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EFFector Online 07.02 Jan. 25, 1994 editors@eff.org
=========================================================================
A Publication of the Electronic Frontier Foundation ISSN 1062-9424
In This Issue:
--------------
Senate FTP Site Online
Public Hearings on Privacy in DC
WUTC Inquiry Comments Due Jan. 31 - Info Available Via FTP
EFF Seeking Volunteer MOO Programmer for "Virtual Office"
A Study of National Cryptography Policy
EDGAR Database Available
Information Infrastructure Task Force Announces BBS
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Subject: Senate FTP Site Online
-------------------------------
A new FTP site has been put online to hold the publicly available documents
and press releases of our Senators.
Chris Casey of the office of Sen. Edward
Kennedy says "Some progress is being made here on the Hill. The Senate now
has an anonymous ftp server running. It's sparsely populated, only Kennedy
and Stevens have posted anything so far, but I imagine the rest will
find their way shortly. At least it's a start. The fact that the Senate
has an anonymous ftp server is not a secret, but I don't think it's widely
known either."
You can access the server by FTPing to ftp.senate.gov, logging in as
"anonymous" (without the quotes) and giving your email address as password.
The site's general information bulletin is as follows:
Welcome to the United States Senate's Anonymous FTP Server
(ftp.senate.gov). This service is provided by the Office of the
U.S. Senate Sergeant at Arms and the Senate Committee on Rules
and Administration.
This server contains general information files about the United States
Senate in the directory "general". Directories are also provided for
specific Senators' offices, in alphabetical order by two-letter state
abbreviations, and for Senate committees and other Senate offices. If
an office is not included in the directory, this indicates no files
have been posted by that office.
No files can be uploaded to this system. Please direct questions about
a specific Senate office's use of this service to the Senate office in
question. General inquiries not involving a specific Senate office can
be directed via Internet e-mail to: ftpadmin@scc.senate.gov
Subdirectories for Senator's offices are structured as follows:
/member/state_abbrev./senator's_name/releases/filename
or
/member/state_abbrev./senator's_name/general/filename
The "releases" subdirectories contain press releases and related materials,
and "general" subdirectories contain information of long-term interest such
as office contacts.
As of Jan. 24, 1994, the site was not being used very extensively, but
individual Senators' directories contained various informational files,
such as the following:
Ted Stevens (AK):
member/ak/stevens/releases
-rw-r--r-- 1 1 1321 Jan 21 16:16 Childhood_Immunizations
-rw-r--r-- 1 1 828 Jan 21 16:16 Inman_Statement
-rw-r--r-- 1 1 3152 Jan 05 11:45 Ketchikan_Subcontractors
-rw-r--r-- 1 1 3488 Jan 21 16:16 Seafood_Inspection
-rw-r--r-- 1 1 1910 Jan 21 16:17 new_staff
-rw-r--r-- 1 1 1661 Jan 21 16:17 tongass_timber
Edward Kennedy (MA):
member/ma/kennedy/general
-rw-r--r-- 1 1 138842 Jan 13 13:49 S1150_Goals_2000
-rw-r--r-- 1 1 1011 Dec 13 15:04 on-line_access
-rw-r--r-- 1 1 133477 Dec 27 10:08 s1040.txt
member/ma/kennedy/releases
-rw-r--r-- 1 1 3591 Jan 14 15:23 Human_Radiation_Experimentation
-rw-r--r-- 1 1 1664 Jan 05 11:11 Statement_on_Firearms_Proposal
-rw-r--r-- 1 1 16188 Dec 15 14:19 major_accomplishment_93
-rw-r--r-- 1 1 14523 Jan 13 11:58 national_health_reform_debate
-rw-r--r-- 1 1 1298 Dec 15 14:18 worker_retraining_grant
Please express your interest in this first small step, and encourage your
Senators to utilize this new Congressional Internet resource. Ask your
Representatives to look into the possibility of a similar system for the
House.
------------------------------
Subject: Public Hearings on Privacy in DC
-----------------------------------------
US OFFICE OF CONSUMER AFFAIRS
PUBLIC HEARINGS ON INFORMATION AGE PRIVACY
Washington, DC: January 26-27, 1994.
