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About two other people and I have worked on Ompages.com for about a year now. It's been slow because we all work full-time. We have software, and when I get around to rebuilding the web-site, plenty of information will be there.

I think these guys at Freenet, Napster, etc., have the right spirit but a completely wrong approach; we have it right.

Our aim at Ompages, is to build a highly scalable VPN that anyone in the public can easily join. It will make the user's host appear has 'host.ompages.com' sort of like dhis.org's client does, but the connections between hosts on ompages' network will be encrypted.

In other words, our goal is proliferate secure communications technology. I view a world where people can plug in their shiny new Linux telephony cards, join Ompages, and start having encrypted phone conversations around the world. Of course file sharing is part of that, but our software is not designed to make that activity easy and anonymous. It's not about anonymity, it's about secrecy...

We need help, the few of us remaining are swamped. We used to play around with shell accounts, etc. That was not a workable model. Now we just want to build a huge public VPN. Our main site has news about stuff related to privacy, government regs, and crypto. Take a look and let me know what you think.

My real, email address is natepuri@office dot ompages dot com...

I have my own contribution to the revolution. It's called ompages.com. The goal: total and undeniable individual control over his or her own commerce and communications; to snatch one's self, one's image from the purview of all things corporate. And guess what, technology is the tool we've chosen for peaceful liberation.

Katz is right about one thing. Corporations were created so that man can gain a sense of immortality. The corporate form is a kind of 'virtual reality' that has been around since very early in British history. The virtual reality is of an immortal unnatural person. In the legal texts there are two legal terms for what we commonly call 'persons', there are 'natural persons' (i.e., humans), and 'corporate persons' (i.e, marked automatons), and this terminology has been around since at least the 1700s if not earlier. I believe there may be foundations in Roman jurisprudence for this terminology.

Know this. When you work for a corporation, in the eyes of the law, you are the servant of an unnatural master. Let the natural persons rule and the corporate persons serve, not the other way around.

Please see this document on Ompages that describes how to set up a very functional graphical desktop based on Debian and Windowmaker specifically for use with low end hardware. If you are running debian you can 'apt-get install package1 package2 ...' these packages and you will have a nice fast desktop for your 486. I wrote this as part of the the Ompages Project it is my contribution to the project to put together a software selection that people with low end and legacy hardware can participate in modern computer culture. Let me know what you all think.

Needless to say, I'm a huge proponent of retaining feature parity between legacy and modern desktops. It is essential to proliferation of computers throughout the world. It is also quite feasible. You sacrifice no functionality, but you will sacrifice some ease of use and look and feel qualities in some applications. But that is not such a bad thing, people who are forced for financial reasons to use older hardware are getting the added benefit of an opportunity to learn about computers in a much more thorough way than his/her counterpart with KDE, W2K. I greatly admire how far KDE has come. But we must remember who they cater to. KDE is to woo people away from W95/NT in the corporate/business setting. What about the rest of the world with an old computer? If you read and apply the above document you will have a very useful desktop that gives away *no* functionality and is based _mostly_ on free software. I have a fairly powerful desktop but love the speed and stablity my system has after applying what is in that document. I have applied it to my girlfriend's 486 and it is not all that much slower. I enjoy it; I hope you all do too.

Please see this document on Ompages that describes how to set up a very functional graphical desktop based on Debian and Windowmaker specifically for use with low end hardware. If you are running debian you can 'apt-get install package1 package2 ...' these packages and you will have a nice fast desktop for your 486. I wrote this as part of the the Ompages Project it is my contribution to the project to put together a software selection that people with low end and legacy hardware can participate in modern computer culture. Let me know what you all think.

Needless to say, I'm a huge proponent of retaining feature parity between legacy and modern desktops. It is essential to proliferation of computers throughout the world. It is also quite feasible. You sacrifice no functionality, but you will sacrifice some ease of use and look and feel qualities in some applications. But that is not such a bad thing, people who are forced for financial reasons to use older hardware are getting the added benefit of an opportunity to learn about computers in a much more thorough way than his/her counterpart with KDE, W2K. I greatly admire how far KDE has come. But we must remember who they cater to. KDE is to woo people away from W95/NT in the corporate/business setting. What about the rest of the world with an old computer? If you read and apply the above document you will have a very useful desktop that gives away *no* functionality and is based _mostly_ on free software. I have a fairly powerful desktop but love the speed and stablity my system has after applying what is in that document. I have applied it to my girlfriend's 486 and it is not all that much slower. I enjoy it; I hope you all do too.

