An electronic meeting place for friends, family and national "town
meetings," GEnie is an international online computer network for
information, education and entertainment. For under $5.00/month, GEnie
offers over 50 special interest bulletin boards and unlimited electronic
mail at no extra charge during evenings, weekends and holidays. GEnie is
offered by GE Information Services, a division of General Electric Company.

In the Public Forum*NonProfit Connection, thousands of people every day
discuss politics and a wide range of social and nonprofit issues.  A neutral
arena for all points of view, the PF*NPC is presented by Public Interest
Media, a nonprofit organization devoted to empowering people through the
socially productive use of information and communication technology.
For more information about GEnie or the Public Forum, call 1-800-638-9636
or send electronic mail to tsherman@igc.org.

 To sign up for GEnie service, call (with modem in HALF DUPLEX) 800-638-8369.
 Upon connection, type HHH.  At the U#= prompt, type XTX88367,GENIE <RETURN>.
                 The system will prompt you for information.

        __________________________________________________________
    -=((    The Public Forum * NonProfit Connection RoundTable    ))=-
  -==(((           GEnie Page 545 - Keywords PF or NPC            )))==-
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<[Tom PF*NPC] SHERMAN>   Welcome to the last in this month's series of
                         realtime conferences on Technology and Society!
                         These RTCs raise important issues for the future.
                         You'll find these issues discussed in our bulletin
                         board, especially in Category 7, and in many
                         excellent files in the Public Forum library.

                         Before we get started, a word about the process: So
                         that everyone gets a turn at the beginning, only our
                         guests and people asking questions will be able to
                         talk. When you have a question, type /RAI to raise
                         your hand. I'll call on you in order. Please type
                         your question, but DON'T hit <return> to send it.
                         When you're called on, THEN hit <return> to send
                         your question quickly. It's good to use three
                         periods if you have more to say and to put GA for
                         "go ahead" at the end of a final phrase.

                         And now it's our pleasure to introduce tonight's
                         special guests:  Jerry Berman was chief legislative
                         counsel for the ACLU and founded its Privacy and
                         Technology Project. He now directs the Washington
                         D.C. office of the Electronic Frontier Foundation,
                         and is joined here tonight by his EFF colleague
                         Sheri Steele. They're here to talk with you about
                         general issues of free speech online. For example:
                         Who gets to control the content of electronic
                         communication and the telephone system through which
                         it travels? Is the First Amendment well-served by
                         current public policy and legislation?

                         I also want to announce that EFF and Computer
                         Professionals for Social Responsibility are both
                         getting GEnie accounts so that they can participate
                         in discussions like this in the BB and provide
                         information in our file library

                         Welcome, Jerry and Shari! Would you like to make any
                         introductory remarks?

<[JERRY BERMAN] PRESS20> Good to be here! Shari and I are at EFF Washington
                         Office on Capitol Hill in D.C. so we're inside the
                         beltway, trying to protect civil liberties for
                         cyberspace. Does anyone have any questions?

<[Tom PF*NPC] SHERMAN>   Please type /RAI if you have a question and I'll
                         call on you. Jerry, maybe you'd like to add a few
                         words about the EFF server?

<[JERRY BERMAN] PRESS20> EFF is a new advocacy organization that is trying to
                         achieve the democratic potential of new technology.
                         We opened our Washington Office in January of this
                         year (EFF started a year before)... We are working
                         on a range of civil liberties issues. For example,
                         opposing the FBI's efforts to control digital
                         telephone technology to make wiretapping easier. We
                         are trying to get Congress, the FCC and the states
                         to make this telephone network digital to make all
                         of this democracy we are engaged in easier and less
                         savage.

<[Randy] R.DYKHUIS>      Does the EFF work with e-mail systems inside
          companies or does it focus exclusively on "public"
          networks like GEnie?

<[JERRY BERMAN] PRESS20> We consider GENIE a "private" network even though it
          is open to the "public." On the other hand, the
          telephone network is a public regulated network. Do
                         you get the distinction?

<[Randy] R.DYKHUIS>      Yes, I understand.

<[gene] G.STOVER>        In our current Information Revolution, like in the
                         Industrial Revolution, rights and other legal issues
                         are being juggled and rearranged. A lot of freedoms
                         and privileges are at stake. Are you optimistic
                         about the outcome? Will future generations thank us
                         for the world we are creating?

<[JERRY BERMAN] PRESS20> A big issue in the electronic age is insuring
          that the public network carries all speech and does
          not censor. Like telephone calls. It is not clear
                         that this is the current regime... I am optimistic
                         if we can join together to make sure rights are
                         guaranteed and extended in cyberspace or the
                         electronic age.

<[Ric] GRAFFITI>         Thanks for coming tonight! We archive all of the
          EFFector online issues here in the public forum
          library, and I have read a lot about Operation Sun
          Devil. Where does that stand, now? What is the EFF
                         doing?