Public Invited to Participate.
Representatives from the public, private and non-profit
sectors will present their views on personal privacy and data
protection in the information age at public hearings of a U.S.
Government task force in early 1994.
The hearings will be open meetings of the Privacy Working
Group, chaired by Patricia Faley, Acting Director of the United
States Office of Consumer Affairs (USOCA). The Working Group is
part of a task force set up by the Clinton Administration to
consider how to spur development of an "information
superhighway." Officially known as the National Information
Infrastructure (NII), the "data highway" will be capable of
exchanging data, voice and images electronically within a vast
network of individuals, businesses, government agencies and other
organizations around the world. Ensuring ready access to
information is the goal of the Administrative initiative, but
protecting individual privacy is essential to its success.
The public meeting will examine privacy issues relating to
such areas as law enforcement, financial services, information
technology, and direct marketing. The previous California meeting,
January 10th and llth, was hosted by Jim Conran (Director,
California Department of Consumer Affairs) in Sacramento
The Washington, DC meeting, January 26th and 27th, will be held at the U.S.
Department of Commerce Auditorium, 14th & Constitution Ave. NW.
Registration begins at 8:30am, meetings at 9am.
The public is invited to attend, question speakers and to
make brief comments, but space is limited. Concise written
statements for the record should be sent to "Privacy," USOCA,
1620 L Street NW, Washington DC 20036 or faxed to (202)634-4135.
United States Office of Comumer Affairs
1620 L Street NW
Washington, D.C. 20036-5605
Contact:
George Idelson (USOCA)
+1 202 634 4344
Patricia Faley (USOCA)
+1 202 634 4329
------------------------------
Subject: WUTC Inquiry Comments Due Jan. 31 - Info Available Via FTP
-------------------------------------------------------------------
The Washington State Utilities and Transportation Commission
has launched a public inquiry on how to regulate the
telecommunications industry during the transition to effective
competition. As part of this investigation, Commission staff has
prepared a discussion paper which explores developing trends in
communications technology and market structure and defines basic
policy objectives that a new telecommunications regulatory
structure should accomplish.
Traditionally, Commission inquiries have been open to the
public but have rarely gone beyond comment from the regulated
industries and their major customers. The discussion paper
contends that "in a converged marketplace, local telephone
service will inevitably become simply one component of a multi-
media service package." Thus, the Commission is actively seeking
a wider range of comment from existing and potential
communication network providers as well as informed consumers.
Since the scope of the communications industry has changed,
regulatory arrangements that have been structured around these
formally discrete markets must also change. The discussion paper
calls for a new regulatory paradigm -- eventually "shifting
attention away from corporate earnings and service pricing toward
fair interconnection, common carriage and consumer protection."
The discussion paper, "Alternative Regulation of U S West:
Toward a New Paradigm" eschews the current popular fascination
with specific technology deployments. Instead of defining an
outcome where customers pay for services they may not want, the
Commission's paper believes the state should foster a
communications marketplace where the customer has a wide array of
choices from competitive providers. Essentially, the message is
that the ultimate and only bottleneck should be the limitations
of the human mind.
However, in the short term, the Commission's investigation
seeks a new regulatory plan for the state's largest telephone
company U S West -- envisioning this new regulatory plan as a
major component to ensuring fair and effective competition.
First round of comments are due by January 31, 1994.
The Notice of Inquiry, with the associated discussion paper
on the Alternative Form of Regulation, is available via anonymous
FTP on the Internet. Connect to the host at:
FTP.GOVT.WASHINGTON.EDU,
cd to the directory: /wutc, then:
for the ascii text version, get
NOI_ON_THE_AFOR.txt
for a WordPerfect version, switch mode to Binary and get
NOI_ON_THE_AFOR.wp51
Hard copies can be acquired by sending a request with a postal
address to wutcpol1@wln.com. The Commission is requesting that
formal comment be submitted both in hard copy and on disk in
electronic form; and is requesting permission to post comments.
Please share this posting with others in your organization.