Mr. Sterling,

Many volunteers have referenced your name in connection with the ompages project, not that you endorse the project but that the ideas expressed in the project's website evoke memories of ideas expressed in your works and/or the works in your annotated bibliography.

Please consider this proposal and tell me, is this what you meant by "Islands on the Net"? What are the social and/or political ramifications of this kind of volunteerism? Thank you.

Nate

As I have predicted the government will continue to act more and more like a private corporation. It really has no other choice. Privatization is a means of survival in our new world of extremely rapid change. The public too must privatize. There should be family corporations that exist to nurture the family's investments. The corporate form will continue to proliferate at a fast pace. Those who do not take advantage of the benefits of the corporate form will endure increasing liabilities, i.e., privacy intrusions.

What if we could build a public network built on IPv6? Would it be useful? The benefit to society would be increased privacy the cost would be the need for people to eschew complacency.

Do not be bound by commercial gatekeepers. You
own this medium.

But you are not alone. There are millions of people without the technological sophistication to
understand the freedom implications the new communications medium suggests. You must show them.

There are many ways to approach the change. There is one for you. You must not be afraid to
show the others.

The way to bypass the need for a 'product' i.e., a software package that encrypts files; is for trusted users of a network to participate in VPN with IPSec and SSH. These keys change on a daily basis.

Then the members of the VPN would utilize a distributed.net that works in the inverse; i.e., it cranks out huge keys on the fly using the power of all the processors on the network.

The internet is a public place. We need to build up the private areas and make them fortified and barracaded.

In addition, these trusted servers (that would ulimately reside at various points on the globe would have colocation for one another's encrypted data. That way data could be transferred instantly around the globe upon the trigger of some event (i.e., 5 incorrect passwd entries) or some command (i.e., paging the server with a certain numerical code). Then the data on the investigated computer would be transferred to a safe location and the investigated box would be wiped.

Finally, we can take advantage of the 'bankers' exception to this bill by keeping banking and financial information on the home server. That is all credit card transactions would be routed through the home server to the participating banking institution; thus, making the home server function as an extension of the banking institution's computer network. Alternatively, we should found an online credit-union and make all our home servers part of that enterprise.

We know what to do and we are doing it.

See, what we are trying to do at ompages.com is to adjust networking services to according to the legal setting. The adjustment requires a cultural change. We really must take control over our networking services. There should be one networked server per household. Every business and banking transaction should be controlled by the individual's server (which is in his/her physical possession). Here, 'control' means physical control. How does this pertain to patents?

In the Open Source licensing arena, taking control over one's networking services is also taking control of the source code. Here 'control' means 'ownership.' Our theory is that it is not enough for the source code that runs the network to be open. The network links themselves should be as open as possible, and every part of putting a server on the internet should be open. It should not be costly or technically difficult to put a home server on the internet. From email servers to DNS to web servers, all these should facilitate the individuals presence on the internet. The presence should, in turn, represent ownership and control over one's communicated information. The model we live by now entrusts our communicated information to corporate entities that have interests adverse to our own. Namely, we as individuals have an interest in ownership and control over our communicated information and so do the corporations. Just like it is not possible for two people to have an identical ownership interest in a plot of land, it is not possible for two legal persons to have an identical interest in communicated information (unless there is some kind of agreement between the parties). Now, the agreements exist, but the alternative not to agree prevents one from using internet services.

The patent issue is part and parcel of this arrangement. The industry trend is for corporations to have greater and greater control over all aspects of communicated information (i.e., from the idea to the source code to the network services). The Open Source, FSF, etc. movement is helping take back the source code. But this is not enough to achieve freedom on the internet.

What patents do is they allow a legal person (corporations included) to own a monopoly over an idea or a process. The internet is one big mix of processes! Any one of these processes could potentially be patented! There are three ways to curtail the patent intrusions. 1) Abolish patents (completely and utterly unfeasible); 2) Adjust the statutes/case law to exclude software patents from the patentability of 'processes' (feasible but will take a long, long... time); 3) Hackers (and hacker organizations) should rush to the patent office and self-patent everything they do and release the patent under a DFSG-free license (this is the best solution because it keeps the process in the public domain without the risk of corporate opportunism, but it entails organization of efforts to fund the filing fees. Since filing fees are very high by most standards, the organization that facilitates the filings should combine process patents to include as many processes as possible in a single filing).

