Mailer@IU.AI.SRI.COM (Pony Express Mailer) (10/21/87)
Received: from harvard by IU.AI.SRI.COM via UUCP; Wed, 21 Oct 87 08:25:24-PDT From: harvard !bu-cs!bu-cs.bu.edu!info-futures-request Received: by harvard.harvard.edu; Tue, 20 Oct 87 16:24:04 EDT Received: from ucbvax.Berkeley.EDU by bu-cs.BU.EDU (3.2/4.7) id AA17112; Tue, 20 Oct 87 13:01:52 EDT Received: by ucbvax.Berkeley.EDU (5.58/1.27) id AA09662; Tue, 20 Oct 87 09:41:59 PDT Received: from USENET by ucbvax.Berkeley.EDU with netnews for info-futures@bu-cs.bu.edu (info-futures@bu-cs.bu.edu) (contact usenet@ucbvax.Berkeley.EDU if you have questions) Date: 20 Oct 87 15:01:47 GMT From: harvard!bu-cs!eddie.mit.edu!zrm (Zigurd R. Mednieks) Organization: MIT, EE/CS Computer Facilities, Cambridge, MA Subject: Re: UUCP - USSR Message-Id: <7213@eddie.MIT.EDU> References: <8710200932.AA00888@violet.berkeley.edu> Sender: harvard!bu-cs!bu-cs.bu.edu!info-futures-request To: bu-cs.bu.edu!info-futures The posters proposing a UUCP link with the Soviet Union are more than a little naive about the state of computing and information interchange in the Soviet Union. ALL means of mass dissemination of information are tightly controlled. Xerox machines are a bigger threat to security than any single state secret, and are accordingly controlled. The same, I expect, would go for computer printers, floppy disks and floppy media, etc. The short of it is that you might be able to get a link to some research institute set up (if you can get them to acknowledge the existence of their ill-gotten VAX and Unix system!) but your impact on the information available to anyone beyond the academicians they trust to travel in the West will be nil. The net benefit will be to Soviet intelligence gathering and analysis. I would oppose such a link at this time. The proposals I have seen in this newsgroup have all the marks of amateur diplomacy: an agreement of any sort is preferable to no agreement even if it gives a dangerous party an advantage. The goal of wider dissemination of information should be met before such an intelligence boon is granted to the Soviets. -Zigurd -------