Washington Utilities and Transportation Commission
1300 S. Evergreen Park Dr. S.W.
P.O. Box 47250
Olympia, WA 98504-7250
------------------------------
Subject: EFF Seeking Volunteer MOO Programmer for "Virtual Office"
------------------------------------------------------------------
EFF will be setting up a "virtual office" on Steve Jackson Games' "Metaverse"
MOO (Multi-User-Domain, Object Oriented, a type of text-based
"virtual reality" simulation), part of SJG's Illuminati Online service.
This virtual office should provide EFF information and documents and allow
people to join EFF by downloading an online membership form. Other more
advanced features may be added in the future. This is a serious project,
as Metaverse is not a game like some MOOs but an honest attempt at real-time
VR interaction online.
In accordance with this goal, EFF is seeking an experienced volunteer MOO
programmer who can get such a "virtual office" up and running in short order,
and who is willing to maintain and extend this section of Metaverse in the
future to keep it updated and increasingly useful and interesting.
This position will not be paid, but the programmer will receive an
more-or-less unlimited account on both Metaverse and Illuminati Online
(io.com), which is quite a deal, as this includes a full Internet account,
with email, news, and more. The postition does not include an account on
eff.org, as this would be irrelevant to the virtual office maintenance.
Interested parties, please send a resume of relevant experience to
Stanton McCandlish , EFF's Online Activist.
------------------------------
From: "Herb Lin"
Subject: A Study of National Cryptography Policy
------------------------------------------------
[Please forward this message to any individual or mailing list
that you believe should receive it. Many thanks.]
As part of the Defense Authorization Bill for FY 1994, the U.S. Congress
has asked the Computer Science and Telecommunications Board
(CSTB) of the National Research Council (NRC) to undertake a study of
national policy with respect to the use and regulation of cryptography.
The report of the study committee is due two years after all necessary
security clearances have been processed, probably sometime summer
1996, and is subject to NRC review procedures. The legislation
states that 120 days after the day on which the report is submitted to
the Secretary of Defense, the Secretary shall submit the report to the
Committees on Armed Services, Intelligence, Commerce, and the
Judiciary of the Senate and House of Representatives in unclassified
form, with classified annexes as necessary.
This study is expected to address the appropriate balance in cryptography policy
among various national interests (e.g., U.S. economic competitiveness
(especially with respect to export controls), national security, law
enforcement, and the protection of the privacy rights of individuals),
and the strength of various cryptographic technologies known today
and anticipated in the future that are relevant for commercial
purposes. The federal process through which national cryptography
policy has been formulated is also expected to be a topic of
consideration, and, if appropriate, the project will address
recommendations for improving the formulation of national
cryptographic policy in the future.
This project, like other NRC projects, will depend heavily on input
from industry, academia, and other communities in the concerned
public. Apart from the study committee (described below), briefings
and consultations from interested parties will be arranged and others
will be involved as anonymous peer reviewers.
It is expected that the study committee will be a high-level group that
will command credibility and respect across the range of government,
academic, commercial, and private interests. The committee will
include members with expertise in areas such as:
- relevant computer and communications technology;
- cryptographic technologies and cryptanalysis;
- foreign, national security, and intelligence affairs;
- law enforcement;
- commercial interests; and
- privacy and consumer interests.
All committee members (and associated staff) will have to be cleared
at the "SI/TK" level; provisions have been made to expedite the
processing of security clearances for those who do not currently have
them. Committee members will be chosen for their stature, expertise,
and seniority in their fields; their willingness to listen and consider
fairly other points of view; and their ability to contribute to the
formulation of consensus positions. The committee as a whole will
be chosen to reflect the range of judgment and opinion on the subject
under consideration.
Finally, some people have expressed concern about the fact that the
project will involve consideration of classified material. Arguments
can and have been made on both sides of this point, but in any event
this particular ground rule was established by the U.S. Congress, not
by the CSTB. Whether one agrees or disagrees with the asserted
need for classification, the task at hand is to do the best possible job
given this constraint.
On the National Research Council
The National Research Council (NRC) is the operating arm of the
Academy complex, which includes the National Academy of Sciences,
the National Academy of Engineering, and the Institute of Medicine.