What licenses like the GPL do is they take legal monopolies (i.e., copyright, patent and trademark) and turn them on their heads. In effect, they say "I own a monopoly on this thing. Because I own this monopoly, I can do anything I choose with it. I choose to let anyone use thing in anyway they want as long as they show everybody." So far, this licensing scheme has only had effect on copyrights. Copyrights are different from patents because the come into existence the moment the author writes down the content (fixes it in a tangible medium of expression), and filing with the Copyright Office is optional. On the other hand, patents only come into existence when a 'claim' is filed, reviewed, and a patent is issued. Trademarks come into existence in sort of a hybrid of the ways patents and copyrights do. The point is that licenses of patented software processes *could* operate just like they do with copyrights on source code, but there are added legal and monetary hurdles to overcome (i.e., filings, and paying fees). Through organization, these hurdles can be assailed.

I some others work daily on ompages.com to achieve the lofty and difficult goals of obtaining and maintaining individual freedoms on the internet. We are not a public interest group. We are working on software and network infrastructure. Anyone can participate. We are not a commercial group. We seek to allow individuals greater control over *all* communications, including commercial communications. I think it's time for us to work on organizing ourselves to take control of patentable processes. I will post a proposal to be announced.

Pardon me if you feel this is an inappropriate forum to advertise a website. I don't see it that way. No, not at all. The way I see it (and many others as well) is that ompages.com is simply a model. We are modeling how a secure, freedom enhancing network should work. Freedom necessarily involves legal BS which is why a professional legal BS'er (in training) has been contributing to this website. We need hackers, web and graphic designers, network administrators, and even barbers, truckers and gardeners to get involved and stay involved. What's exciting about this project is that it is realistic and feasible. Sign up on mailing lists at and participate and you will learn about software packages that will allow you to put your server on the internet (like dhis.org), but with added legal protections coming soon. Basically we have been about a publically accessible secure wide area network (or VPN). Now I think we will also be about patenting every possible networkable process and freeing up the patent with a DFSG/free license. We are looking at the big picture here, and patents are part of it. Once you all apprehend and contemplate what we are trying to do here you will see that it is an extension of the Free Software/Open Source movement. The underlying issue that binds us is freedom. In our project, we are merely trying to adjust the movement to include networking services in an international legal setting. It is no easy task, but neither was the Linux kernel. I truly believe that if the efforts of ompages.com (or similar projects) do not receive widespread development we will have all this nice, freely available software but nothing legal to do with it, except sign an agreement with Corporation X for it to control our lives for a fee (oversimplification intended). I can't predict the future, but I can see a problematic trend. So, there really is no drawback to these efforts.

See, what we are trying to do at ompages.com is to adjust networking services to according to the legal setting. The adjustment requires a cultural change. We really must take control over our networking services. There should be one networked server per household. Every business and banking transaction should be controlled by the individual's server (which is in his/her physical possession). Here, 'control' means physical control. How does this pertain to patents?

In the Open Source licensing arena, taking control over one's networking services is also taking control of the source code. Here 'control' means 'ownership.' Our theory is that it is not enough for the source code that runs the network to be open. The network links themselves should be as open as possible, and every part of putting a server on the internet should be open. It should not be costly or technically difficult to put a home server on the internet. From email servers to DNS to web servers, all these should facilitate the individuals presence on the internet. The presence should, in turn, represent ownership and control over one's communicated information. The model we live by now entrusts our communicated information to corporate entities that have interests adverse to our own. Namely, we as individuals have an interest in ownership and control over our communicated information and so do the corporations. Just like it is not possible for two people to have an identical ownership interest in a plot of land, it is not possible for two legal persons to have an identical interest in communicated information (unless there is some kind of agreement between the parties). Now, the agreements exist, but the alternative not to agree prevents one from using internet services.

The patent issue is part and parcel of this arrangement. The industry trend is for corporations to have greater and greater control over all aspects of communicated information (i.e., from the idea to the source code to the network services). The Open Source, FSF, etc. movement is helping take back the source code. But this is not enough to achieve freedom on the internet.

What patents do is they allow a legal person (corporations included) to own a monopoly over an idea or a process. The internet is one big mix of processes! Any one of these processes could potentially be patented! There are three ways to curtail the patent intrusions. 1) Abolish patents (completely and utterly unfeasible); 2) Adjust the statutes/case law to exclude software patents from the patentability of 'processes' (feasible but will take a long, long... time); 3) Hackers (and hacker organizations) should rush to the patent office and self-patent everything they do and release the patent under a DFSG-free license (this is the best solution because it keeps the process in the public domain without the risk of corporate opportunism, but it entails organization of efforts to fund the filing fees. Since filing fees are very high by most standards, the organization that facilitates the filings should combine process patents to include as many processes as possible in a single filing).

