[108333] in Cypherpunks
Eskimo North: The Anti-Privacy "ISP"
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Mike Duvos)
Fri Feb 12 12:45:21 1999
Date: Fri, 12 Feb 1999 09:19:58 -0800
To: cypherpunks@cyberpass.net
From: r00t@eskimo.com (Mike Duvos)
Reply-To: r00t@eskimo.com (Mike Duvos)
I've received a few messages inquiring about my brief stint as an
eskimo.com user. The two major questions asked were, "Why did
you pick Eskimo in the first place?" and "What does all of this
have to do with Cypherpunks?"
Eskimo rang a bell because Wei Dai posts to the Cypherpunks list
from an Eskimo account. Since Wei Dai is the author of Crypto++,
and radiates lots of reputation capital, this served as an
unsolicited Eskimo recommendation.
There are more than a few Net and Cypherpunk issues illuminated
by the behavior of Eskimo North.
Many years ago, before the Internet became widely available to
the public, much of the content and services now associated with
the Net were contained on BBS systems. It was during this time
that PGP was born, and various other personal privacy products
started becoming available.
Almost all BBS systems at the time contained a disclaimer that
they offered no private communication for the purposes of the
Electronic Communication Privacy Act, and that one should have no
expectation of privacy. Most frowned upon and even forbid the
use of PGP, or any software which prevented the Sysop from being
fully aware of every byte of data on his system. Rules also
governed what could be said on the system, in chat, and in the
message base, and content was usually logged and sometimes even
sniffed for words which might indicate the presense of
questionable behavior.
If you asked these Sysops their personal views on privacy, they
would say that they were enthusiastic supporters of free speech,
the use of PGP, the American way, and the First Ammendment.
Unfortunately, they would add, their systems were privately
owned, subject to seizure for illegal activity, and they
reluctantly had to be sucked into the power vacuum of running
their systems with an iron fist, which they did with varying
degrees of feigned reluctance.
If you pointed out to these individuals that they had far more
protection under the ECPA if they didn't disclaim it, with regard
to protecting user private mail, and intellectual works in
progress, and that they would be wise to encourage the use of
PGP, rather than to forbid it, they mumbled and equivocated a bit
but basically did nothing. It was common practice to "Warn"
users over any material whose content wasn't instantly obvious to
an uninvolved third party, and excommunicate users for "illegal
activity" for any discussion of drugs, or the posting of pictures
of anyone who appeared to be younger than their early 20's,
declaring such material to be "child porn." It was ass-covering
at its finest.
Since content was not really widely distributed at that time, and
each BBS constituted a single point of failure, the critical mass
of such individuals made sure that aside from a few radical
boards, the BBS community really provided no means for private
uninterceptable communications between parties, or the hosting of
inflammatory content. PGP, and other such things, which one
might have thought would flourish and bloom in the era where BBS
systems were the form of online service many people used, did not
gain a foothold.
With the advent of the Internet came globaly distributed content,
common carrier protection for content not originated locally, and
other good things, like wide replication of common services.
Competition quickly eliminated those who attempted to control
content, as people simply moved to providers without
restrictions. ISPs quickly got with the program and embraced
their common carrier status, privacy tools like remailers and PGP
flourished, and uncensored real-time chat, message bases, and
data warehouses popped up all over.
The classic phrase about Usenet regarding censorship as damage
and routing around it was coined. Some BBS systems connected to
the Net, and began operating under the New Paradigm. Some, with
Primadonna Sysops, no longer able to hide their control fixations
under the smokescreen of legal necessity, simply evaporated as
users migrated to the net.
Well, all except Eskimo North, it seems.
It is no surprise to hear that Eskimo North started as a BBS, and
apparently maintained a BBS mentality as it migrated to Unix,
replete with Primadonna Sysop.
While other ISPs promote the use of Encryption, Eskimo North
issues dire warnings about speaking publically on their system
about SSL-enabled Lynx. It's the BBS mentality.
While other ISPs protect their user's privacy, and examine files
and mail only when incidental to normal system maintainance, or
to investigate anomalous events, Eskimo North logs and monitors
and advertises that fact. It's the BBS mentality.
While other ISPs don't care about their user's web-browsing
habits, Eskimo North shudders in fear and makes accusations when
technically literate users, of which there are apparently few,
show an interest in visiting sites related to Unix security. It's
the BBS mentality.
While other ISPs turn over user records to law enforcement only
when served with an appropriate subpoena, Eskimo North proudly
announces that they monitor continuously, keeping in constant
touch with cops in order to inform them of any possible illegal
activity. It's the BBS mentality.
Eskimo North is hardly worthy of the term "Internet Service
Provider," in any professional sense of the word, but is rather
the owners private BBS, which incidentally happens to run Unix
and have an IP connection.
What's odd is that, until this Eskimo debacle, I have had very
good experience with smaller local ISPs. Zipcon, which I used a
while back, was meticulously maintained, and software I expressed
an interest in was often up within hours of my mentioning it. The
phone lines were clean, rarely if ever a busy signal, and I
always got a full-bandwidth modem connection to their downtown
POP. The users were friendly, and there were a large percentage
of Unix literate power users on the system. The user load was
never allowed to get ahead of the hardware, even if it meant
turning down new users, and response time was excellent. The
service I got there was even better than that offered by national
providers like Netcom back in the days when Unix shells were the
mainstay of their business.
Contrast this with the lost connections at Eskimo, and the shell
server whose loadav is frequently half the number of users signed
on, probably because of the large amount of gratuitous logging
going on. Smug staff, and a "so long, sucker" mentality when
abuse is imagined, and fees are not returned.
Oh - and as of this morning, they have apparently deleted all my
files.
Time to call the Better Business Bureau. :)
--
Mike Duvos $ PGP 2.6 Public Key available $
r00t@eskimo.com $ via Finger $
{Free Cypherpunk Political Prisoners Jim Bell and Toto}
