🚀 go-pugleaf

        [This is the second posting of the Petition since many
         people had technical problems with the extremely long
         "Newsgroups:" line with the first posting -- I tried to
         be a good boy and minimize bandwidth, but there is a max
         length that line can be, I guess.  Hopefully this will
         solve the problems for most people -- please sign it!]

        [The above newsgroups have all witnessed the abuses outlined
         in this petition.  Thus they are included in the cross-
         posting.  Followups set to news.admin.misc.]


This Petition is divided into four sections:

1) How to Sign This Petition
2) The COVER LETTER
3) The PETITION STATEMENT
4) Appendix:  Newsgroups That Have Recently Been the Target of Abuse

I apologize for the length of this post, but it is very important to give the
necessary information so the reader can be fully informed.  This is a serious
matter.


-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= 1) How To Sign This Petition -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Important Signing notes:

1) Reply, at the minimum, with the "YES I would..." and "My signature:" lines
   *exactly* as shown below (and add your name to the "My signature:" line.)
2) Please be sure to erase everything below the second "-=-=-=-" line.
3) For your petition to be valid, you _must_ "sign" the "My signature:" line
   with your real and full name.
4) E-MAIL this signature block to voting@qualcomm.com, the neutral 3rd party
   collector, and not to anyone else.

  YES I would like my name/e-mail address to be added to this petition.

  My signature:
 
-=-=-=- When Returning Your Signature, Delete Everything Below Here -=-=-=-



------------------------ 2) The COVER LETTER -------------------------------

Dear Usenet Reader,

I'm sure most Usenet readers are very aware of the ongoing and continuing
abuse of Usenet/Internet originating from Ahmet Cosar's site, nominally
called 'anatolia.org', with most of the abuse coming from user 'Serdar Argic'
(who may be none other than Cosar hiding under a pseudonym).  While we all
support the First Amendment right of individuals such as Cosar/Argic to
present their (or his) views of what happened in Trans-Caucausus early this
century, most of us do not support the terrorist-like tactics emanating from
anatolia.org (and obviously with the full approval of Mr. Cosar) forcing
these views on the Usenet readers in an unacceptable, immoral, and unethical
way.

Thus, attached to this post is the text of a petition, which will be sent
after enough e-mail "signatures" are obtained, to UUNet, the provider of the
feed to Mr. Cosar.  The petition statement outlines in detail the almost
unbelievable abuse Mr. Cosar's site has inflicted upon the Usenet/Internet
community, and obviously with his full approval (as stated above, Mr. Argic
is the "user" contributing most of the abuse -- it is believed by many that
Sergar Argic is none other than Mr. Cosar -- no proof to the contrary has
been offered by Mr. Cosar when challenged on this point.)

A copy of the signed petition will also be sent to other organizations who
may have an interest in this matter and, if necessary, to the media as well.

Please read the petition statement carefully, and if you agree with it,
please "sign" it using the instructions given at the beginning.  Our goal is
to obtain at least 10,000 signatures (the Clipper petition, as an example,
received approximately 50,000 so this is very possible), so PLEASE do take a
few minutes of your time to read the statement and to e-mail your signature,
per the instructions, if you agree with it.  Your signature is very important
and critical!

[And if you happen to disagree with this petition, there is currently no
mechanism (sorry) for tallying "disagree", but you can always start your own
petition drive if you feel strongly enough against this petition.]

****************************************************************************
Special Note to UUNet-site system administrators:  If you plan to sign the
petition, could you also send me private e-mail signifying your support?  I
will use your e-mail support in conjunction with the tallied signatures when
the petition is formally presented to UUNet.
****************************************************************************


Thank you for your support.  I am certain this will compel UUNet to take the
necessary action to eliminate the abuse many of us have experienced from Mr.
Cosar, Sergar Argic, 'anatolia.org', etc.  And please, do forward a copy of
this entire post to your e-mail friends and urge their support as well (if
you choose to repost, please follow the established rules of netiquette, and
be sure to add the line 'Reply-To: voting@qualcomm.com' to the Usenet post).

It is important that we do not permit the proliferation of the type of abuses
Mr. Cosar has become well known for.  After all, if Mr. Cosar can get away
with them, then it is a simple matter for others to do the same.  Remember,
the next site you are saving from a mailbombing attack or other form of abuse
may very well be your own.


Jon Noring
noring@netcom.com

(p.s., much thanks go to many individuals who provided valuable comments in
the drafting of this petition.  Special thanks to Michael Polymenakos
(mpoly@panix.com) for actually writing most of this petition.  Thanks also to
Ron Dippold (rdippold@qualcomm.com) for offering the Usenet voting mechanism
to tally the signatures.  As stated above, he and the tallying organization
remain neutral on this petition.)



---------------------- 3) The PETITION STATEMENT ----------------------------

To Whom It May Concern at UUNet

Dear UUNet:

For well over a year, a subscriber of your Internet feed service (Ahmet
Cosar, owner of the site "anatolia.org") has allowed his site (and all its
leaf nodes) to seriously abuse the Internet and Usenet, mainly through an
individual known as 'Sergar Argic', which appears to be an alias of Mr.
Cosar, and whose abuses are described further in this letter.  Mr. Cosar has
made several posts under his own name that make it clear he himself is the
driving force behind this abuse from the site anatolia.org.  The facts of our
grievances will be outlined below but should only be considered representative
of all of the abuse that has originated from this site as it would take too
many bytes to document fully.

