jones@pyrite.cs.uiowa.edu (Douglas W. Jones,201H MLH,3193350740,3193382879) (09/16/90)
I was talking with Congressman Nagle (3rd District, Iowa), about recent
USENET postings from the Soviet Union, and he asked me to try to document
the extent to which USENET has penetrated behind the old the Iron Curtain.
I am posting this note to an assortment of newsgroups to attempt to assess
readership in the USSR, and eastern Europe. Please, if you are reading
this in the Soviet Union, Poland, Hungary, the German Democratic Republic,
or any other nation in eastern Europe, would you please try to send
electronic mail to me.
I would also like to receive postcards to confirm your reading of this
posting, both because the new electronic mail connections may not work
well, and because, in the past, there have been some interesting hoaxes
involving forged electronic mail purportedly from Russia.
I do not regularly read all of the newsgroups where I am posting this,
so I will probably not see publically posted replies. I will distribute
summaries of what I learn from this survey, after about a month.
Douglas W. Jones
Postal address: Associate Professor of Computer Science
University of Iowa
Iowa City, Iowa 52242
USA
Internet address: jones@herky.cs.uiowa.edu (.usa ?)rhealey@ub.d.umn.edu (Rob Healey) (09/18/90)
In article <2350@ns-mx.uiowa.edu> jones@pyrite.cs.uiowa.edu (Douglas W. Jones,201H MLH,3193350740,3193382879) writes: > >I was talking with Congressman Nagle (3rd District, Iowa), about recent >USENET postings from the Soviet Union, and he asked me to try to document >the extent to which USENET has penetrated behind the old the Iron Curtain. > Hmmmm, I'm getting a little red flag here, no pun intended. I would be EXTREMELY wary of the Congressman's TRUE motives for wanting to know this information. i.e. this could give congress the poke that is needed to SHUT DOWN usenet type communications for that ALL IMPORTANT "National Security" Don't laugh. If information can flow from east->west, it can flow west->east. Some in congress would no doubt see this as a threat to western security. They COULD make having a USENET connection outside of the US a federal crime. PLEASE think about this seriously because I'm sure there are those who don't see USENET as a force for democratic change but as a security leak. B^(. Very cautiously, -Rob
rwa@cs.athabascau.ca (Ross Alexander) (09/19/90)
rhealey@ub.d.umn.edu (Rob Healey) writes: > as a threat to western security. They COULD make having a > USENET connection outside of the US a federal crime. Oh, jeez, should I shoot myself now or wait for the CSIS guys to come around? Hell, I'm even a card carrying socialist (literally). Please remember, there is a legal fiction that Canada is a sovereign nation. So chill out. You are being as paranoid as the G-men you fear. To paraphrase :-), all the world is not a USA. :-) -- -- Ross Alexander rwa@cs.athabascau.ca (403) 675 6311 ve6pdq