logo (04/03/83)
Background: There was a recent posting in net.auto which described how to "smuggle" a Mexican VW into the US. To date, there have been two posting stating that it is inappropriate to discuss methods for breaking the law on the net, and one comment which said that the information was appreciated. Question and Opinion: Is there, or should there be, a net protocol regarding the discussion of illegal activities (such as putting non-sealed beam headlights on your car, cultivating illegal plants, etc.)? My feeling is that discussion of illegal matters, either with or without detailed procedures, is OK. I would say that the planning and organization of a particular criminal act which is intended to be committed, or with specific individuals or places specified, is inappropriate. I supposed a compromise position might request encoding (rot13) of messages with questionable content. David (Reisner) uucp : ...!(ucbvax|decvax|philabs)!sdcsvax!logo arpanet : sdcsvax!logo@nosc
mark (04/05/83)
I'd like to remind you all (at least most of you) that you are on Usenet by the generousity of your employers, who pay the phone bills and let you spend time reading news, presumably so you will be better informed about job related goings-on. Most of them will tolerate the things that are clearly not job related. They are relatively non-offensive. But if we start providing cookbooks for breaking the law, it won't be long before we get a reputation as an underground newspaper. (We already have a reputation as a conduit for junk, because of the non-job-related newsgroups and the quantity of junk that goes to net.general. You and I know there is a lot of valuable stuff here, too, but many people have dropped out and are spreading the claim that Usenet just has a lot of garbage floating around.) I won't stand by and let Usenet develop a reputation as a place to get tips on how to break the law. As soon as this happens, our employers will shut us all off. The occasional note on smog devices or radar detectors or tax audits is not a problem. Even one or two notes about Mexican Rabbits aren't going to break us. I just don't want to see a policy set that encourages this kind of thing. I know there are some of you out there who really do appreciate seeing tips on how to break the law. Might I suggest that you can use your ug.all newsgroups for such things? That way, the legitimate part of Usenet doesn't know or care anything about it, and certainly doesn't sanction it. Yet we don't interfere with your freedom to discuss what you want. Of course, by doing so on your employers machine, you run the risk of having your employer shut you off. Mark Horton
trb (04/06/83)
Re: The Underground
Mark, the problem with ug.all newsgroups, which has already been
demonstrated, is that many sites won't forward ug.all. It's the fault
of the news software that the distribution-area-keyword ("net") also
also specifies something about the content (aboveground). The is
godawful. A solution? Keywords. Just post to group: net.misc,
keyword: underground, and specify underground in the keyword file so
that you have to ask for it to get it.
Hackers of the world unite.
Andy Tannenbaum Bell Labs Whippany, NJ (201) 386-6491