What licenses like the GPL do is they take legal monopolies (i.e., copyright, patent and trademark) and turn them on their heads. In effect, they say "I own a monopoly on this thing. Because I own this monopoly, I can do anything I choose with it. I choose to let anyone use thing in anyway they want as long as they show everybody." So far, this licensing scheme has only had effect on copyrights. Copyrights are different from patents because the come into existence the moment the author writes down the content (fixes it in a tangible medium of expression), and filing with the Copyright Office is optional. On the other hand, patents only come into existence when a 'claim' is filed, reviewed, and a patent is issued. Trademarks come into existence in sort of a hybrid of the ways patents and copyrights do. The point is that licenses of patented software processes *could* operate just like they do with copyrights on source code, but there are added legal and monetary hurdles to overcome (i.e., filings, and paying fees). Through organization, these hurdles can be assailed.

I some others work daily on ompages.com to achieve the lofty and difficult goals of obtaining and maintaining individual freedoms on the internet. We are not a public interest group. We are working on software and network infrastructure. Anyone can participate. We are not a commercial group. We seek to allow individuals greater control over *all* communications, including commercial communications. I think it's time for us to work on organizing ourselves to take control of patentable processes. I will post a proposal to be announced.

Pardon me if you feel this is an inappropriate forum to advertise a website. I don't see it that way. No, not at all. The way I see it (and many others as well) is that ompages.com is simply a model. We are modeling how a secure, freedom enhancing network should work. Freedom necessarily involves legal BS which is why a professional legal BS'er (in training) has been contributing to this website. We need hackers, web and graphic designers, network administrators, and even barbers, truckers and gardeners to get involved and stay involved. What's exciting about this project is that it is realistic and feasible. Sign up on mailing lists at and participate and you will learn about software packages that will allow you to put your server on the internet (like dhis.org), but with added legal protections coming soon. Basically we have been about a publically accessible secure wide area network (or VPN). Now I think we will also be about patenting every possible networkable process and freeing up the patent with a DFSG/free license. We are looking at the big picture here, and patents are part of it. Once you all apprehend and contemplate what we are trying to do here you will see that it is an extension of the Free Software/Open Source movement. The underlying issue that binds us is freedom. In our project, we are merely trying to adjust the movement to include networking services in an international legal setting. It is no easy task, but neither was the Linux kernel. I truly believe that if the efforts of ompages.com (or similar projects) do not receive widespread development we will have all this nice, freely available software but nothing legal to do with it, except sign an agreement with Corporation X for it to control our lives for a fee (oversimplification intended). I can't predict the future, but I can see a problematic trend. So, there really is no drawback to these efforts.

See, what we are trying to do at ompages.com is to adjust networking services to according to the legal setting. The adjustment requires a cultural change. We really must take control over our networking services. There should be one networked server per household. Every business and banking transaction should be controlled by the individual's server (which is in his/her physical possession). Here, 'control' means physical control. How does this pertain to patents?

In the Open Source licensing arena, taking control over one's networking services is also taking control of the source code. Here 'control' means 'ownership.' Our theory is that it is not enough for the source code that runs the network to be open. The network links themselves should be as open as possible, and every part of putting a server on the internet should be open. It should not be costly or technically difficult to put a home server on the internet. From email servers to DNS to web servers, all these should facilitate the individuals presence on the internet. The presence should, in turn, represent ownership and control over one's communicated information. The model we live by now entrusts our communicated information to corporate entities that have interests adverse to our own. Namely, we as individuals have an interest in ownership and control over our communicated information and so do the corporations. Just like it is not possible for two people to have an identical ownership interest in a plot of land, it is not possible for two legal persons to have an identical interest in communicated information (unless there is some kind of agreement between the parties). Now, the agreements exist, but the alternative not to agree prevents one from using internet services.

The patent issue is part and parcel of this arrangement. The industry trend is for corporations to have greater and greater control over all aspects of communicated information (i.e., from the idea to the source code to the network services). The Open Source, FSF, etc. movement is helping take back the source code. But this is not enough to achieve freedom on the internet.

What patents do is they allow a legal person (corporations included) to own a monopoly over an idea or a process. The internet is one big mix of processes! Any one of these processes could potentially be patented! There are three ways to curtail the patent intrusions. 1) Abolish patents (completely and utterly unfeasible); 2) Adjust the statutes/case law to exclude software patents from the patentability of 'processes' (feasible but will take a long, long... time); 3) Hackers (and hacker organizations) should rush to the patent office and self-patent everything they do and release the patent under a DFSG-free license (this is the best solution because it keeps the process in the public domain without the risk of corporate opportunism, but it entails organization of efforts to fund the filing fees. Since filing fees are very high by most standards, the organization that facilitates the filings should combine process patents to include as many processes as possible in a single filing).

