An exchange with Cancelmoose[tm]

[David Farber <farber@central.cis.upenn.edu>]

Posted-Date: Mon, 9 Jan 1995 01:14:27 -0500
To: farber@central.cis.upenn.edu
From: an48985@anon.penet.fi (Cancelmoose[tm])
X-Anonymously-To: an51851
Organization: Anonymous contact service
Reply-To: an48985@anon.penet.fi
Date: Mon,  9 Jan 1995 05:27:30 UTC
Subject: Re: SF Examiner:


[ > are comments I sent to Cancelmoose  djf]


> You are not engaged (yet) in a restriction of free speech
> and I can support your attitude and actions.


Thank you. I have worked long and hard to make sure that this doens't
interfere with free speech.  All of the traditional media's articles
have had gross errors, accusing me of things like:


* Not letting Wolff get a word in edgewise.  [In truth, I take special
care to make sure that I'm not cancelling non-spam articles from the
same sender.]


* Sending him threatening email from "himself".  [I've never sent him
any sort of email.]


* Being a cracker.  [Cancel messages do not require breaking security
systems.  While the cancels are forgeries, they are also clearly
labeled as to what they are.]


> What worries
> me is that it will, in fact , given our society soon
> devolve (in my opinion) into cancelrobots that will attach
> neo-facist, gay, democrat, conservative or any of a vast
> number of things which some folk determine is "not proper".
> Pretty soon the net will be useless as a Hyde Park.


This is already happening in alt.religion.scientology-- some
scientologists at netcom seem to be cancelling church-critical
messages. Supposedly netcom is looking into this.


Cancelbot wars has always been at threat.  I have discussed these
issues in depth on news.admin.misc-- the basic consensus is that if a
few small companies get away with "free" advertising to millions of
people, it won't be long until lots of small and large companies want
the same coverage.  I don't think it takes much imagination to figure
out what will happen if C&S-esque spams become commonplace.  If
companies recieve a lot of complaints, but also a few customers, some
may consider this worthwhile, and repeat it.


> What do you suggest as the way out of that highly likely future.


To be honest I think the solution will come with new versions of the
news transport mechanism.  I envision anti-spamming techniques and
control message authentication to be part of the next generation of
news.


As I've said in the past-- Spam cancelling is a very poor solution,
but it's all we've got to hold the net together until these changes
come.


(cm)
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