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Netizens-Digest Volume 1 Number 302
Netizens-Digest Friday, May 21 1999 Volume 01 : Number 302
Netizens Association Discussion List Digest
In this issue:
[netz] Why Not Stop the Bombing?
[netz] Correction: Why Not Stop the Bombing of Yugoslavia?
[netz] Re: <nettime> US shuts down Yugoslav Internet - For immediate release
Re: [netz] Re: <nettime> US shuts down Yugoslav Internet - For immediate release
[netz] US May Pull Belgrade Bandwidth (US/Balkans)
[netz] Cone of Silence: ICANN or Internet Democracy failing
[netz] FCC: U.S. FCC seeks good way to separate cable, Internet
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Wed, 12 May 1999 15:34:53 -0400 (EDT)
From: Jay Hauben <jay@dorsai.org>
Subject: [netz] Why Not Stop the Bombing?
embassy, it must bomb other Chinese targets. YUK!
On Sunday I went to Riverside Church for a meeting of NYC peace groups. Even
there there was some ambiguity of how to show sympathy for the Albanian
Yogoslavs while calling for stopping the bombing but at least everyone
there wanted to see the bombing stop.
This Saturday there will be another stop the bombing march. This time through
NYC Chinatown to show solidarity to the Chinese who feel they were attacked in
this war too. Someone in Belgrade said that the US military didn't want there
to be a negotiated settlement and so bombed the Chinese embassy to derail
the diplomatic efforts. Throughout the world even in Taiwan there have been
anti US demos by people of Chinese ancestry. Throughout China, workers in
Macdonalds and Kentucky Fried Chicken are refusing to go to work in protest
but also because most of these symbols of the US have been the target of
major protest demos. Most of these people have been looking to the US as an
example for the direction of their own country and now can only be upset
that this has happened to Chinese journalists.
Anyway these are hard times but people are finding ways to be active
and to express their horror at the bombing.
Take care
Jay
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 12 May 1999 22:58:03 -0400 (EDT)
From: Jay Hauben <jay@dorsai.org>
Subject: [netz] Correction: Why Not Stop the Bombing of Yugoslavia?
My last message lost its first paragraph. Here is the whole message. -- Jay
- --------------------------------------
Hi,
I have been to four war related events. The latest one was a
panel of scholars that made strong analyses that the bombing is a
great disaster. But they argued, now that it has started, it must
be continued! I asked why do they say that. They said because
there is no way NATO could hide that it has lost and stopping the
bombing would be an acknowledgment that the US new world order
was not working! It was scary because these were perhaps some of
the best scholars who might be able to make input to the
government. Why can't or shouldn't the US government acknowledge
that the continued bombing can in no way be helpful? By the
scholars' reasoning, now that the US has bombed the Chinese
embassy it must bomb other Chinese targets. YUK!
On Sunday I went to Riverside Church for a meeting of NYC peace
groups. Even there there was some ambiguity of how to show
sympathy for the Albanian Yugoslavs while calling for stopping
the bombing but at least everyone there wanted to see the bombing
stop.
This Saturday there will be another stop the bombing march. This
time through Chinatown to show solidarity to the Chinese who feel
they were attacked in this war too. Some one in Belgrade said
that the US military didn't want there to be a negotiated
settlement and so bombed the Chinese embassy to derail the
diplomatic efforts. Throughout the world even in Taiwan there
have been anti US demos by people of Chinese ancestry. Through
out China, workers in Macdonalds and Kentucky Fried Chicken are
refusing to go to work in protest but also because most of these
symbols of the US have been the target of major protest demos.
Most of these people have been looking to the US as an example
for the direction of their own country and now can only be upset
that this has happened to Chinese journalist.
Anyway these are hard times but people are finding ways to be
active and to express their horror at the bombing.