What licenses like the GPL do is they take legal monopolies (i.e., copyright, patent and trademark) and turn them on their heads. In effect, they say "I own a monopoly on this thing. Because I own this monopoly, I can do anything I choose with it. I choose to let anyone use thing in anyway they want as long as they show everybody." So far, this licensing scheme has only had effect on copyrights. Copyrights are different from patents because the come into existence the moment the author writes down the content (fixes it in a tangible medium of expression), and filing with the Copyright Office is optional. On the other hand, patents only come into existence when a 'claim' is filed, reviewed, and a patent is issued. Trademarks come into existence in sort of a hybrid of the ways patents and copyrights do. The point is that licenses of patented software processes *could* operate just like they do with copyrights on source code, but there are added legal and monetary hurdles to overcome (i.e., filings, and paying fees). Through organization, these hurdles can be assailed.

I some others work daily on ompages.com to achieve the lofty and difficult goals of obtaining and maintaining individual freedoms on the internet. We are not a public interest group. We are working on software and network infrastructure. Anyone can participate. We are not a commercial group. We seek to allow individuals greater control over *all* communications, including commercial communications. I think it's time for us to work on organizing ourselves to take control of patentable processes. I will post a proposal to be announced.

Pardon me if you feel this is an inappropriate forum to advertise a website. I don't see it that way. No, not at all. The way I see it (and many others as well) is that ompages.com is simply a model. We are modeling how a secure, freedom enhancing network should work. Freedom necessarily involves legal BS which is why a professional legal BS'er (in training) has been contributing to this website. We need hackers, web and graphic designers, network administrators, and even barbers, truckers and gardeners to get involved and stay involved. What's exciting about this project is that it is realistic and feasible. Sign up on mailing lists at and participate and you will learn about software packages that will allow you to put your server on the internet (like dhis.org), but with added legal protections coming soon. Basically we have been about a publically accessible secure wide area network (or VPN). Now I think we will also be about patenting every possible networkable process and freeing up the patent with a DFSG/free license. We are looking at the big picture here, and patents are part of it. Once you all apprehend and contemplate what we are trying to do here you will see that it is an extension of the Free Software/Open Source movement. The underlying issue that binds us is freedom. In our project, we are merely trying to adjust the movement to include networking services in an international legal setting. It is no easy task, but neither was the Linux kernel. I truly believe that if the efforts of ompages.com (or similar projects) do not receive widespread development we will have all this nice, freely available software but nothing legal to do with it, except sign an agreement with Corporation X for it to control our lives for a fee (oversimplification intended). I can't predict the future, but I can see a problematic trend. So, there really is no drawback to these efforts.

where people can get free internet services that enhance users privacy and security.

ompages.com its the debian of networking services

This author hits many relevant points.

At ompages.com a group of volunteers is growing. We aim to make and implement policies and procedures to make all internet activity secure.

We've moved passed the discussion stage and into the action stage. We seek to make internet technology secure, free of charge and advertisement. We are ae not-for-profit unincorporated association of hackers, admins, webmasters, and internet users dedicated to making all internet activity as secure as possible. We intend to proliferate computers and software at-cost and/or free-of-charge. If the government is moving now to control our technology, then the time to counteract their efforts is now. We must act now before laws are enacted that change the networking landscape. If enough of us use services like this, we will have enough of a voice with which to speak out against the adversarial governmental agencies at work to control our computers.

Participate, do you need proof?

Take control of your network! Participating in ompages.com may just change the world.

This author hits many relevant points.

At ompages.com a group of volunteers is growing. We aim to make and implement policies and procedures to make all internet activity secure.

We've moved passed the discussion stage and into the action stage. We seek to make internet technology secure, free of charge and advertisement. We are ae not-for-profit unincorporated association of hackers, admins, webmasters, and internet users dedicated to making all internet activity as secure as possible. We intend to proliferate computers and software at-cost and/or free-of-charge. If the government is moving now to control our technology, then the time to counteract their efforts is now. We must act now before laws are enacted that change the networking landscape. If enough of us use services like this, we will have enough of a voice with which to speak out against the adversarial governmental agencies at work to control our computers.

Participate, do you need proof?

Take control of your network! Participating in ompages.com may just change the world.

This author hits many relevant points.

