Government Denial of Service Attacks

Those who read this list or watch the news of the "Wired Curtain" that is
attempting to be drawn across the Net know that there is a theory out there
that government Denial of Service Attacks (GDOS) are a real threat.  The
GDOS theory holds that if government legislates or even threatens
litigation against the provision of a particular service, the providers of
the service will fold and the public will be unable to obtain the banned
service.

In the case of the net this is the "Do Not <--'Enter" theory.  The
governments claim that by threat, deception, or nuclear weapons, they can
keep millions of us from hitting the <--'Enter key and thus transmitting
banned material.  That is a very fine control regime indeed.  (Original
meaning of 'fine' of course.)

If the governments had this GDOS power; this Do Not <--'Enter power, then
the article on the front page of today's New York Times could not have been
written.

"Behind a Suburban Facade in Queens, A Teeming, Angry Urban Arithmetic" is
the annual NYT article on the spread of illegal apartments throughout the
Region.  From the humblest urban ghetto to the swankiest suburbs, denizens
of the TriState area are converting one- and two-family dwellings into two-
three- or four-family (and denser) dwellings.  These illegal apartments are
commonplace and illegal.  This has been true (and written about) for years.
 Here we have a physical service (apartment rental), difficult to hide, and
illegal which is offered by hundreds of thousands of property owners in
this area.

The GDOS theory holds that this can't happen.  "All they have to do is pass
a law."  Note that the GDOS theories that involve our activities say that
once the government passes a law, no one (or hardly anyone) will offer an
anonymous Net account, or an uncensored ISP connection, or an un IDed
financial account, or an uncensored news server, etc.  That all government
has to do is pass a law and all transactions will be carried out in rigid
conformity to its dictates.  

I say nonsense.  If the government can't keep thousands of property owners
(with their physical property at risk) from offering it for rent illegally,
in an "open, notorious, and continuous" manner; then they aren't going to
be able to keep very many of us from hitting <--'Enter.

DCF

"During Fiscal 1996, the Government of the United States collected more
taxes from the American people than any government had ever collected
before in the history of mankind.  During Fiscal 1997, the Government of
the United States plans to collect more taxes from the American people than
any government has ever collected before in the history of mankind.  And
still it's not enough."

DF writes about "GDOS", government-denial-of-service.

you make some very good points that it is impossible for the
government to stamp out activities which it deems illegal
but the public disagrees and flouts. but you don't consider
the situation of harassment. if something should be legal
in a country, it costs the population a lot for it to be
illegal. I don't know if there are government regulators
in NY handling the "illegal apartment" thing, but this
"crime" surely costs the public a lot. 

what is your argument?
that laws against things flouted by the public are meaningless?
the laws have a very tangible effect of harassment upon the 
populace, and in fact the government might assert that 
enforcement is not necessarily the point. it may still be
that there are far fewer of these apartments than there
would be if such a thing was legal (actually, this seems
pretty obvious). the point is, even laws that are only
selectively enforced can be useful to the government. it
is true that imposing an absolute situation like censorship
may be impossible, but that doesn't mean that lack of
absolute enforcement is not useful to the government. as
others (TCM etc) have pointed out frequently, selective enforcement
is a very useful tool in the government arsenal.

in other words, you can't really make the argument that
you seem to be making (as I interpret it), that laws that
don't have good enforcement potential have no value to the
government. they may in fact accomplish exactly what the
government wants. I agree with you that they have poor
social value. the key is trying to get the government
in synch with the population. what you are pointing out 
in the core, I would say, is that a government out of tune
with the population is a society in the midst of a downward spiral.

> "During Fiscal 1996, the Government of the United States collected more
> taxes from the American people than any government had ever collected
> before in the history of mankind.  During Fiscal 1997, the Government of
> the United States plans to collect more taxes from the American people than
> any government has ever collected before in the history of mankind.  And
> still it's not enough."      
> 

I will not coment on the correctness of the U.S government's funding
allocations, however the above statement is clearly designed to be
deceptive. Given the GDP of the U.S as a whole during fiscal 1996 was
greater than that of any other country at any other time, including the
U.S in previous years (the U.S like most other countries has postive
growth), of course the absolute value of taxes collected will be larger.

-- 
"Of all tyrannies a tyranny sincerely  exercised for the good of its victims  
 may be the most  oppressive.  It may be better to live under  robber barons  
 than  under  omnipotent  moral busybodies,  The robber baron's  cruelty may  
 sometimes sleep,  his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who  
 torment us for own good  will torment us  without end,  for they do so with 
 the approval of their own conscience."    -   C.S. Lewis, _God in the Dock_ 
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