Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!lll-winken!lll-ncis!afit-ab!wbralick
From: wbralick@afit-ab.arpa (William A. Bralick)
Newsgroups: comp.misc
Subject: Re: USSR International Computer Club (was: Information on the ICC)
Message-ID: <810@afit-ab.arpa>
Date: 17 Jan 89 03:39:14 GMT
References: <10127@well.UUCP> <1315@orion.cf.uci.edu>
Reply-To: wbralick@blackbird.afit.af.mil (William A. Bralick)
Distribution: na
Organization: Air Force Institute of Technology; WPAFB, OH
Lines: 69

In article <1315@orion.cf.uci.edu> dlawyer@balboa.eng.uci.edu (David Lawyer) writes:
>ICC stands for the International Computer Club which was recently
>(Dec.  1988) founded in Moscow, USSR.
>
> [conserving bandwidth ... ]
>

Unfortunately, we lost our news feed for a month (!) and I haven't been
able to follow the discussion on this, however ...

>I believe that one of its purposes should be promoting the creation,
>archiving and distribution of free software including machine
>translation of source codes from one natural language to another (e.g.
>Russian to English).

This is going to be rather a sticky wicket, since software and such is 
subject to export controls when dealing with the Soviet Union.  That is
no doubt why you didn't see such objectives listed for the group, since
that is the most certain way to drive a stake through the heart of the 
entire proposal (which is a good idea, by the way).

> [again conserving ... ]
>
>Needless to say, the ICC should become a newsgroup on the net:
>comp.icc.

Needless to say it should _not_ become a newsgroup on the net.  I think
there are transcendent issues here even if it could get voted into 
existence, for example:

   (1)  Who is going to pay for processing all the reports of
contacts with foreign (hostile) nationals for those netters who have 
security clearances?  Especially since the other side is guarenteed
to be chock-full of KGB and GRU folks.  Why, I bet that all those
refuseniks will hardly be able to log into the system due to all
the intelligence people sucking up bandwidth.

   (2)  Who is going to pay for the net surveillance to ensure 
export-restricted binaries aren't uuencoded and posted to this
group?  (I guess the F.B.I. should moderate the group since they 
have the responsibility for counter-espionage in the U.S.)

   (3)  Will the newsgroup survive if _all_ corporations with defense
contracts (yes, both of them), and _all_ universities who receive
DoD research money, are required to drop the newsgroup, what if the 
institutions are required to isolate their systems to the arpanet
_solely_?

These are just a few off the top of my head, but I am sure I can think
of many more without straining ... (Oh, by the way, the answer to the
first two questions is the U.S. taxpayer.  The same person who gets to
pay for Toshiba's indiscretion in selling advanced milling equipment
to the Soviets.)

> [and again ... ]
>

If people hunger for contact with the Soviet Union, Radio Moscow can
be heard nightly.  People can also subscribe to _Soviet Life_ magazine.
After all, if glasnost is all its cracked up to be, then these should
be informative and straightforward sources of information ;-).

Have a very nice day!

-- 
Will Bralick : wbralick@afit-ab.arpa  |  If we desire to defeat the enemy,
Air Force Institute of Technology,    |  we must proportion our efforts to 
                                      |  his powers of resistance.
with disclaimer;  use disclaimer;     |               - Carl von Clauswitz