IP: the Net in Cuba

[Dave Farber <farber@cis.upenn.edu>]

>To: farber@cis.upenn.edu
>From: Esther Dyson <edyson@edventure.com>
>Subject: the Net in Cuba
>Date: 27 Dec 2000 08:31:15 -0500
>
>Actually, it's from the Washington Post, but here's where I got it (fair-use
>amount only):
>
>http://www.iht.com/articles/5473.html
>
>Laptop Brigade: Cuba's New Rebels
>Scott Wilson Washington Post Service  Wednesday, December 27, 2000
>Under Castro, Going Online Without Permission Is Out of Line
>
>HAVANA A new rebel has emerged in Cuba: the Internet guerrilla.
>.
>His laptop case has replaced the beret as the signature of revolution among
>thousands of mostly young male professionals, who through subversive cunning
>have become nearly as wired as anyone in the world despite Cuban law
>prohibiting unauthorized private Internet use.
>.
>Known among themselves as informaticos, they represent resistance to a
>government that has sought to stifle the flow of information since the
>revolution four decades ago.
>.
>Encouraged by tentative government steps to wire the country, the growing
>number of Cubans who ignore official prohibitions to look at foreign news
>pages, listen to pirate music sites and browse computer training courses
>online are hastening Cuba's plodding journey into the information age.
>.
>"I'm a member of the generation born just after the revolution," said an
>engineer, 31, who like other illegal Internet users agreed to speak only on
>condition of anonymity. "We all saw the giant Soviet mainframe computers
>linked together that did so little. The PC and Internet are new, independent
>ways of thinking. "To us, Bill Gates and Linus Torvalds are gurus," he
>added, referring to the Microsoft chief and the creator of the Linux
>operating system. After watching the flow of information help to fuel the
>Soviet Union's disintegration, Cuba's Communist government has clamped down
>on Internet technology.......



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