<[JERRY BERMAN] PRESS20> We have brought a civil suit against the government
          and the case is in currently in the discovery phase
          in Texas. It'll take time, but we hope to establish
                         new privacy rights for bulletin board users.

<[Tom PF*NPC] SHERMAN>   Jerry, you might say a few words to describe Sun
                         Devil for those who don't know about it.

<[JERRY BERMAN] PRESS20> Lots of people know that the Secret service and FBI
          conducted a sweeping and overbroad search looking
          for suspected computer hackers. We need to focus,
          even tonight, on other pressing issues that confront
          us. For example, Are we going to continue to let the
          government control encryption so that we can never
          have real privacy either against law enforcement
          agencies or against others who want to violate ojur
          communication privacy.

<[Ric] GRAFFITI>         One of the most disturbing aspects of Sun Devil was
                         the confiscation of private property - computers and
                         related equipment and supplies - without charges
                         being brought OR the return of the stuff. They can
                         easily silence us, apparently, by taking away our
                         modems and terminals. What can be done?

<[JERRY BERMAN] PRESS20> We have to establish new investigative law
          enforcement warrant requirements for computer crime
          investigations where First amendment rights may be
          involved. There are precedents... The FBI must use
          special procedures to conduct undercover operations
                         when it may be targeted against a newspaper or
          university or political group to protect against
          interfering with free speech... Congress almost
          passed legislation after Watergate to limit in
          statute how the FBI investigates political groups.
          Guidelines do exist, even though the bill did not
          pass... We have to do the same for BBS type
                         investigations.

<[Branch] H.HAINES3>     What would probably be your biggest concern
                         regarding current electronic freedom, or the biggest
                         threat you are aware of?

<[JERRY BERMAN] PRESS20> We need to insure that this telephone network that
                         GEnie is on MUST carry all speech, and not be able
                         to discriminate on the basis of content. Telephone
                         companies are not carrying certain political "900"
                         number accounts because they think they don't have
                         to carry all services just like telephone calls.
                         This could come to serve as a precedent for not
                         carrying a controversial BBS service. These rules
                         need to be worked out in law now before the Jesse
                         Helms' of the world get into this technology when
                         it is easier and see what's going on...

<[Branch] H.HAINES3>     I hear a lot of reports that *P* (Tom PF knows this
          term I'm sure) is very restrictive about what can be
          said by its users. Would that be part of the problem
          you describe?

<[JERRY BERMAN] PRESS20> Good question. Prodigy is a private service. It is
                         not big enough to be regulated like a public
                         institution. So they can discriminate and make
                         editorial decisions not to carry speech. We think
                         this is a misguided policy and have told Prodigy so
                         publically and privately. However, we want Prodigy
                         to have rights. We think the best answer is to make
                         the telephone network better so there can be many
                         Prodigy's and similar services and make it easier
                         for everyone to use a GEnie or some other provider
                         that has a more open policy. We need to make the
                         telephone network digital now. We can do this well
                         before we get to fiber optics and other 21st century
                         technologies. But it will require political action.
                         It is EFF's highest priority now.

<[gene] G.STOVER>        Are BBS operators currently held responsible for the
          information on their BBSes? Should they be held
                         responsible?

<[JERRY BERMAN] PRESS20> It depends. There is very little case law. But if a
                         BBS has a forum like this one open to all, it should
                         not be liable if, for example, I libel one of you or
                         commit a crime on line... But today, we are not sure
                         what responsibilities BBSs have. Some case law
                         suggests that it is limited and that a BBS is like a
                         newsstand, and newsstand operators don't have to
                         know everything in every mag or book on the stand.

<[gene] G.STOVER>        So if someone posts something illegal on a BBS and
                         is prosecuted, is the sysop prosecuted, too?

<[JERRY BERMAN] PRESS20> It could be charged. The operator would argue that
          it is not reasonable under the circumstances to say
          it knew of or should have known the crime was being
                         committed. This will be a factual issue. The legal
          issue is to get the Courts or the Congress to give
                         BBS operators a lot of freedom to err or not to
                         censor. Like a newspaper is not liable to public
                         figures for defamation unless it acts recklessly in
                         disregard of the truth.

<[Charlie] VASSILOPOULO> How large is the movement in Washington to legislate
          morality in general and specifically in electronic
                         media, and who spearheads that movement?

<[JERRY BERMAN] PRESS20> Today, all sides--but especially the right--want to
                         legislate one kind of morality or another. Our job
                         is to make sure it is not inconsistent with the
                         constitution when electronic technology is involved.
                         We have had Congress several years ago try to outlaw
                         certain gay BBS systems because of possible child
                         pornography. Such bills will come up again when this
                         technology is more widely used. You can be sure that
                         the morality gang in Congress will try to regulate
                         adult, political BBSs when they are really in a
                         majority of American homes. And as you know, this is
                         not far off. We need to establish the rules now
                         before we have Congress looking at very
                         controversial siutuations with no rules in mind, or
                         a precedent.

