Scientology and the Net

Date: Tue, 4 Apr 1995 20:23:46 -0700
From: Phil Agre <pagre@weber.ucsd.edu>
To: rre@weber.ucsd.edu
Subject: Scientology and remailers

Date: Mon, 3 Apr 1995 13:34:14 -0400 (EDT)
From: Homer Wilson Smith <homer@math>
To: hkk@netcom.com
Cc: LRH-L <alt.religion.scientology@bull.com>,
    Remailer Operators List <Remailer-Operators@c2.org>,
    CLEAR-L <clear-l@vm.ucs.ualberta.ca>
Subject: HELENA KOBRIN CALLED ME TODAY...


     Dear Folks,
 
     I received a polite call from Ms.  Helena Kobrin today, legal
counsel for the Church of Scientology, concerning a recent post of
alleged Church copyrighted trade secrets through my Free Zone remailer
at homer@rahul.net
 
     She asked if I knew who posted it, and I told her that it had
been chained.  She also asked if I could cancel it, and I said no, but
I meant more that it would be politically inexpedient to cancel it,
rather than a physical impossibility.
 
     I told her that she could have it canceled, and she responded by
saying 'Well *I'm not canceling anything.' (not an exact quote.)

     I told her that I have placed my remailer into moderation mode
concerning a.r.s.  and a.c.t.  and all known gatesways leading to
them, including mail to news gateways, so that any future posts
through my remailer to these two groups will come to me for
consideration.

     I also directed her to my various responses to the posting along
the SCAMIZDAT subject thread.  I am highly annoyed that I have been
put in this position.
 
     I do not know what my proper course of action is.  I probably can
cancel the posting, I certainly would expect the Cancel Poodle IV to
do so, and frankly he has my blessings on this one.

     ...

     I just received a second call from Ms.  Kobrin.

     She asked me if I could tell her what remailer the posting came
to my remailer through.  I told her that she was pushing it asking for
that data.  We talked a bit about the present situation on the net and
possible solutions to it, but she was unwilling to discuss the various
strategies they are planning, and frankly I have no bright ideas about
how to stop the postings.

     She then pressed me on the subject of canceling the posting
again, and I said I would do it.  The posting will get reposted anyhow
over and over whether or not I cancel it, it has all already been
posted multiple times, so basically to show good faith, along with
moderation of the remailer, I have agreed to cancel the posting.

     Homer


---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Mon, 3 Apr 1995 15:07:17 -0400 (EDT)
From: Homer Wilson Smith <homer@math>
To: hkk@netcom.com
Cc: LRH-L <alt.religion.scientology@news.demon.co.uk>,
    Remailer Operators List <Remailer-Operators@c2.org>,
    CLEAR-L <clear-l@vm.ucs.ualberta.ca>
Subject: OPEN LETTER TO HELENA KOBRIN


     Dear Ms. Kobrin,
 
     You asked me for suggestions about what might be done concerning
the present 'sit' on the internet.  Here is one.

     I will be frank with you.  In the beginning the Church made a big
mistake by asking the remailer operators to block access to the two
news groups entirely.  This enraged nearly everyone, even people who
might have otherwise sided with the the Church.

     The need of people to recount their stories and viewpoints
anonymously and in safety is an overriding valid use of the remailers,
and certainly morally overrides any financial concern over corporate
copyrights and trade secrets.  Put bluntly when it comes to a choice
between the good of the people and the good of big business, the
people will always win out, at least when the people are in control as
they are on the internet.

     However this is not to say that the corporate concerns are not
valid too, and thus it behooves us to find a middle ground wherein the
corporate concerns are considered as well, without trampling the
people underfoot.
 
     Here is my suggestion.

     Consider writing a letter again to the various remailer operators
and ask them to do what I have done with the two groups, which is NOT
to block them entirely but to place them in moderation mode.  This
means all postings going to the two groups through their remailers, BY
WHATEVER MEANS including mail to news gateways, will end up in their
personal mail, to be scanned for obvious copyright violations and
rejected if they don't want to be responsible for posting them.  If
one of them reposts something that is over the edge, you must promise
to not hold them liable, and in return they would promise to cancel it
at your direct AND PUBLIC request.  That's a very fair deal.  Those
rejecting it would do so at their own risk.

     This idea will certainly not go over well with many of the
remailer operators, many of them feel that any oversight at all on
postings going through their remailers makes them defacto responsible
for all postings that go through.  They are, for obvious reasons,
trying to maintain 'common carrier' status, which in fact they legally
do not actually have.

     However such a request on your part will help you maintain the
high moral ground, it will show good faith negotiation when you come
in front of the Judges, it will mostly likely be looked upon with
approval by the EFF, and it will not unduly block the overriding valid
uses of the remailers.
 
