German prosecutors redouble attack on Net, subversive leftists

[Note www.anonymizer.com doesn't seem to be blocked. --Declan]

---

Date: Thu, 5 Sep 1996 01:59:36 +0200 (MET DST)
From: Ulf Moeller <um@c2.net>
To: fight-censorship@vorlon.mit.edu
Subject: German Internet Censorhip: http://www.xs4all.nl

The German Generalbundesanwaltschaft (Chief Federal Prosecutor's
office) has "advised" the Internet providers to block access to
http://www.xs4all.nl:80 and http://www.serve.com:80 due to
supposedly illegal contents at the URLs http://www.serve.com/spg/154/,
http://www.xs4all.nl/~tank/radikal//154/ and
http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/angela1/radilink.htm.

The commercial ISPs have blocked the routes to the servers.
Their statement (in German) is at http://www.anwalt.de/ictf/p960901d.htm

"Radikal" (http://www.xs4all.nl/~tank/radikal) is a publication
from the radical left that is illegal in Germany, but not in
the Netherlands.

---

Date: Wed, 4 Sep 1996 22:15:42 -0700 (PDT)
From: Declan McCullagh <declan@well.com>
To: fight-censorship@vorlon.mit.edu
Subject: Re: German Internet Censorhip: http://www.xs4all.nl

I heard about this a few days ago, but I was unable to verify it.

Yesterday I bounced mail through a German university to xs4all.nl back to
EFF, and it came through just fine. I also tried golden-gate.owl.de and
wserver.physnet.uni-hamburg.de, both of which have no problems talking to
xs4all.nl. From those tests, I can say there's no complete ban, though I
can't confirm or deny any partial ban.

However, just in case the German government is successful in this
censorship gambit, I've mirrored the three embattled web sites at: 

  http://www.well.com/~declan/mirrors/

This is a quick grab of the files in question; I'll work on a formatted
intro page later. 

(As background for more recent subscribers to fight-censorship, this isn't
the first time the German government has tried this. A similar move came
early this year when German prosecutors tried to cut connections to
webcom.com in California, where some of Ernst Zundel's Nazi "Holocaust
Revisionist" propaganda was hosted. I and a few other folks including Rich
at Stanford and Blake at Penn held our noses and mirrored it around the
country, prompting the Gemans to lift the ban. I had thought the German
prosecutors smarter than to try this again. I guess I was wrong.)

My global Net-censorship roundup is at:

  http://www.eff.org/~declan/global/

-Declan

Declan McCullagh wrote:
>  
> The German Generalbundesanwaltschaft (Chief Federal Prosecutor's
> office) has "advised" the Internet providers to block access to
> http://www.xs4all.nl:80 and http://www.serve.com:80 due to
> supposedly illegal contents at the URLs http://www.serve.com/spg/154/,
> http://www.xs4all.nl/~tank/radikal//154/ and
> http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/angela1/radilink.htm.
> 
> The commercial ISPs have blocked the routes to the servers.
> Their statement (in German) is at http://www.anwalt.de/ictf/p960901d.htm

I wonder how they are doing this?  We know that the Germans allow full
internet access (don't they?), so they can't be using a filtering http
proxy.  I guess they're blocking on IP number (and perhaps port).  It
might be a good idea for xs4all to gather up all of their spare IP
numbers, and alias the lot on their web site - this would increase the
number of blocked addresses needed.  It might also be a good idea to run
some proxies on unusual ports (eg. smtp, DNS, pop, ftp ports) (although
of course this will then need to be a dedicated proxy machine) - again
this would increase the size of the blacklist that the Germans must use,
and may involve some awkward router programming (for example, a router
might be configured to allow all DNS traffic - if a proxy is sitting on
the DNS port, then things get a bit difficult to set up).  Of course,
netscape probably won't allow use of these ports (it certainly doesn't
allow the use of port 79).

Gary
--
pub  1024/C001D00D 1996/01/22  Gary Howland <gary@systemics.com>
Key fingerprint =  0C FB 60 61 4D 3B 24 7D  1C 89 1D BE 1F EE 09 06

> I wonder how they are doing this?  We know that the Germans allow full

There is an advisory around where the ISPs say that
they think it's not possible to block urls.

And even if they figure a way out to do this,
this mailing list proves (mirrors) that it's not
possible to stop the flow of information.
But the German Government doesn't seem to even
understand a bit how the inet works.

> this would increase the size of the blacklist that the Germans must use,

The Germans. I don't like this evil German bashing.
(which is quite obvios in some mails, although I
think not in this one, but I had to say this)
Some of us (some may say most, I'm not) are quite normal and
there are even some cypherpunks around :)

And as there are lots of ISPs in Germany (as in every
other country) they won't get everyone to resctrict the access
to some pages.

-stephan

> numbers, and alias the lot on their web site - this would increase the
> number of blocked addresses needed.  It might also be a good idea to run
> some proxies on unusual ports (eg. smtp, DNS, pop, ftp ports) (although
> of course this will then need to be a dedicated proxy machine) - again
> this would increase the size of the blacklist that the Germans must use,

	Of course if they're simply denying all traffic to a given
network, a different port isn't going to make any difference. :)

> and may involve some awkward router programming (for example, a router
> might be configured to allow all DNS traffic - if a proxy is sitting on
> the DNS port, then things get a bit difficult to set up).  Of course,
> netscape probably won't allow use of these ports (it certainly doesn't
> allow the use of port 79).

	I think the restriction on port 79 (the finger daemon port)
was because there still are a lot of fingerd's with buffer overrun
holes and it was just too easy to use netscape to exploit them.  Jeff
or another of the people from NS probably can give the full explanation.