At ompages.com a group of volunteers is growing. We aim to make and implement policies and procedures to make all internet activity secure.

We've moved passed the discussion stage and into the action stage. We seek to make internet technology secure, free of charge and advertisement. We are ae not-for-profit unincorporated association of hackers, admins, webmasters, and internet users dedicated to making all internet activity as secure as possible. We intend to proliferate computers and software at-cost and/or free-of-charge. If the government is moving now to control our technology, then the time to counteract their efforts is now. We must act now before laws are enacted that change the networking landscape. If enough of us use services like this, we will have enough of a voice with which to speak out against the adversarial governmental agencies at work to control our computers.

Participate, do you need proof?

Take control of your network! Participating in ompages.com may just change the world.

This author hits many relevant points.

At ompages.com a group of volunteers is growing. We aim to make and implement policies and procedures to make all internet activity secure.

We've moved passed the discussion stage and into the action stage. We seek to make internet technology secure, free of charge and advertisement. We are ae not-for-profit unincorporated association of hackers, admins, webmasters, and internet users dedicated to making all internet activity as secure as possible. We intend to proliferate computers and software at-cost and/or free-of-charge. If the government is moving now to control our technology, then the time to counteract their efforts is now. We must act now before laws are enacted that change the networking landscape. If enough of us use services like this, we will have enough of a voice with which to speak out against the adversarial governmental agencies at work to control our computers.

Participate, do you need proof?

Take control of your network! Participating in ompages.com may just change the world.

1600's Calvinist totalitarians (Pilgrims on a journey my ass) escape the wrath of Catholic totalitarians

Salem. Nuff said.

1770's Unpopular Declaration of Independence discussed behind closed doors. All who wanted to be in had to sign. This meant if they were found or the war lost they would be shot.

Big debate on women voting too.

'Course it wasn't too long before we pulled a Columbus on Indians, Mexico.

So don't be surprised. We need a more direct response to this.

When Germany ordered Jews to wear yellow markers, all of Denmark wore them without even thinking twice. It was obvious what they had to do.

So start encrypting long repetitititions of "Mom, I'm at the store. I'll bring my commie friends home tonight."

Check out

Freenet

Ompages

Link Farm

They're trying to reinvent the Earth and conquer it before people get their rightful share. If you really don't want to see pedophiles on the net, your best bet is to claim some part of the net and get over your fears. Otherwise we're guaranteed to see the net auctioned off to superpowers and rampant with crime. There's too much power in it for the assholes to pass up.


Go see Senate on the net and House on th net

I hope all the privacy sue groups sue like mad if this ever gets off the desk. If this is not the limit to which the 4th Amendment can be eroded, I don't know what is. I might as well go live in an anarchistic unruly 3rd World country rather than live in this Police State.

I really hope everyone starts hitting ompages.com and people, programmers, sys-admins, and web developers start volunteering and taking leadership roles in that public privacy networking project. If any court allow breaking and entering by government officials into my home, I will move out of the US the first opportunity I get.

Searches of homes without Probable Cause is outrageous. A warrant is still required. These officers are trying to search a person's home in search of probable cause. This is utterly unacceptable. Anyone who believes that is a justifiable practice on the part of law enforcement should really think long and hard about the kind of country they want to live in. These practices were just fine in Soviet Russia or in present day China. Did we really win the Cold War so that our law enforcement would be the only ones with all the power? Was the Cold War really a fight for world dominance between the KGB and CIA/FBI/DOJ? I'm starting to think it was.

The only outcome that this kind of activity would create is many many more shootouts with private citizens. The fact that the Gov would even ask for such power makes this a sad, sad, sad day to be an American.

If this type of governmental activity begins no American will have the right to call him or herself a free person. No one will have the right to name America a Democracy, or free. The rights of the individual will finally have been replaced by the government's wanton pursuit of power.

The effort to make the internet as secure as possible for everyone's freedom's sake should dwarf the effort the make linux as easy to use as Windows.

I don't give a DAMN about Windows. I want a secure network dammit! If we don't unite efforts to combat the government by making encryption of everything on the network pervasive, then we will have cheated ourselves out of our freedoms, identities, self-respect. Let the corporations hack linux; its there now. Newsflash!: The revolution is here, and it will not be televised. It's on the network. Drop all coding efforts for all those packages. Put them on hold. All community effort must be geared to counteract these underhanded government activities. If you fail to act now; you are a sheep and you will be sheered and slaughtered.