     Some of the remailers will choose to comply, and this will limit
the number of sources that are giving you headaches.  Some of the
remailers will literally be unable to comply, because their code does
not support moderation mode, and others will simply refuse for reasons
of their own.
 
     However the Church will win the wider approval of the internet
community for this approach and possibly heal some of the damage for
their first approach of requesting total blocking and trying to remove
the group altogether, if indeed that was the Church or those working
for the Church who did this.

     I believe that the present situation of anarchy on the a.r.s.
scene can not long continue.  On one hand you have people posting
anonymously things that allegedly violate the Church's rights, but on
the other hand you have people canceling just as anonymously anything
that even vaguely looks like LRH wrote it.  This can only lead to
spite postings and escalation of the war to other newsgroups.

     Neither side is taking full responsibility for the bombs going
off, but both sides are sort of silently approving of those that at
leas go off in the 'enemies camp'.

     If instead you initiated a FORMAL PUBLIC PROTOCOL by which
postings could be declared copyrighted, and the remailer operators
could be asked to either moderate or cancel after the fact, and the
rights of normal people to post anonymously were not hindered in any
way, and all this were above ground and not laden with legal presssure
and threats, the Church might find a working relationship that would
benefit them in the end.

     I am not sure there will ever be a total solution to copyright
violations on the net, and trade secrets can only stay secret just so
long.  It is quite possible that the time is up for Church trade
secrets no matter what you do.  On the other hand the NO RESPECT
situation on the net is way out of hand, and that is the single most
dangerous factor that is influencing people's behavior in present
time.

     My suggestion however is to form a WORKING, INTERACTIVE
relationship of mutual respect and cooperation with the PEOPLE on the
net, and the PEOPLE who oppose you.  The Church may not get everything
that they want, but they will most certainly get more than they are
getting now.

     Homer

     P.S. Please remember that all private communication between us will
be immediately posted verbatim to the net.  That is one non negotiable
condition for continued cooperative communication.

     H.W.S. 


----------- Forwarded mail------------------
From homer@math Mon Apr  3 23:07:08 1995
Date: Mon, 3 Apr 1995 23:07:07 -0400 (EDT)
From: Homer Wilson Smith <homer@math>
Subject: HELENA KOBRIN CALLS 3rd TIME... (fwd)

     I recevied a 3rd call from Ms. Helena Kobrin.  She was interested
in talking me into giving them the name of the earlier remailer that
the posting SCAMIZDAT #3 came through.
 
     I explained that my sworn written policy was that such data would
only be given out with a court order.  She mentioned that this could
get 'expensive' for me.
 
     I told her I have no choice in the matter, my reputation would
be destroyed on the net if I renegged on the written statement in
my remailer intro.  'This is SACROSANCT'. 
 
     The whole matter of why I keep logs comes up again.  The primary
justification for doing so, besides an effort to be somewhat responsible
with a loaded gun, is the fact that Rahul Dehsi keeps sendmail logs like
most systems do.  Thus if I am pestered to forward a complaint to a
sender, which is reasonable, I can forestall people from bothering Rahul
with it, because I have the data at hand.  Ms. Kobrin pointed out that if
I do not cooperate with handing over the sender's address, it will end up
on Rahul's desk anyhow. 
 
     I don't know what Rahul will do, he won't appreciate the
situation, fortunately we will be leaving Rahul shortly for our
own site.  Whether I will be running a remailer there, I really don't
know.  This is creating serious PTSness for me.

     In any case, finding the posting FOR SURE that came into me
that eventually went to a.r.s. from the send mail logs will be
dicey at best because the To: line will say homer@rahul.net, the
sendmail logs do not record the Anon-To: a.r.s. etc.
 
     Secondly by now, I am sure most of the remailer operators
have burned their logs since they know a posse if coming for them.

     Anyhow even if me and Ms. Kobrin do the 'expense tango', they
will merely get a name of another remailer and they will go bother
them.  Most remailers do not keep logs, many not even send mail logs, and
the probabilities are very high that they will run into a blank wall.
However they will use the data to further harass the remailers in turn
to get to the earlier remailer.  The end result will be the harassment
of the remailer operators, and not the original poster.  

     Which is why SOME solution to this problem must be found and fast,
lest the entire remailer network go out of existence.
 
     So I am sort of on the firing line.  Again.  There is no easy way out
of this one, although I told her that if she got a court order or
something signed by a real judge I would hand over the name of the prior
remailer.  Of course I might have gotten the name wrong, or the prior
remailer could even have been a total forge.  In any case its almost sure
that there will be no logs at that remailer, as I am the only remailer
that I know that keeps logs, for just such an occasion.  A lot of good it
is doing me. 
 
     Homer


------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Homer Wilson Smith                                                  ART MATRIX
homer@rahul.net                                                      FRACTALS!
(607) 277-0959                                     http://www.rahul.net/homer/