New Opportunity for Anonymous Reamilers

Several universities are taking steps to limit student and faculty
access to the Internet. Carnegie-Mellon U. is limiting access to a
number of newsgroups--and has said that students who attempt to
circumvent the restrictions by using gopher and such, will be
disciplined. McGill U., in Canada, is revising its code of behavior to
allow random searches of student files, limits on access, etc.

These moves are being widely discussed elsewhere, so I won't here.

My point here is to note a major new set of opportunities to
publicize the use of PGP and remailers. Students at these afflicted
universities can be given help in circumventing the new rules.

Here's an example (not posted by me):

From: nobody (Anonymous)
Newsgroups: can.general,can.legal,alt.comp.acad-freedom.talk,comp.org.eff.talk,alt.privacy,alt.activism,alt.privacy.anon-server,alt.society.civil-liberty
Subject: McGill students plan anonymous email gateway to protect privacy
Date: 21 Nov 1994 10:17:50 -0600
Organization: J. P. and Associates
Sender: remailer@jpunix.com
Distribution: inet
Message-ID: <3aqh7e$lem@jpunix.com>

McGill students seem resigned to the fact that the administration will
soon take away their electronic privacy by unilaterally changing
the student code.

Some are now advocating the widespread use of PGP and anonymous remailers.
A Web page will be created to allow non-experts easy form-based access.

... oh yeah, I bet in January we'll hear that PGP and anonymous email
are prohibited on McGill computers.  ;-(


--

Tim May writes: 
> 
> Several universities are taking steps to limit student and faculty
> access to the Internet. Carnegie-Mellon U. is limiting access to a
> number of newsgroups--and has said that students who attempt to
> circumvent the restrictions by using gopher and such, will be
> disciplined. McGill U., in Canada, is revising its code of behavior to
> allow random searches of student files, limits on access, etc.

	I guess I've been asleep.  What prey tell in any USENET group is
so evil that a university (bastion of free speech) should wish to censor
it ? I can understand high schools and especially middle schools
censoring some of the alt.sex crap, but what is there on USENET that is
not suitable for college age and older ? And why on earth should they
censor faculty/grad student access ? Aren't faculty/grad students
assumed to be highly responsible adults ?

	Hell, back in the late 60's when I was in school we actually had
a real for-credit course in pornographic literature offered ...  turns
out there is quite a serious literary tradition in this arena (DH
Lawrence, Henry Miller, Anias Nin etc). 

	I guess this should mean some more business to my friends at
Pagesat, which broadcasts a completely uncensored real time feed of the
USENET over a small dish Ku band satellite link to all of North America. 
And they are a real licensed common carrier (their principle business is
wide area paging services) so they can't be held responsible for the
contents of the traffic either. 

						Dave Emery

> 	I guess this should mean some more business to my friends at
> Pagesat, which broadcasts a completely uncensored real time feed of the
> USENET over a small dish Ku band satellite link to all of North America. 
> And they are a real licensed common carrier (their principle business is
> wide area paging services) so they can't be held responsible for the
> contents of the traffic either. 

Do you need to be licensed to be a common carrier?  If so, who grants the 
licenses, and what qualifications does a business need to meet in order 
to qualify?

alex