Those reading and contributing to mailing lists and newsgroups
range from teen-agers to the world's leading scientists.
The popularity of individual newsgroup is snot officially
monitored, but one unofficial survey conducted in March by DEC
indicated that alt.sex was the second most popular newsgroup,
with an estimated audience of 100,000. (Rec.humor .funny -- a
humor digest - was the most popular.)
Some of the activity on Internet probably violates state and
federal obscenity laws, said Russel Turbeville, chief of the
economic crimes-consumer fraud division of the Harris County
district attorney's office. But as a practical matter,
prosecution would be difficult or impossible.
"Where you start dealing with computer frauds especially, where
you have thousands, tens of thousands, maybe a million victims,
how do you deal with that in the indictment, and how do you prove
things in court?" Turbeville said.
Copyright laws ignored
Clear Lake High School honor students will receive Internet access
beginning this summer. The school knows about the network's explicit
content, but hopes the honor system and the threat of a bad grade will
discourage students from exploring where they should not. They all
signed a form saying they would use the tool as intended.
"I don't' think that pornography has any redeeming value, not even for
me, and especially not for my students," said a Clear Lake teacher who
declined to be identified. "Those adults who want to participate, I'm
not going to say what's right of them. But I think society has got to
put some sort of bounds on educating kids."
UT's Bard noted that high school students doing research
projects could benefit from online electronic catalogs
and associate with many research and education libraries.
"It would roved and indispensable and limitless source of
information that could be used to supplement of even replace that
found in the school libraries," said Noxon, 17, who will be a junior next year.
On the Internet, every controversial story or letter is followed
by a ringing debate -- often sparking the interest of hundreds of
people who missed the original article. In the case of Cindy's
Torment, a vicious tale of rape and torture, this resulted in its
being reposted and privately mailed to a wide audience.
Often, erotic stories are posted in installments. One recent
series about pedophilia and incest turned out to be chapters from
a published novel, and the publisher's lawyers wanted it to stop.
Eventually, it did, after all but three chapters were posted. The
entire book is now distributed privately vi E-mail. The
publisher has become a victim of Internet's capacity to support
hidden theft of services.
The most vivid example of this is digitized pictures. Thousands
of X-rated pictures are available -- most scanned in from men's
magazines in violation of copyright law.
The pornographic libraries on the network also include political
commentary. For example, North Carolina Sen. Jesse Helms'
campaign against government funding of erotic art inspired the
"Jesse Helms Erotic LIterature Contest." The object was to
produce erotica that might please the Republican senator -- keep
it reasonably clean, mention fidelity or the church.
The contest originated at the University of Iowa. The collected
entries are now available in the Internet libraries of Tulane
University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
MIT is the leading presence in Internet's cultural heritage.
The heart of this heritage is MIT's Media Lab, which has
variously been called visionary, flaky, and the lunatic fringe of
MIT. They say they're inventing the future of publishing, but
you won't find any journalists there.
Among the accomplishments the lab touts are an interactive video
disk of the Aspen, Colo Ski resort. It cost the Defense Advanced
Research Projects Agency $300,000, and earned for the lab former
sen. WIlliam Proxmire's Golden Fleece award dishonoring
questionable use of tax dollars. Another time, DARPA unwittingly
funded development at the Media Lab of an album cover for the
eclectic rockers Talking Heads.
This is the intellectual atmosphere that gave electronic life to
the Church of the Subgenius, a Dallas cult ostensibly formed to
ridicule cults. Members, who can be legally ordained, worship a
yuppie deity called "Bob".
Hackers fight regulations.
The Media Lab's Subgenius Digest is an interactive church
newsletter. It provides the phone numbers of practicing
Christians, along with tips on how best to harass them -- all in
the name of "Bob".
Also at MIT, is the closely guarded, lesbian-oriented Sappho
mailing list. Saphho was an effective tool in the successful
fight to overturn Mills College's decision to admit males. It
motivated the troops, communicated strategy, and gave progress
reports on the battle.
Last but not least is MIT's electronic library. It may be one
of the best research tools around, but at night it becomes one
of the world's most capable instruments of pornography.
"It comes back to free speech," said Howard Jares, Internet
director at the University of Houston. "The actual content is
secondary. (Intellectual freedom) fosters the whole creative
process, and that's the kind of thing we're going to have to do
to succeed as educators."