---
Fletch                                                     __`'/|
fletch@ain.bls.com  "Lisa, in this house we obey the       \ o.O'    ______
404 713-0414(w)      Laws of Thermodynamics!" H. Simpson   =(___)= -| Ack. |
404 315-7264(h) PGP Print: 8D8736A8FC59B2E6 8E675B341E378E43  U      ------

>I wonder how they are doing this?  We know that the Germans allow full
>internet access (don't they?), so they can't be using a filtering http
>proxy.  I guess they're blocking on IP number (and perhaps port).

One ISP uses a filtering proxy which still can access xs4all,
while blocking the HTTP port to www.xs4all.nl for their users.
Others simply block the IP number.

Of course, everyone still can use the mirror sites, the anonymizer,
open proxies, free Lynx accounts and www-by-mail services. The
prosecutors don't seem to understand that yet.

>might be a good idea for xs4all to gather up all of their spare IP
>numbers, and alias the lot on their web site - this would increase the
>number of blocked addresses needed.

They are already rotating IP numbers. :)

On Wed, 4 Sep 1996, Declan McCullagh wrote:

> The German Generalbundesanwaltschaft (Chief Federal Prosecutor's
> office) has "advised" the Internet providers to block access to

> "Radikal" (http://www.xs4all.nl/~tank/radikal) is a publication
> from the radical left that is illegal in Germany, but not in
> the Netherlands.

This is amazing. Without defending the German stand on the Revisionist
crap, that part is at least understandable in a historical context
(their sense of guilt for the unfortunate developments in the 30's
and 40's etc). But a quick overview of the contents of Radikal gives the
impression of an ordinary leftist zine, defining the outlawing of it as
pure political censorship in a Western 'democracy'. I'm truly surprised.

Asgaard

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SORRY IT TOOK SO LONG TO FIND.  THIS WAS ON OUR OCPM EASTERN REGION BBS
MESSAGE 07-17-96, FROM JACKIE MCLEER, SUBJECT: DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE
RECRUITMENT.


I GUESS YOU HAVE HEARD BY NOW THAT PLANS FOR REGIONIZATION HAS BEEN PUT ON
HOLD DO TO LACK OF MONEY.

THEY SAY WE WON'T BE GOING ANY WHERE OR DOING ANY THING UNTIL AT LEAST
1999.

THERE IS TALK OF A RIF HERE!  50 PEOPLE THIS YEAR (97) AND 50 THE NEXT TWO
YEARS(98 & 99). WE HAVE TO BE DOWN TO 160 BY THE YEAR 2000.

I THINK MY JOB IS SAFE, THEY CAN'T GET THE WORK DONE NOW WITH 12 PERSONNEL
ACTIONS CLERK I CAN'T  SEE THEM DOING IT WITH LESS.


DID YOU HAVE A NICE HOLIDAY?  DO ANYTHING SPECIAL?  

WE HAD RAIN ALL FOUR DAYS - (I HAD TAKEN OFF FRIDAY) - BUT IT WAS GREAT
JUST NOT BEING AT WORK!

I HAD BILL'S BIRTHDAY PRESENT DELIVERED EARLY (SEPT 18 IS HIS B'DAY).  I
GOT HIM A TV HE COULD SEE WITHOUT SITTING ON TOP OF -- RCA 52 INCH
PROSCAN.  IT'S GREAT AND HE SEEMS TO REALLY LOVE IT.  I DON'T WATCH ENOUGH
TO MATTER, BUT IT IS NICE FOR MOVIES.  SHELLY AND HER DAUGHTER LESLIE CAME
OVER FRIDAY EVENING TO HAVE PIZZA AND WATCH A MOVIE.  THEY LIKED IT TOO!

HOPE THINGS ARE GOING BETTER THERE.  MY JOB IS GOING OK FOR NOW BUT A LOT
OF THIS IS MEDICATION. MY DOCTOR PUT ME ON SOMETHING AGAIN WHEN I SAW HIM
LAST MONTH.  BLOOD PRESSURE WAY UP AND STARTING TO FEEL LIKE I WOULD CRY
ANY MINUTE OVER ANYTHING!  I SEE HIM AGAIN SEPT 13 MAYBE HE'LL TELL ME
EVERYTHINGS OK (HA!:)

THATS ALL FOR NOW - ITS SOMEWHERE AROUND 4 AM AND I HAVE TO GET READY FOR
WORK.

HI TO HOLLY!

LOVE YA!

KATHY
In <Pine.HPP.3.91.960905130656.27617B-100000@cor.sos.sll.se>, on 09/05/96 at 01:23 PM,
   Asgaard <asgaard@Cor.sos.sll.se> said:

>On Wed, 4 Sep 1996, Declan McCullagh wrote:

>> The German Generalbundesanwaltschaft (Chief Federal Prosecutor's
>> office) has "advised" the Internet providers to block access to

>> "Radikal" (http://www.xs4all.nl/~tank/radikal) is a publication
>> from the radical left that is illegal in Germany, but not in
>> the Netherlands.

>This is amazing. Without defending the German stand on the Revisionist
>crap, that part is at least understandable in a historical context
>(their sense of guilt for the unfortunate developments in the 30's
>and 40's etc). But a quick overview of the contents of Radikal gives the
>impression of an ordinary leftist zine, defining the outlawing of it as
>pure political censorship in a Western 'democracy'. I'm truly surprised.

>Asgaard

Is there an URL with a English version?

I am always curious to see what governments think they should "protect" their citizens from.


Thanks,

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