<[Darla] KUBY>           Won't there be sort of a 'conflict of interest' with
                         you having a free account on GEnie? I mean, would
          Compuserve give you a free account? Or Prodigy?

<[Tom PF*NPC] SHERMAN>   Let me step in here. EFF is not getting a free
                         account; they're paying just like everyone else
                         except that we're giving them free access to the
                         Public Forum because they are helping with the
                         discussion and library files.

<[JERRY BERMAN] PRESS20> Darla, we are paying.

<[Darla] KUBY>           Would you accept the same from Compuserve or
                         Prodigy?

<[JERRY BERMAN] PRESS20> Of course, we would love to pay them also. We are
                         on Compuserve and we have a Prodigy account. What,
          by the way, is the conflict if we had a free
                         account--which we don't?

<[Connie] C.RIFENBURG>   A question recently came up on one of the boards
          concerning reposting of a deleted post. The original
          poster had deleted a post. It was captured by
          another person in a buffer and reposted to the BBS.
                         People said it was against copyright laws...? Who
                         "owns" the BB post once posted?

<[Tom PF*NPC] SHERMAN>   Connie, I'm afraid you're asking a question that has
          partly to do with GEnie rules. But Jerry can
          certainly answer the general question

<[JERRY BERMAN] PRESS20> Again, it depends. I dont think it is covered by
          copyright law unless the posting was from, say, a
                         book or magazine and wasmnore than fair use.

<[Connie] C.RIFENBURG>   Then copyright is only book or magazine?

<[JERRY BERMAN] PRESS20> No. But when I send this message I do not expect to
                         be covered by copyright even though I may say
                         something very original. I could I guess put a THIS
                         IS COPYRIGHTED here. But it would be difficult to
                         enforce... Copyright does apply to more than books or
                         magazines, however, like film, etc.

<[Tom PF*NPC] SHERMAN>   Jerry, I think your comment conflicts with those of
          another RTC guest, Gerry Elman, Esq. But that's why
                         we have courts, I guess :)

<[Ric] GRAFFITI>         It may be too fine a distinction, but all online
          systems are actually store & forward messaging
          systems (voice mail & pager systems, too), instead
          of direct communications channels like the phone
          lines. That seems to make the BBS or online service
          a publisher, by re-broadcasting (or narrowcasting,
          to one person) the messages as if it had originated
          the message, even though system operators had
          nothing to do with the content. That seems to be
          where confusion over liability for defamation and
                         criminal conduct occurs. Any comment?

<[JERRY BERMAN] PRESS20> Yes. Analogies break down but the store and forward
                         does not always mean the ability to edit or know of
                         the contents in such a way as to be liable. For
                         example, under current law, a service that offers
                         E-mail to its users violates the law if it reads a
                         stored message (email) before it is forwarded or
                         while it is stored. In fact the FBI has to get a
                         warrant from a court to get such a message. This is
                         one of the issues in Steve Jackson case. Did they
                         have a warrant for all the emial in Jackson's
                         system?

<[Ric] GRAFFITI>         They got it, didn't they? :) Seriously, then, online
          and BBS systems are not liable for the contents of
                         email?

<[JERRY BERMAN] PRESS20> That is correct. Thus, one could shield a BBS from
                         liability by encouraging anything controversial be
                         carried as email between those who wanted to send
                         and receive the messages.

<[gene] G.STOVER>        Do you think the proposed(?) partial deregulation to
                         allow the telcos to produce TV is a good idea? Could
                         this produce abuses like those with the old railroad
                         tycoons? Comments?

<[JERRY BERMAN] PRESS20> Good question. The issue is whether a carrier (like
                         the telcos) can also publish content and not
                         discriminate against other information providers.
                         There is good reason to worry, but did you know that
                         while the telcos can't do cable TV yet over their
                         lines, they NOW can do information services and
                         compete with others?

<[gene] G.STOVER>        Where could I find more info on this?

<[JERRY BERMAN] PRESS20> Send Shari Steele E-Mail at Eff.org
                         (ssteele@eff.org)

<[Tom PF*NPC] SHERMAN>   And you'll see the EFF GEnie address pretty soon!

<[T.C.] WIDMO>           What is the danger of public BBS messages being
          gathered by gov't, to suppress individual political
                         action?

<[JERRY BERMAN] PRESS20> Not much right now. Since the Watergate scandals
                         and Hoover revelations, government has not been
                         collecting gobs of info from political groups. They
                         used to gather everything using informants and
                         wiretaps, etc.... also attend public meetings.
                         Today, if a police officer joined this conference,
                         we would have a hard time arguing that he or she
                         could not. Does any one disagree?