Turbeville said Internet pornography raises constitutional
issues: "You have the right to speak your mind, but do you have
the right to (in effect) walk into somebody's home and say it?
That's interesting."
In general, according to various legal sources, computer use and
abuse represent developing areas of law, with few issues settled.
Beyond pornography and free speech, the technology raises broad
fears of vulnerability. Even as Internet is finding its way into
all walks of society, society is realizing the network wasn't
designed to be secure.
In late May, federal and state agencies intensified a nationwide
sweep of computer hackers. Noting that more than 40 computer
systems and 23,000 data disks had already been seized in the last
two years, network experts launched a counterattack. A legal
defense fund is now being put into place.
The hackers reacted to the crackdown in predictable fashion --
they're using the Internet to build support. They published a
special electronic edition of 2600, the hacker's magazine,
detailing the government's two-year-old campaign.
"There are civil rights and civil issues here that have yet to be
addressed," wrote one.
"Everytime there is a perceived crisis, law enforcement agencies
and legislators overreact, and usually due process and civil
liberties suffer," said Rep. Don Edwards, D-Calif., reacting to
the crackdown.
The most famous hacking case is that of former Cornell University
student Robert Tappan Morris, 25. Last month he was placed on
three years probation, fined $10,000 and ordered to perform 400
hours of community services for unleashing a "worm" program that
paralyzed thousands of Internet-linked computers nationwide in
1988.
He was the first person convicted under the Federal Computer
Fraud and Abuse Act prohibiting interference with the performance
of a government computer.
Computer luminary Mitch Kapor, the founder of Lotus Technology,
believes society will rise to the challenge of making the most of
Internet's promise while guarding against its perils.
"I think (Internet) is a terrific social experiment from which
there's an enormous amount to learn, but I think it's time
somebody took the lessons and built something of more lasting
value," he said.
"Regional-based systems like the WELL (Whole Earth 'Lectronic Link) in
San Francisco that draw a constituency and see themselves as members
of an electronic community ... are a much better basis for beginning
this sort of global electronic community."
"I don't think it's the government's business to ban (controversial
material), or to take any position on it," Kapor added. "I don't know
how to solve it without causing all sorts of First Amendment problems.
If there's a paying market for alt.sex.bestiality, we should tolerate
it.
"I just don't think the government ought to fund it."
Sidebox 1>
Head>
Internet may have 10 million users
Here are brief answers to some basic questions about Internet.
Q: What is Internet?
A: It is an international computer network for research and
higher education. Any of the computer users with Internet access
-- who may number 10 million -- can share information and
resources with other users almost instantly.
Q: Who uses it?
A: Everybody who's anybody in technological circles, including
most military facilities, universities, and businesses and
individuals engaged in research. In Texas, noted participants
include Baylor College of Medicine, Houston Advanced Research
Center, Rice University, Southwestern Bell, Texas A&M University
System, University of Texas system, University of Houston, and
Southern Methodist University. State high schools may soon
receive access.
Q: Who runs it and how is it organized?
A: The National Science FOundation provides guidance for the
maintenance of the data transmission facilities that connect
individual sites. The sites, which are usually university of
laboratories, maintain their own internal networks. Ultimately,
the network is designed so that the users themselves are largely
responsible for the use and contents of Internet.
Q: Who pays for it and how much does it cost?
A: Network officials ("net.gods" in user jargon) put a price tag
on Internet of $2 billion-$4 billion. No one cat get much closer
to that because the system is so big and loosely organized. It's
possible to determine what a public university spends on
computer operations, for example, but not to calculate how much of
that is Internet. And it's certainly not possible to determine
whether costs are associated with legitimate research or
controversial pursuits such as pornography.
At Clear Lake High School, it took $250,000 just to set up four
computers with initial access to Internet. A private school or
business doesn't even have to proved a general figure.
One source estimate two-thirds of the network's cost is paid for
by the federal and state governments.
The National Science Foundation is the most visible funding agency,
and it has a budget of $20 million dedicated to the Internet. But the
Department of Defense is almost certainly spending more on the
technology, as are other agencies such as the National Aeronautics and
Space Administration.
Q: How is the government involved?