It's fine to work on fun 3Dfx, and other cool technology. But we must get our priorities straight now or forever lose our freedom. Imagine how powerful the Linux movement would become if the people who have been hacking kernels and GPL apps outsources the work to the corporations working to make Linux more corp friendly and begin making Linux a powerful public tool to secure privacy, speech, and privilege. Focusing on corporate acceptance of Linux is a job for corporations like Red Hat. They seek to profit from Linux. I seek to make Linux the primary tool by which I gain control over my speech. Isn't that what this is all about? If you all want 'geek' and 'nerd' to ever achieve positive connotations you all must accept your duty to be warriors for the people. You are warriors. You have that power. Be heroes and heroines. Don't be sheep.

This is a good point. But I hope everyone can have access to these. Then we can spy on the cops high fiving each other, spanking each other on the ass, and otherwise reinacting in the locker room how they 'kicked some ass'.

Privacy is relative, but in a legal sense it applies only to the government.

We don't want powerful governments in this country. While this is not how it is implemented, the bill of rights is a limit on governmental power.

You may spy on me. But when Uncle Sam does it is an illegal invasion of my private interests in relation to the governmental interests.

Of course these devices make law enforcement's job easier. The SS loved it when they could storm houses, loot belongings and turn up whatever chargeable evidence of anything conceivably illegal.

In the US power emanates from the citizens (in theory). The justification that these devices are OK for the police to use because it brings in the bad guys (and I'm not a bad guy, don't do bad things, so they can watch me) is very very very foolish. It's foolish because it tells the government the following "go ahead and do whatever you want; I trust you." Governmental interests are not always your interests. It is those times when governmental intersts are in conflict with your interests that the Bill of Rights must be waived like a flag.

Your trust is misplaced. Authority must be questioned, kept in check, and constantly scrutinized. They must be forced to justify every action. Efficiency is not at the core of democracy; it is at the core of totalitarianism. We need to decide what we hate more private criminals or governmental ones.

Ompages.com is an unincorporated association that seeks to develop publically available privacy policies and technologies implemented across the network. Join. Help. Save the world. The network needs you.

Here's how the ACLU works.

[Cops wiretap phone, email whatever]

[Cops through you in jail, shove a billy club up your ass, etc...]

[ACLU]-- 'You meanies, I'll sue you.'

[You in jail]-- 'Yeah that really fsking helped... Oh my ass!...'

Point- ACLU can complain later, but they did not protect you...

get mad the the natedawg way.

This is how.

I vowed to make my site know only when a news article calls for it. Well this one does.

We are all mad, we are all upset, but none of us are helpless.

Use your technological skills formulate a sane privacy policy and practice that everyone can use.

Let's make this a community effort to let Uncle Sam know that we don't agree.

It's not that hard, one just has to care about it enough to do something.

To all the non-believers who think I'm BS'ing, tell me how it could be done better and if you have a better way, that's how we'll do it!

I'm not trying to be a leader or call the shots, I'm trying to set it off...

Somebody else can be the leader. I don't know what I'm doing, but I'm doing something. Hell with it... y'all get the picture...

The internet has caused quite a sensation!

One these sensations is loss of power.

The answer will not be which party you vote for.

The answer to this problem will be whether or not your configure your network properly. To do that one's network of computers (and friends) must span the globe. Servers must be colocated. Encryption strong and ubiquitous. The freedom fighters of the 21st Century put down the gun, got an alias and started networking for their own security.

ompages.com is an example. It' not the answer to everything, it is an attempt to model the next society. It will come.

Check out ompages.com. I've worked on some papers that explain what the problem is and how to fix it.

People are signing up to help everday. Mirrors, applications, web services are coming, and they are going to be free, anonymous, and no advertisements allowed.

This is an open source project so we need help.

Whether you are a hacker, engineer, web designer, writer, are just curious, there is a something to be done.

As you all can tell from this article, the US government is moving at top speed to halt computer security for the masses.

Since the US government is acting fast, so must the rest of us. Don't just mumble and grumble about the loss of your rights, use your skills to claim ownership of your rights.

Only you can prevent totalitarianism. You must act, this war is being fought online and without national borders. Wherever you live, the time is now to counteract censorship, government monitoring and control.

This is not a paranoid delusion; if you think it is, then remain as you are and accept that consequences that are indeed mounting.

I will post messages like this on /. for every article that relates to limits on crypto. Flame me if you want. I can take it....

Check out ompages.com. I've worked on some papers that explain what the problem is and how to fix it.

People are signing up to help everday. Mirrors, applications, web services are coming, and they are going to be free, anonymous, and no advertisements allowed.

This is an open source project so we need help.