<[T.C.] WIDMO>           Could they pressure co's with gov't contracts to
                         forward to them anything questionable?

<[JERRY BERMAN] PRESS20> Sure they could. They could ask BBS services to give
          them transcripts of public forums like this and it
          would break no law. (Perhaps a contract between BBS
                         and subscriber but NO LAW.)

<POLICE>                 I just came in on this a short time ago so I may
                         have missed this, but does an online service such as
                         GEnie or Prodigy have a right to censor public
                         messages on the BB's?

<[JERRY BERMAN] PRESS20> The answer is Yes. For example, if GEnie did not
                         want a DAVID DUKE conference it could turn Duke
                         down.  Or it could end the conference. GEnie is a
                         private publisher and its BBS conferences are like
                         letters to the editor in some respects. GEnie is not
                         the government. We want GEnie to have the right to
                         editorialize so that we all have similar rights to
                         choose how we speek. We need a diversity of BBSs to
                         cover political diversity. Does anyone disagree?

<[Ric] GRAFFITI>         I imagine you run into the misperception about
          public vs. private data networks often. However,
          moving on...... Could you comment on the FBI's
          "demand" to be let in and given free access to the
          plaintext of the digital phone network? Why did they
          publish editorials and go on TV with this request to
          massively re-engineer modern phone & data equipment?

<[JERRY BERMAN] PRESS20> Good question. The FBI is worried that fiber optic
                         networks, services like Call-Forwarding, etc. will
                         make it difficult for them to conduct lawful
                         warrants. This is a real concern, but we do not
                         believe the solution is to allow them backdoors to
                         all networks or easy access to encryption keys.
                         There are narrower solutions. They went on TV and
                         radio because they are engaged in political
                         persuasion to get the law changed in their favor. We
                         are doing the same from the other side. CPSR, EFF,
                         ACLU and industry are opposing this proposal.

<[Ric] GRAFFITI>         Is the day of the phone bug, wire tap and easy
          access to private communications coming to a close?

<[JERRY BERMAN] PRESS20> No. Some of the technology is better for privacy but
                         software changes can give law enforcement access to
                         more info than ever.

<[Tom PF*NPC] SHERMAN>   Jerry, what would you suggest that people, who are
                         concerned about free speech online, do to insure
                         that corporate or government interests won't impose
                         limitations?

<[JERRY BERMAN] PRESS20> Citizens on the electronic frontier need to organize
                         to protect their rights. Keeping informed--like here
                         on GEnie--is a good step. Joining organizations like
                         CPSR, EFF, and ACLU (I try to be catholic) also will
                         help. We are trying to put together at EFF an
                         advocacy organization that can make our voices heard
                         on these issues. We are amping up our membership
                         effort. We now already have 4 full professionals
                         here in DC working on legal and policy issues
                         involving technology, free speech, privacy, access to
                         information, improving the telephone network,
                         creating a BBS rights and responsibilities book,
                         etc...

<[Tom PF*NPC] SHERMAN>   You said something about these issues being settled
          in the courts or in Congress. Which would you
          prefer? Is working through EFF, CPSR, ACLU etc the
          best way to influence the outcome?

<[JERRY BERMAN] PRESS20> I do not think we can solve large technology issues
          in the courts. It took the courts 40 years to figure
          out that wiretapping violated privacy. Bad cases,
                         like national security threats, tend to make bad
                         law... and this is not a liberal Supreme Court, is
                         it? We need broader technology policy and that
                         requires working out new relationships between
                         converging technologies, like computers, telephones,
                         cable, mass media... Congress and state legislatures
                         are the appropriate forums. And we can have an
                         influence and not let the courts do the elitist
                         solution routine.

<[Tom PF*NPC] SHERMAN>   A perfect closing answer! Thanks to Jerry Berman and
                         Shari Steele for joining us tonight, and thanks to
                         the  EFF for joining GEnie to improve our discussion
                         of these crucial issues for the future. I also want
                         to thank all the participants who asked great
                         questions tonight and to encourage all those reading
                         this transcript to join us! <grin>


    -----# Participants #-----


<[Connie] C.RIFENBURG>
<[gene] G.STOVER>
<[Ric] GRAFFITI>
<[Branch] H.HAINES3>
<[Darla] KUBY>
<POLICE>
<[JERRY BERMAN] PRESS20>
<[Randy] R.DYKHUIS>
<[Tom PF*NPC] SHERMAN>
<[Charlie] VASSILOPOULO>
<[T.C.] WIDMO>


 |
 | This listing was generated by LRTC Version 1.00
 | (C)opyright by Hartmut W. Malzahn, 1991. All rights reserved.
 |


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End of Computer Underground Digest #4.28
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