Take care
Jay
------------------------------
Date: Thu, 13 May 1999 09:43:32 -0400 (EDT)
From: Jay Hauben <jay@dorsai.org>
Subject: [netz] Re: <nettime> US shuts down Yugoslav Internet - For immediate release
>From: aca@beonet.yu (A. Krstanovic)
>Subject: US shuts down Yugoslav Internet - For immediate release
Dear sirs,
We have reliable information that the US Government ordered Loral Orion
company to shut down its satellite feeds for Internet customers in
Yugoslavia.
This action might be taken as soon as later tonight or tomorrow (May 12 or
13, 1999).
This is a flagrant violation of commercial contracts with Yugoslav ISPs,
as well as an attack on freedom of the Internet.
A Web site in protest of these actions should be up shortly. We will
supply you with the URL. In the meantime, please be so kind to inform as
many people as possible about this tragic event for the Internet community
in Yugoslavia and Europe.
Kind regards,
BeoNET
Belgrade, Yugoslavia
http://www.beonet.yu
- ---
# distributed via nettime-l : no commercial use without permission
# <nettime> is a closed moderated mailinglist for net criticism,
# collaborative text filtering and cultural politics of the nets
# more info: majordomo@desk.nl and "info nettime-l" in the msg body
# URL: http://www.desk.nl/~nettime/ contact: nettime-owner@desk.nl
------------------------------
Date: Thu, 13 May 1999 14:41:01 -0400 (EDT)
From: Luis G de Quesada <lgd1@columbia.edu>
Subject: Re: [netz] Re: <nettime> US shuts down Yugoslav Internet - For immediate release
On Thu, 13 May 1999, Jay Hauben wrote:
> >From: aca@beonet.yu (A. Krstanovic)
> >Subject: US shuts down Yugoslav Internet - For immediate release
>
> Dear sirs,
>
> We have reliable information that the US Government ordered Loral Orion
> company to shut down its satellite feeds for Internet customers in
> Yugoslavia.
>
> This action might be taken as soon as later tonight or tomorrow (May 12 or
> 13, 1999).
>
> This is a flagrant violation of commercial contracts with Yugoslav ISPs,
> as well as an attack on freedom of the Internet.
>
> A Web site in protest of these actions should be up shortly. We will
> supply you with the URL. In the meantime, please be so kind to inform as
> many people as possible about this tragic event for the Internet community
> in Yugoslavia and Europe.
>
> Kind regards,
> BeoNET
> Belgrade, Yugoslavia
>
> http://www.beonet.yu
>
> ---
> # distributed via nettime-l : no commercial use without permission
> # <nettime> is a closed moderated mailinglist for net criticism,
> # collaborative text filtering and cultural politics of the nets
> # more info: majordomo@desk.nl and "info nettime-l" in the msg body
> # URL: http://www.desk.nl/~nettime/ contact: nettime-owner@desk.nl
>
Hello Everyone: If this information is true, it seems our government is
conducting different forms of "Serbian Cleansing", which is as heinous
as Milosevic's ethnic or Albanian cleansing in Kosovo! Two wrongs never
make a right, but it seems our government doesn't think so!
Lou D.
------------------------------
Date: Thu, 13 May 1999 22:06:56
From: John Walker <jwalker@networx.on.ca>
Subject: [netz] US May Pull Belgrade Bandwidth (US/Balkans)
The CSS Internet News (tm) is a daily e-mail publication that
has been providing up to date information to Netizens since 1996.
Subscription information is available at:
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The following is an excerpt from the CSS Internet News. If you are
going to pass this along to other Netizens please ensure that the
complete message is forwarded with all attributes intact.
NOTE: Registrations for the On-line Learning Series of Courses
for June 99 are now being accepted. Information is available at:
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- ------------
US May Pull Belgrade Bandwidth (US/Balkans)
Leander Kahney
12:00 p.m. 13.May.99.PDT
http://www.wired.com/news/news/politics/story/19671.html
A crucial satellite link to Yugoslavia's Internet may be severed to
comply with a United States government embargo.
