Guerilla Internet Service Providers

At 6:18 PM 12/30/95, Lucky Green wrote:

>At best, Cypherpunks can hope to provide the infrastructure that will allow
>an underground to communicate semi-securely. We are unable to stop the
>global tidal wave of fascism. Let's not waste our time on bemoaning the
>freedoms crushed in its path. We have more important work to do.

And support your local ISPs!

(Or, even better, direct connection to the Net, though this is harder for
most of us to arrange.)

This CompuServe situation should be a great recruiting opportunity.
Cypherpunks in various parts of the country (and outside the U.S.) can get
active in local AOL, Prodigy, and Compuserve groups (and maybe even Netcom
chat groups, as Netcom is large enough to be a ripe target for harassment
by some zealous prosecutor or tort-crazed lawyer, as the Church of
Scientology case showed). They can tell the folks about local alternatives.

Having lots of small, decentralized providers makes censoring the Net all
the harder. Guerilla Internet Service Providers.

(I'm not disparaging Netcom. Tom Klemesrud not only fought the CoS, he has
also spoken out against CompuServe's action. I just understand that the
"deep pockets" effect means that any ISP large enough to register on the
radar screens of the statists will be targetted for regulation and
sanctioning. Better to have a thousand services, melting into the jungle
when the heavy artillery arrives.)

--Tim May

We got computers, we're tapping phone lines, we know that that ain't allowed.
---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:----
Timothy C. May              | Crypto Anarchy: encryption, digital money,
tcmay@got.net  408-728-0152 | anonymous networks, digital pseudonyms, zero
W.A.S.T.E.: Corralitos, CA  | knowledge, reputations, information markets,
Higher Power: 2^756839 - 1  | black markets, collapse of governments.
"National borders aren't even speed bumps on the information superhighway."

Timothy C. May writes:
 > And support your local ISPs!
 > 
 > (Or, even better, direct connection to the Net, though this is harder for
 > most of us to arrange.)

For how long is this really going to be the case?  As the whole world
of HTTP and related things (like Java & VRML) advances in capability
and sophistication, how long will the Compuserve/AOL/Genie "Big Online
Service" model continue to make sense?

Seems to me at as soon as things like a general-purpose browser (and
associated TCP/IP stack & PPP or SLIP) becomes as easy to load up as
an AOL demo disk, and local ISP's are listed in the yellow pages, the
advantage of being able to pay a provider for nothing more than the
routing of IP packets so that the net as a whole can be explored (and,
perhaps, more services purchased) will FAR outweigh any of the goodies
the current big providers offer.

The flip side of that, of course, is that big service providers can
offer access to their goodies to anybody with net access.

That sort of setup would make the whole concept of Internet regulation
even more bizarre; we'd really have something more directly parallel
to the phone system.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
| Nobody's going to listen to you if you just | Mike McNally (m5@tivoli.com) |
| stand there and flap your arms like a fish. | Tivoli Systems, Austin TX    |
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

m5@dev.tivoli.com (Mike McNally) writes:
> For how long is this really going to be the case?  As the whole world
> of HTTP and related things (like Java & VRML) advances in capability
> and sophistication, how long will the Compuserve/AOL/Genie "Big Online
> Service" model continue to make sense?

For as long as they're able to provide information and services that
customers want, which are not available via "generic" small ISP's.

For example, one can read the New York Times (and many other periodicals)
via AOL; one can read the NCSA forum on CompuServe.

One has to be pretty dumb to use AOL or CS as an _Internet_ provider.
Yet a lot of very sharp people use these services.

The content providers aren't willing to put their wares on "generic"
internet, and won't be willing to in the foreseeable future.

---

Dr. Dimitri Vulis
Brighton Beach Boardwalk BBS, Forest Hills, N.Y.: +1-718-261-2013, 14.4Kbps