A: Through direct grants and through the budgets of other
agencies, the government funds the National Science Foundation, which
built and maintains the "backbone" that makes various
Internet possible. Various government agencies like Internet
because it's an enormously useful research tool -- and a manager
can run the office from anywhere in the world.
Congress is scheduled to debate funding this week for a bill that
would proved $2 billion to expand Internet and create the next
generation of related technology.
In addition, state governments participate through their funding
of public universities.
In the long term, the National Science Foundation would like to
move toward a self-supporting high-performance nationwide
backbone with a way of monitoring and charging for use. But most
sources agree that's a long way off.
Q: What security measures protect sensitive material on Internet?
A: Internet was built for academics and researchers, with an
expectation that an honor system and trust would keep it secure. But
nobody knew 20 years ago that in 1990 the network would double in size
every two months. They didn't know it would be accessible through
business and community bulletin board systems. Security has emerged
as the next big issue, as demonstrated by the fed's current crackdown
on hackers. The military maintains private networks within the
national networks that are supposed to protect classified information.
Q: How do hackers fit in?
A: Hacking is exploring the services on a network, and doesn't
necessarily mean attempting to break in. But the term hacker is often
used to describe someone with malicious intent who tries to guess a
password or exploit known security flaws in order to gain access to
mainframe computer. Anyone on Internet is already in touch with the
nation's finest supercomputers -- that's the point of the network.
But there's no handbook of what's available, so the hackers explore
various computers hooked to the network to see what's stored on them.
Most hacking is not destructive, and little law has developed on
hacking. There are rudimentary protection for the privacy
of personal materials stored on computers. And a two-year-old law
makes it a crime to interfere with the operation of a government
computer. Most actions against hackers cite laws on the abuse of
credit cards or theft of long distance services.
Q: Why does Internet raise issues of academic freedom and free
speech?
A: Anything you can write publish, broadcast, or yell from the
top of a building, Internet can propagate further, faster, more
elegantly. Thus, age-old issues of freedom of speech and
expression vs. public safety and moral sensibilities have moved
into this high tech arena. The technology is just now being
refined, so nobody has really asked the questions yet - -much
less come up with the answers. That's what is happening now.
-- Joe Abernathy
Sidebox 2>
Head>
The language of Internet
o Address: A designation for sending electronic mail to a specific user.
o Backbone: The nationwide data transmission connections and
switching equipment that support electronic traffic such as that
generated by Internet.
o Cyberpunk: A new age cult among computer fanatics wherein the
machine is viewed as an extension of the person, creating a
creature of superhuman abilities.
o Cybersex: The computerized version of phone sex. Two or more
individuals have "sex" by exchanging erotic e-mail.
o Cybermarriage: An ongoing agreement by two or more people to
engage in cybersex.
o E-mail: Electronic mail, a system of computerized
correspondence between users.
o File transfer: The movement of text, software, images, or other
data between computers.
o Hacking: Gaining unauthorized computer access to a network.
o LAN: Local area network, an interconnected group of personal
computers or work stations, perhaps with a mainframe computer.
Many businesses use LANs.
o Mail bomb: The intentional overfilling of a user's electronic
mailbox by other users who object to something he or she has done
on the network. Mail bombs can make an account unusable and can
cause structural damage to the network, to the extent that the
activity qualifies as a felony in Texas.
o Modem: a MOdulator/DEModulator allows an isolated computer
not connected to a LAN to talk with other computers via the
phone lines.
o Flames, flame wars: When one takes a stand on an issue, the
stand is likely to draw "flames," the network's jargon for
vicious personal attacks.
o SESQUInet: The Texas Sesquicentennial Network, administered by
Rice University and the main conduit into Texas for Internet.
o Site: A computer host offering Internet or Usenet access.
o THEnet: The Texas Higher Education Network, which provides
Internet access to Texas locations outside the Houston
metropolitan area. THEnet is largely administered by the
University of Texas and Texas A&M systems.
o Usenet: The formal name given to Internet news groups. While
Internet access is granted only to those involved in research and
education, anyone can have access to the Usenet and E-mail
capabilities of Internet.
o WAN: Wide area network, an interconnected group of computers
much larger than a LAN. Internet, a WAN, covers 35 countries.