Under the trade embargo signed this month by President Clinton, US
satellite carrier Loral Orion may be ordered to drop a satellite
uplink arrangement that supplies bandwidth to two of the country's
major Internet service providers (ISPs).
Mac Jeffery, a spokesman for Loral Orion's parent, Loral Space and
Communications, said the company is still in talks with The US
Treasury Department.
Jeffery is cautiously optimistic the link will be kept open.
"It hasn't been ruled on yet but we think the government will agree
we shouldn't shut down Internet service," he said. "It ain't over
until it's over ... but preliminary talks indicate we'll keep it on
the air."
The loss of the link could cripple the country's fragile Internet
infrastructure. As previously reported, the Yugoslavian Net relies
on only four links to get news and information out of the war zone.
"We expect massive blackouts," said Alex Krstanovic, co-founder of
BeoNET, one of the Belgrade-based ISPs threatened by the embargo.
"We somehow got used to air-raid sirens, bombings, and threats of
invasion, but I don't know how we're going to survive without the
Internet.... This is the only window to the world we have."
Drazen Pantic, founder of OpenNet, Serbia's first ISP and host of
independent radio B92's Web site before the Serbian Government shut
it down, said that the Internet has stepped in to fill the
information vacuum created by biased reporting from TV Serbia on one
side and CNN on the other.
"People are exposed to bad propaganda on both sides," he said. "The
Internet is the only place there's some kind of sanity. It's
crucial. At this particular moment it's crucial."
"I feel really bad," he continued. "A lot of people are using the
Internet. It will affect everyone but the Government. A lot of
people have taken the brave role of publishing their diaries and
experiences. Now they will not be able to do this."
Pantic noted that, should the Loral link be severed, Yugoslavia
still has three other connections to the rest of the world. The
nation has two land lines and another satellite link through a
European carrier that is exempt from the US trade embargo.
However, in addition to the loss in bandwidth, Pantic said it is
significantly easier for the Serbian government to tap land lines
than satellite traffic.
Under the embargo, US companies are forbidden from trading with
Yugoslavia. However, Pantic said a similar embargo during the war in
Bosnia exempted some telecom carriers.
The fate of the Loral links remains up in the air as of late
Thursday morning. Jeffery said if the government wants the link
severed, his company will be forced to comply.
"We want to support our customers, do the right thing for them," he
said. "But we've got to obey the law."
Links:
http://www.loralorion.com/
http://www.loral.com/
http://r.wired.com/r/10025/http://www.wired.com/news/news/politics/sto
ry/18767.html
http://www.beonet.yu/
http://www.opennet.org/
http://r.wired.com/r/10025/http://www.wired.com/news/news/politics/sto
ry/18931.html
Further links to all points of view in this matter:
http://www.bestnet.org/~jwalker/war.htm
- ------------
Also in this issue:
- - CSS Internet News Special Report, Balkans Web War
* US shuts down Yugoslav Internet - For immediate release
* A message from Alex Krstanovic, BeoNET, Belgrade, Yugoslavia
to the CSS Internet News.
* US May Pull Belgrade Bandwidth (US/Balkans)
A crucial satellite link to Yugoslavia's Internet may be severed
to comply with a United States government embargo.
* Yugoslav Net at the Brink (Balkans)
Yugoslavia's Internet is a rickety structure that could easily be
taken out by NATO bombs. If that happens, one of the few lines of
communication from the war zone will be severed.
- - Pundits Debate Fate Of Routing Standard
MPLS is dead. Long live MPLS.
That seems to be the sentiment coming out of the Networld+Interop
show regarding the future of Multiprotocol Label Switching, a
proposed standard for fortifying Internet Protocol-based networks
with some of the control and traffic engineering features found in
circuit-based networks.
- - Forrester Predict End of Commerce Servers (Ireland)
"The End of Commerce Servers", a report by Forrester Research,
predicts that commerce servers as they exist today are largely
redundant and should be be replaced by what Forrester call "scenario"
servers. Existing servers do not have the capacity to deliver on the
growing needs of ecommerce.
