Professor Farber on Cyberspace's wild frontiers from The Australian [and I did not even have to catc

[Prof. David Farber <>]

> From THE AUSTRALIAN Tuesday August 9 1994, Computers and High Technology
Section, Edited by Jeremy Horey <jhorey () ozemail com au>




CYBERSPACE'S WILD FRONTIERS
by John Hilvert <hilvertj () ozemail com au>


The Alfred Fitter Moore Professor of Telecommunications Systems, Professor
David Farber, was one of the principals in the creation of the Internet.
He is on the board of directors of the Electronic Frontier Foundation
(EFF), which promotes the airing of privacy, encryption, security and
civil liberties issues in cyberspace. He talks to JOHN HILVERT


* Professor Farber...'I don't see the realisation down here yet that data
networks are a huge driver of the economy for supplying goods and
services'




HAVE YOU FORMED ANY IMPRESSIONS OF BOW WELL AUSTRALIA HAS ADAPTED TO THE
INTERNET?


One is my astonishment at your defamation laws. I just don't see how they
will work in with cyberspace. It leaves me in hysterics trying to
understand what is going to happen. If your libel laws continue,
cyberspace will be a real drag here, specially with everyone of your
States having a different set of rules.


That's fine when you are physically in one place. It's dclear what
happens when you are electronically in another place. The other thing was
that before I came here, I spent a couple of weeks up in Scandinavia. The
contrast in communications developments in Scandinavia and in Australia
surprised me.


In scandinavia I saw, maybe, an overabundance  of  vitality  in
communications research labs, in competition, city networks, and energy.
My exposure of Australia is that this is much more a sleepy town.


I don't see the realisation down here yet that data networks are a huge
driver of the economy for supplying goods and services.


WHERE DO YOU STAND ON CENSORSHIP ON THE CYBERSPACE?


I am violently opposed to censorship of two types. Government censorship
is one.


I am also a strong opponent of group censorship. We have had several
interesting examples in the US. There were these two lawyers, Canter &
Siegel. They weren't smart. They upset many Internet users by posting an
advertisement for their services on every news conference on the USENET.
The pressure was very strong from several quarters: "Kick the bums off!
Deny them access!" There were pressures on their Internet service
companies to cancel their accounts.


That's also censorship. It's like a vigilante mob.


ARE YOU CONCERNED WITH MOVES TO CLASSIFY COMPUTER GAMES IN THE US?


American society has this perennial problem of wanting the Government to
be a parent. We do it in religion. We do it in reading. Parents have this
responsibility.


Being informed is another story. Being told that certain material,
according to what somebody says, might be offensive - that type of
information is not bad, provided it goes no further. 
IN SOME STATES IN AUSTRALIA, THERE IS A PROHIBITION OF CERTAIN ADULT-RATED
GAMES.


That brings up the really hysterical issue that we are beginning to have.
We have censorship in the United states based on the idea that communities
set their own censorship standards.


The problem is that we have a case potentially before the courts, where a
person from the community in Tennessee accessed a bulletin board in Boston
and down-loaded material which breached the community standards of
Tennessee. But in Boston terms it was acceptable.


That is just the head of a nightmare. It will only get worse with the GII.


WHAT'S THE GII?


Global Information Infrastructure. The rationale for the NII (National
Information Infrastructure) never made much sense. 


First to make the NII profitable the customers had to come from the
industrial sphere. It's a little like the Bruce Springsteen song "50
channels and there's nothing on." With the NII, it's 500 channels and
nothing to watch.


That's not going to generate pay-on-demand video. There's got to be
industry. In America most industry is no longer encapsulated by national
boundaries.


The Internet has shown that too. But the problems are semi-hysterical.
Consider a larger version of the Canadian-US problem. That's a real fun
one.


WHAT IS THE CANADIAN-US PROBLEM?


American insurance companies do business in Canada. Their data processing
centres might be in Texas. They want to process their Canadian records in
their Texas data centres for efficiency reasons.


But the Canadian Government said: "If you take our citizens records down
to Texas, whose laws are they governed by? They are governed by US law.
That's irrational these are our citizens. We can't have access to their
information governed by your laws."


The US companies had to establish data centres in Canada as a result. Now
what do you do when you have a GII and every country has different laws,
privacy laws, different appropriate laws?


CAN YOU TELL ME A LITTLE OF WHY YOU ARE ON THE ELECTRONIC FRONTIER
FOUNDATION.


One of the reasons the Electronic Frontier Foundation was formed was
somewhat like the science fiction novels based on the Foundation series.


The problem is to shorten the dark age.


We now have a good set of laws concerning the printed media. The book
stores are protected. The newspapers are protected. I can't be held liable
for stuff I carry in the book stores. I can't be held liable for things I
print in the newspaper, except on the editorial page where I have some
control. If I'm reporting and I'm the least bit careful I'm usually safe.


Now, go over to the electronic media. Those laws are not obviously
applicable. To make that happen takes case-law. That can be a long,
drawn-out process. If you don't really push it, it can take 10 years. So
we have the dark years.


What the EFF is trying to do is to shorten that by supporting selected
cases such as the Steve Jackson case on bulletin board systems.


WHAT ARE YOUR PRESENT INTERESTS?


My current interest is electronic commerce. How do you business on the
Net? How can I buy things? How can I sell things? I want to be able to pay
Farber a dime, how can that be done?


The way to do that is to make it easy for people to buy information. We
need electronic dollar bills.


Nobody is going to allow you to create a new currency. That's not going to
fly. You need something that scales, that government will allow to happen
and support. That's the way we are going to change cyberspace from an
interesting little game to really the driver of the next economy.


Professor Farber will brief the Co-operative Research Centre  for Advanced
Computational Systems, based at the Australian National University, on the
US National Information Infrastructure (aka information superhighway) and
high-speed broadband developments


He will give public lectures this evening - The NII: Towards information
superhighways - at the Huxley Lecture Theatre, ANU, 8pm and tomorrow -
Democracy in the cyberspace - at 6pm
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By John Hilvert <hilvertj () ozemail com au>  From THE AUSTRALIAN Tuesday
August 9 1994, Computers and High Technology Section - Edited by Jeremy
Horey <jhorey () ozemail com au>
--------------------------------------------------------------------------


If you are Canberra on Wednesday, don't miss:


                           "Democracy in Cyberspace"
                           by PROFESSOR DAVID FARBER
                                        
                                  followed by
                           the Australian Situation:
               Tom Worthington, Australian Computer Society Inc.
               Brenda Aynsley, Electronic Frontiers Australia Inc
                         Karl Auer, PC User's Group ACT
                                        
                      Huxley Theatre, ANU Campus, Canberra
                      6:00pm, Wednesday, 10th August 1994


If you aren't going to be able to make it, ask Jeremy Horey
<jhorey () ozemail com au> to have John Hilvert write a story about it :-)




For more details about:


Australian Computer Society Inc.        <acs () act acs org au>
Electronic Frontiers Australia Inc.     <ask () efa iinet com au>
PC Users Group, ACT                     <Fidonet 3:620/243>
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Posted by Tom Worthington <tomw () adfa oz au>, Director of the Community
Affairs Board Australian Computer Society Inc. Fax: +61 6 2496419 
9 August 1994