Whether you are a hacker, engineer, web designer, writer, are just curious, there is a something to be done.

As you all can tell from this article, the US government is moving at top speed to halt computer security for the masses.

Since the US government is acting fast, so must the rest of us. Don't just mumble and grumble about the loss of your rights, use your skills to claim ownership of your rights.

Only you can prevent totalitarianism. You must act, this war is being fought online and without national borders. Wherever you live, the time is now to counteract censorship, government monitoring and control.

This is not a paranoid delusion; if you think it is, then remain as you are and accept that consequences that are indeed mounting.

I will post messages like this on /. for every article that relates to limits on crypto. Flame me if you want. I can take it....

Check out ompages.com. I've worked on some papers that explain what the problem is and how to fix it.

People are signing up to help everday. Mirrors, applications, web services are coming, and they are going to be free, anonymous, and no advertisements allowed.

This is an open source project so we need help.

Whether you are a hacker, engineer, web designer, writer, are just curious, there is a something to be done.

As you all can tell from this article, the US government is moving at top speed to halt computer security for the masses.

Since the US government is acting fast, so must the rest of us. Don't just mumble and grumble about the loss of your rights, use your skills to claim ownership of your rights.

Only you can prevent totalitarianism. You must act, this war is being fought online and without national borders. Wherever you live, the time is now to counteract censorship, government monitoring and control.

This is not a paranoid delusion; if you think it is, then remain as you are and accept that consequences that are indeed mounting.

I will post messages like this on /. for every article that relates to limits on crypto. Flame me if you want. I can take it....

The United Kingdom does not have the same democratic checks that the United States has.

As a result, the United States seems to have worked out a deal with the the UK to experiment with some law enforcement practices that are no yet legal here. In the meantime, US law enforcement agencies lobby heavily in Congress to gain more control over a ubiquitous communications medium that the public does not yet understand.

The US and UK governments both know that if they can achieve gains now (while the public is ignorant as to the consequences of governmental actions) it can have unprecedented control power.

This is not a paranoid vision.

There have been several security related articles posted here in the past few weeks and in all of them the government scores points, and the people are way behind.

Natedawg pushes the full court press. Quit playing with your voodoo card and code for the revolution! I trying to do something. Why don't you help out.

Here is what this means: Bigbrother.

More legalistically put it means that Congress has dropped an encryption bill that would have protected the privacy interests of everyday citizens and has instead approved a version that favors American law enforcement agencies and their allies.

If you are American it means weak encryption at your disposal, this is a disadvantage for commercial interests engaged in international trade.

If you are not American it means you will probably have access to foreign encryption software that is strong, but it also means the US regards you as an enemy.

Please join the struggle! at ompages.com to build a great big Virtual Private Network based on strong crypto. Email me and find out how you can help. Cheers!

Here is what this means: Bigbrother.

More legalistically put it means that Congress has dropped an encryption bill that would have protected the privacy interests of everyday citizens and has instead approved a version that favors American law enforcement agencies and their allies.

If you are American it means weak encryption at your disposal, this is a disadvantage for commercial interests engaged in international trade.

If you are not American it means you will probably have access to foreign encryption software that is strong, but it also means the US regards you as an enemy.

Please join the struggle! at ompages.com to build a great big Virtual Private Network based on strong crypto. Email me and find out how you can help. Cheers!

Everyone please see and volunteer to help http://www.ompages.com. I'm trying to convince people that it is time for an internet within in internet. The inner-internet will be an a stronghold for those concerned with privacy. I posted a long proposal on /. a week ago. I've updated it, and improved its overall goals. Check it out.

We need to be aggressive as a community of internet users and forcefully take back our privacy by using various freely available protocols and applications that protect privacy on the internet. We cannot be docile whiners who complain about our losses but do nothing to stop it!

Natedawg warned ya...

[Behind the anonymizer]

Everyone please see and volunteer to help http://www.ompages.com. I'm trying to convince people that it is time for an internet within in internet. The inner-internet will be an a stronghold for those concerned with privacy. I posted a long proposal on /. a week ago. I've updated it, and improved its overall goals. Check it out.

We need to be aggressive as a community of internet users and forcefully take back our privacy by using various freely available protocols and applications that protect privacy on the internet. We cannot be docile whiners who complain about our losses but do nothing to stop it!

Natedawg warned ya...

[Behind the anonymizer]

see ompages.com to break a patent
on the obvious idea of webmail that handles encryption keys that ziplip.com seeks to monopolize.

Free thought, free speech, anonymity, security, freedom!!!