- - Fraudsters Attack Internet Ad Model (Canada)
TORONTO -- Web advertising is riddled with fraud, scientists from
Lucent's Bell Labs said Wednesday at the International World Wide
Web Conference here.
- - A worldwide web of betrayal (UK)
RICHARD TOMLINSON, the renegade MI6 officer suspected of placing a
list of the names of Secret Intelligence Service officers on the
Internet, appears to have chosen the "nuclear option" to exact
revenge on his ex-employers.
- - Making Web accessible (US)
There is much to be said for being a titan of industry. There's the
money, the corporate jet, and the private island. But there's also
the power to bend others to your will.
- - Net castaways 'on a high' (UK)
Emma Gibson: Cannot get enough of life online
Four volunteers taking part in an experiment to see how easy it is
to live by the Net alone are said to be having the time of their
lives - despite the late arrival of clothing that left them nearly
naked for three days.
- - Iraqi Paper Al-Zawra Joins Internet (Iraq)
BAGHDAD (Reuters) - An Iraqi newspaper joined the Internet for the
first time in a country isolated from the rest of the world because
of U.N. trade sanctions and a ban on international flights. The
weekly al-Zawra, run by President Saddam Hussein's eldest son Uday,
said Thursday its internet address is www.irak.net.
- - Amateurs Lead Web Community-Building (US)
NEW YORK -- Howard Rheingold, who pinpointed virtual communities
long before they became a gold mine for Internet business, said the
best communities are being built by amateurs -- not businesses.
- - Should chemical firms put accident info on Net? (US)
Fearing the Net could give terrorists easy access to chemical
manufacturers' "worst-case" accident scenarios, the Clinton
administration has offered its solution to the debate: disseminate
the reports on paper.
- - Senate Votes 100-0 On Filtering Amendment (US)
WASHINGTON, DC, U.S.A. (NB) -- By Robert MacMillan, Newsbytes. The
Senate voted unanimously Thursday morning to adopt an amendment to
the Juvenile Justice bill that would "encourage" Internet service
providers (ISPs) to offer filtering technologies for their
subscribers.
- - Use Writing That Sells On Your Website (US)
If you've been doing business online for a significant length of
time, you've probably heard marketing tips like these: Develop opt-in
e-mail lists, use focused and frequent advertising, reduce Web page
load times, and so on. These are tried and true axioms for success.
But for all the marketing newsletters I've read in the last two
years, not one has mentioned the single most common factor on all Web
sites: The written word.
- - Budget post-mortem bodes poorly for IT&T (Australia)
The Australian Computer Society accused the Federal Government of
neglecting Australia's technology industry in Tuesday's budget.
- - New Lists and Journals
* NEW: Jewish Lists
* NEW: Virtropy, concerns discussion of the movement toward
virtuality, the effect without the form.
* NEW: BUCE-BUSE-Family, exchange information and geneology
research clues.
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Member: Association for International Business
- -------------------------------
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- -------------------------------
------------------------------
Date: Mon, 17 May 1999 00:56:18 -0400 (EDT)
From: Ronda Hauben <ronda@panix.com>
Subject: [netz] Cone of Silence: ICANN or Internet Democracy failing
Following is from an article in TELEPOLIS titled
Cone of Silence
ICANN or Internet democracy is failing
by John Horvath
URL: http://www.heise.de/tp/english/inhalt/te/2837/1.html
an excerpt follows:
"...There's a battle being waged behind the scenes that many
of us don't know about - even those whose lives have now become
dependent on computer mediated communication systems like the
Internet. The process to hand over government control of the
Internet to a private body - a process which was formulated
last summer and initiated toward the end of that same year
- has been rife with problems that various sides are continually
struggling to deal with.