The NRC is a source of impartial and independent advice to the
federal government and other policy makers that is able to bring to
bear the best scientific and technical talent in the nation to answer
questions of national significance. In addition, it often acts as a
neutral party in convening meetings among multiple stakeholders on
any given issue, thereby facilitating the generation of consensus on
controversial issues.
The Computer Science and Telecommunications Board (CSTB) of the
NRC considers technical and policy issues pertaining to computer
science, telecommunications, and associated technologies. CSTB
monitors the health of the computer science, computing technology,
and telecommunications fields, including attention as appropriate to
the issues of human resources and information infrastructure and
initiates studies involving computer science, computing technology,
and telecommunications as critical resources and sources of national
economic strength. A list of CSTB publications is available on
request. Email: CSTB@NAS.EDU
------------------------------
From: Carl Malamud, Internet Multicasting Service
Subject: EDGAR Database Available
---------------------------------
The preliminary Internet release of the EDGAR database is
now available from town.hall.org, as well as 1993 data from
the Federal Reserve Board. The initial release of information
supports the electronic mail and anonymous FTP interfaces.
For anonymous FTP, use your FTP software to go to town.hall.org
and log in as "anonymous." Enter your electronic mail address
for the password. Look in the edgar directory for the file named
general.txt and read it.
If you are using electronic mail, send mail to mail@town.hall.org
and enter the word "HELP" in the body of the message. You will
receive back a copy of the general help text. If you would like
the general information on EDGAR, you would enter the following
command in the body of the message:
send edgar/general.txt
Easy enough? You bet! This initial release of information is
rough and ready ... don't expect a huge amount of user support
or navigational aids. Over the next few months, we'll be
adding gopher and WWW interfaces, full text searching and
Z39.50 searches, improved navigational and summary files,
and a variety of other user-friendly services.
*** BECAUSE THIS IS A RESEARCH PROJECT YOU SHOULD EXPECT
THE DATA FORMATS TO CHANGE, THE ACCESS METHODS TO
CHANGE, AND YOU SHOULD EXPECT FLUCTUATIONS IN THE
NUMBERS AND TYPES OF USERS AND SERVICES SUPPORTED.
DO NOT BECOME ADDICTED TO YOUR FAVORITE PROTOCOL OR
YOU MAY HAVE TO GO COLD TURKEY. THIS DATA IS PROVIDED
*** AS-IS WITH NO WARRANTIES OR GAURANTEES OF ANY KIND.
This project is by funded by a grant from the National Science Foundation
to the New York University School of Business in conjunction with the
Internet Multicasting Service. Additional support for this project
has been provided by Sun Microsystems and UUNET Technologies.
To learn about the Internet Multicasting Service, send your mail
to info@radio.com.
------------------------------
Subject: Information Infrastructure Task Force Announces BBS
------------------------------------------------------------
Larry Irving, Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Communications and
Information announced today the Information Infrastructure Task Force
(IITF) Secretariat has begun operating a computer bulletin board system to
provide public access to IITF and other National Information Infrastructure
(NII) related documents, including IITF schedules, committee reports and
minutes of meetings.
"Our goal is to make government information available and easily accessible
to the public," stated Larry Irving. "As we move towards our goal of
rapidly expanding our national information infrastructure, we want to
ensure that the public is kept aware of our activities."
The Information Infrastructure Task Force (IITF) Bulletin Board may be
reached through Internet or by calling +1 202 501 1920 using a personal
computer and a telephone modem. The bulletin board is available to the
public 24 hours each day, seven days a week.
For access through Internet, point your Gopher client to iitf.doc.gov or
telnet to iitf.doc.gov and login as gopher. Comments may be sent by e-mail
to nii@ntia.doc.gov.
For telephone access, call +1 202 501 1920. Modem communication parameters
should be set at no parity, 8 data bits and 1 stop (N,8,1). The bulletin
board modem operates at speeds up to 14,400 bps. If the above number is
busy, the same information may be accessed by calling +1 202 482 1199 and
choosing the IITF item on the menu.
When dialing in for the first time, you will be prompted for your name,
location and terminal type. It is recommended that you select VT-100 as
your terminal type.
After you have logged-in, you can choose to read or download information
stored under the subject areas listed below.
