[9819] in Commercialization & Privatization of the Internet
Re: "F--- you," says Open Source Spook (Blanks Filled in)
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Arthur R. McGee)
Fri Jan 21 22:13:49 1994
Date: Fri, 21 Jan 1994 18:49:47 -0800 (PST)
From: "Arthur R. McGee" <amcgee@netcom.com>
To: David Rothman <rothman@netcom.com>
Cc: com-priv <com-priv@psi.com>, steeler@well.sf.ca.us, cosndisc@bitnic.BITNET,
In-Reply-To: <2968283033.2.p00997@psilink.com>
> Folks, I was looking forward to meeting Bob Steele in person, but it's
> obvious that *this* spook ain't no gentleman. See below for his entire
> message to me, color and all. Oh, well. It's wonderful to know that a
> spook-style NII wouldn't censor healthy Anglo-Saxonisms.
OK folks, it's my turn. Let me try and outline this for you calmly:
(1) David, it is considered bad and offensive netiquette to forward
private email messages to public mailing lists without the express
permission of the author. As you know, the net is kept together by the
fact that even though most of us have never seen each other, there is a
certain amount of implicit trust. Doing what you did only serves to break
that down. Please do not do this again in the future.
(2) I do not see a reason why this discussion needs to be conducted on so
many different mailing lists. Would it offend anyone, including you
David, if we tried to limit it to say COM-PRIV? I imagine that many of
the people on the other lists are either not really interested in
listening in on the entire discussion or they may be in someway offended
by the nature and tone of discussion in it's current state. What do you
think? Listowners in particular, feel free to chime in.
(3) If we're going to chastise this Robert Steele fella', then I suggest
that we also show our distaste for Dr. Ross Alan Stapleton, or Dave
Hughes, or anyone else who has or has had ties to the intelligence
community. As a matter of fact, I think I'll call up my "buddy" Montel
Williams, and tell him off too.
(4) No one, not EFF, not CPSR, not HandsNet, not IGC/Tides, not the APC,
etc., nor any of the other progressive organizations that I deal with goes
around posting financial reports on public email lists. I suppose if I
asked they would gladly provide the info to me directly, but no way is
anyone going around dropping stuff in FTP sites. So, I can't really get
on Mr. Steele's case for that.
(5) Finally, if we're going to start questioning motives, or if we're
wondering where the "heart" is, then we might as well bring up all the
other touchy subjects as well: Has the EFF sold out? Why has the EFF
appeared to have abandoned the grassroots? Why in the hell do the same so
called "experts" always end up on television or in the press, when their
are grassroots people I know who probably have a better grasp of what is
going on out here in cyberspace than they do? Oh, and when I say
grassroots, I mean REAL grassroots. Take that anyway you want to.
Ah! I feel much better now. Thank you all for listening.
Art "Rambo" McGee
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