While many people who use the Internet will have heard about this
process and the organisation involved - ICANN , to which the whole
process has become synonymous - the truth of the matter is that for
the vast majority it is something relatively unknown. Indeed, there's
been a "cone of silence" over the issue, and for those involved that's
just the way they like it.
In order to try and break this cone of silence and to better
understand what is really at stake, what will be looked at is the
origin and evolution of the process and the organisation it has
created, ICANN. Its first moves and the corresponding negative
reaction that gave the whole process a stillborn start will be
examined, along with ways in which attempts have been made to rescue
the process. This will be followed by a more in-depth look at those
for and against ICANN and the process, along with some observations as
to how and why the silent complicity that surrounds the issue exists.
In the end, it will be shown how the issue is not just one involving
the transformation of the Internet from a government body to a private
one, but strikes at the very heart of democracy in the digital age. It
also affects the emergence of a new form of civic discourse, one that
transcends the limits of physical space. In fact, it's something which
will profoundly change our lives, and unless more attention is paid to
what is actually going on behind the scenes, a future will be built
for us that will run counter to many of our hopes and expectations."
(see URL for rest of article)
Also there is an ICANN meeting in Berlin scheduled for
May 25-27.
------------------------------
Date: Fri, 21 May 1999 12:35:04 -0400
From: "P.A. Gantt" <pgantt@icx.net>
Subject: [netz] FCC: U.S. FCC seeks good way to separate cable, Internet
Source:
Communications News: 05/21/1999
TKRNEWS-L (International Communications Law and Policy)
by Andreas Grünwald
05/19/99
"...U.S. FCC seeks good way to separate cable, Internet
Federal Communications Commission Chairman William Kennard said
Wednesday his agency had authority to prevent discrimination by cable
companies offering high-speed Internet service but added that he had not
yet heard an appealingly simple proposal to do so. The comments by the
top U.S. communications regulator came at a congressional briefing on
Capitol Hill where America Online Inc. Chairman Steve Case argued for
either an FCC rule or new law prohibiting cable companies from requiring
their customers that buy high-speed Internet access to also buy Internet
services like e-mail and Web page hosting from a cable-owned firm. "I do
think the FCC has jurisdiction," Kennard, the top U.S. communications
regulator, said disputing the cable industry's view that the FCC lacked
such authority. "The more difficult question, in my view, is if we
assert jurisdiction what do we do? I don't agree with Steve Case that
it's a real easy matter to just craft some regulations that ensure
nondiscrimination." Case, who is backed by other Internet service
providers and consumers groups, argued that the cable industry's bundle
of high-speed access and Internet service would eliminate healthy
competition on the Internet. "We just want consumers to have a choice
when they want an ISP (Internet service provider)," Case said. "There is
an easier route. It doesn't require onerous regulation... But even if it
wasn't easy -- and I think it would be -- that doesn't mean we shouldn't
do it. The question is more a question of right or wrong as it relates
to developing this medium."
..."
Full Story at:
http://legalnews.findlaw.com/
[P.A. Comment: feel free to let your Congresspeople and
the FCC know your feelings on this ;^}]
Source: FCC Page
http://www.fcc.gov/how2contact.html
How to Contact the FCC
"...The Chairman and the Commissioners invite you
to contact them via Email at the following addresses:
Chairman William Kennard: bkennard@fcc.gov
Commissioner Susan Ness: sness@fcc.gov
Commissioner Harold Furchtgott-Roth: hfurchtg@fcc.gov
Commissioner Michael Powell: mpowell@fcc.gov
Commissioner Gloria Tristani: gtristan@fcc.gov
..."
http://www.house.gov/
http://www.senate.gov/
- --
P.A. Gantt, pgantt@icx.net
http://user.icx.net/~pgantt/
"Cone of Silence: ICANN or Internet democracy is failing"
~~John Horvath~~
http://www.heise.de/tp/english/inhalt/te/2837/1.html
------------------------------
End of Netizens-Digest V1 #302
******************************