Frequently Asked Questions
Directory/Points of Contact
Press Releases
Schedules/Calendar of Events
IITF Committee Reports and Minutes
Documents/Papers
Selected Legislation
If you have any questions, contact Charlie Franz, Dan Davis or Art
Altenburg at +1 202 482 1835 (e-mail cfranz@ntia.doc.gov).
Press contact: Larry Williams +1 202 482 1551
------------------------------
Subject: What You Can Do
------------------------
"New media, like any chaotic system, are highly sensitive to initial
conditions. Today's heuristical answers of the moment become tomorrow's
permanent institutions of both law and expectation."
-John Perry Barlow, "Crime & Puzzlement"
The decisions and precedents set today as the legal and social standards
for online communications will affect our online futures indefinitely.
Don't let them be set by default. Educate yourself and shape your future.
Join EFF.
The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) is working with legislators to
make sure that principles guaranteeing free speech, privacy and affordable
service to consumers are written into new communications legislation. Rep.
Edward Markey (D-MA) has already incorporated much of EFF's Open Platform
vision into his NII proposal (H.R. 3636). But the fight is not yet won.
The only way to make sure that future networks will serve *you* is to
become involved. Join EFF and receive regular updates on what's happening
and action alerts when immediate action becomes critical.
------------------------------
MEMBERSHIP IN THE ELECTRONIC FRONTIER FOUNDATION
================================================
Print out in monospaced (non-proportional) font and mail to:
Membership Coordinator
Electronic Frontier Foundation
1001 G Street NW, Suite 950 East
Washington DC 20001 USA
SIGN ME UP!
-----------
I wish to become a member of the Electronic Frontier Foundation. I enclose:
___ Regular membership -- $40
___ Student membership -- $20
Special Contribution
I wish to make an additional tax-deductible donation in the amount of
$__________ to further support the activities of EFF and to broaden
participation in the organization.
PAYMENT METHOD:
---------------
___ Enclosed is a check or money order payable to
the Electronic Frontier Foundation.
___ Please charge my:
___ MasterCard ___ Visa ___ American Express
Card Number: _____________________________________________
Expiration Date: _________________________________________
Signature: _______________________________________________
NOTE: We do not recommend sending credit card information via email!
YOUR CONTACT INFORMATION:
-------------------------
Name: __________________________________________________________
Organization: __________________________________________________
Address: _______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
Phone: _____________________
FAX: _____________________
BBS: _____________________ BBS Name: ____________________
E-mail addresses: ______________________________________________
______________________________________________
PREFERRED CONTACT
___ Electronic: Please contact me via the Internet address listed above.
I would like to receive the following at that address:
___ EFFector Online - EFF's biweekly electronic newsletter
(back issues available from ftp.eff.org,
pub/EFF/Newsletters/EFFector).
___ Online Bulletins - bulletins on key developments
affecting online communications.
NOTE: Traffic may be high. You may wish to browse these
publications in the Usenet newsgroup comp.org.eff.news (also
available in FidoNet, as EFF-NEWS).
___ Paper: Please contact me through the US Mail at the street
address listed above.
NOTE: Paper documents available upon request.
"Networks & Policy" Newsletter automatically sent via US Mail.
PRIVACY POLICY
--------------
EFF occasionally shares our mailing list with other organizations promoting
similar goals. However, we respect an individual's right to privacy and
will not distribute your name without explicit permission.
___ I grant permission for the EFF to distribute my name and contact
information to organizations sharing similar goals.
This form came from EFFector Online (please leave this line on the form!)
The Electronic Frontier Foundation is a nonprofit, 501(c)(3) organization
supported by contributions from individual members, corporations and
private foundations. Donations are tax-deductible.
------------------------------
INTERNET CONTACT ADDRESSES
==========================
Membership & donations: membership@eff.org
Legal services: ssteele@eff.org
Hardcopy publications: pubs@eff.org
Online publications, conferences, & other resources: mech@eff.org
Technical questions/problems, access to mailing lists: eff@eff.org
General EFF, legal, or policy questions: ask@eff.org
End of EFFector Online v07 #02
******************************
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