Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!unisoft!mtxinu!taniwha!paul From: paul@taniwha.UUCP (Paul Campbell) Newsgroups: comp.misc Subject: Re: Soviet Access to Usenet Message-ID: <221@taniwha.UUCP> Date: 21 Nov 88 17:27:06 GMT References: <8081@bloom-beacon.MIT.EDU> <2672@uhccux.uhcc.hawaii.edu> <255@ssbn.WLK.COM> Reply-To: paul@taniwha.UUCP (Paul Campbell) Distribution: na Organization: Taniwha Systems Design, Oakland Lines: 49 In article <255@ssbn.WLK.COM> bill@ssbn.WLK.COM (Bill Kennedy) writes: >lee@uhccux.uhcc.hawaii.edu (Greg Lee) writes: > >>From article by ajdenner@athena.mit.edu (Alexander J Denner): " >" ... >" I do not think this would be a very good idea. Now that the Soviets >" do not already have access to American networks (ARPANET, etc.). (I am >" saying that I am sure the KGB intercepts as much internet information as >" they can.) >" ... why make it easier for them to ... >" ... make it much easier for them to ... > >We, unfortunately perhaps, conduct these discussions in English, so it >might be difficult for a Soviet colleague to be as effusive as they might >if we had linguacode or esparanto (sp?). I, for one, would be interested etc etc Usenet is an anarchy! If someone in europe wants to give the Soviets a newsfeed how are you (or the US government) going to stop them .... send in the Marines? (Actually this is a traditional US remedy - usually causes more trouble than it solves). Besides the feeds to/from Europe/Austrailia/South America are carried over the normal international phone system, do you really think that anyone actually bothers to encrypt it? I think that with something as large as Usenet it is important to take a world view, remember that not everyone gets all the news groups, NOT EVEN HERE IN THE US, the foreign language ones from Europe are not sent here for the same reason the *.flame is not sent there - economics, no one is willing to pay for them. I also think that far more Russians on the net would speak/write English than English speakers - how many of you had the option to learn Russian as a second language in high school? I think that all in all it is much more important to talk one on one, just think if everyone in the US had a friend in the USSR and vice versa would we be as ready to drop the big one? No of course not, as soon as you stop looking at people as objects everything becomes much less black and white. By the way there is already a group of people in Berkeley who arrange a computer based discussion group with a group in Moscow .. can anyone provide more details? Paul -- Paul Campbell ..!{unisoft|mtxinu}!taniwha!paul (415)420-8179 Taniwha Systems Design, Oakland CA "Where was George?" - Who cares - news at eleven.