While we *totally* support Mr. Cosar's (and the other "users") First
Amendment rights to free speech over the Internet/Usenet, we feel that he
has a moral, ethical and legal obligation (as we all do) to practice this
right in a manner consistent with well-accepted social practice and norms.
It is clear he and all of his site's "users" have not done this, and have
actively prevented others from being able to exercise their First Amendment
rights bordering on the illegal.  "My right to swing my fist ends where your
nose begins" (quote provided by Matthew Cravit), very eloquently illustrates
this point.  We're afraid Mr. Cosar's site has broken many noses.

Specifically, we demand an end to the many violations through Mr. Cosar's
site, and demand that his site comply *fully* with well-accepted and
understood Internet/Usenet "netiquette", which has been developed to insure
the orderly expression of First Amendment rights.  If these violations
continue, UUNet should terminate all present and future access to Mr. Cosar.

Mr. Cosar's most serious violations include:

- Censoring others by canceling their postings without their permission,
  blatantly violating their First Amendment rights.

- "Mailbombing";  arranging large volumes of unsolicited e-mail to be sent
  to individuals who publicly disagree with the views of Mr. Ahmet Cosar,
  the "Serdar Argic" entity, and other "users" on anatolia.org.  This is a
  terrorist-like act that is not protected by the First Amendment and has no
  place in a civilized society.

- Forging "From:" headers on messages to Usenet, using addresses of people
  who publicly disagree with him.

- Using forged messages to create havoc on various sites, (for example, by
  posting messages to "erotica" newsgroups inviting readers to deposit 
  unsolicited binaries on an FTP site, an action for which he had to
  publicly apologize under threat of legal action).

- Massive "robo-posting", mostly by 'Serdar Argic', as well as other "users"
  such as 'Suhan Artun'.  "Robo-posting" is an automated posting of huge
  amounts of essentially the same text over and over again to a large number
  of Usenet newsgroups (see Appendix), sometimes in excess of 2.5 megabytes
  per day.  This has been so massive that several newsgroups have effectively
  ground to a halt, a noted example being soc.history, thus inhibiting the
  free flow of information and thereby infringing on the First Amendment
  rights of others.  In addition, this action consumes large amounts of net
  resources and has cost many sites, who pay by volume, a significant amount
  of money.

- A substantial amount of these "robo-postings" were and are still being made
  to newsgroups that are completely unrelated to the content of the messages,
  an example being several fraternity/sorority newsgroups!  This, of course,
  is a serious violation of well-accepted netiquette, contained in the Usenet
  document "Rules for Posting".

- Most of the posts originating from Cosar's site have extremely long and
  enhanced (e.g., with underlining) "Subject:" lines that on many newsreaders
  spill over to 3 or 4 lines,  This makes it virtually impossible for many
  Usenet readers to scan "Subject:" lines with their newsreader.

- Multiple site names (over 30 so far) were and are still being used to
  render many "kill" files useless.

- The sites/users that feed into the Internet via Mr. Cosar's connection do
  not accept e-mail, and Mr. Cosar himself generally does not respond to
  e-mail.

- In several cases, Usenet follow-ups were set to "test" groups, in order to
  cause havoc to Usenet beginners. 

- Acts of unneighborliness and even downright hostility towards the readers
  of Usenet.  There are several documented instances of physical threats,
  racial slurs and the like.

- The "robo-posted" material contains large amounts of citations from 
  copyrighted documents, clearly in excess of fair use, and not stating
  anywhere that the material being cited is done with the permission of the
  copyright owners.


The above actions have been a considerable nuisance for Usenet readers and
sysadmins for a long time. In addition to wasting a considerable amount of
bandwidth and net resources (somebody has to pay for all of this, and it's
certainly not all being paid for by Mr. Cosar), Mr. Cosar has also generated
a *very* negative image for UUNet, who provides his feed, as the signatures
below indicate.


We hope that UUNet recognizes that it has a moral, ethical, and legal
responsibility to help maintain a livable environment on Usenet and the
Internet, which assures the free flow of information.  Just like the phone
companies, UUNet has an obligation to put an end to abuses of its own service.

While we understand that e-mail harassment has not yet been legally elevated
to the same level as phone harassment, we sincerely hope that you will agree
to voluntarily impose minimum standards of good conduct on your users/sites.
It is to everyone's interest, including UUNet's, that any abuses of Internet/
Usenet will not reach the level where justification will exist for the
government to regulate its use, as has already happened with practically all
other methods of telecommunication.  When that happens, all of us will lose,
including UUNet.

And note carefully:  we are not asking you to institute standards to regulate
content (the "what"), rather, we are asking that you institute minimum
requirements as to "how" your sites and users are to interact with the
Internet/Usenet.  Even telephone companies, as common carriers, require their
customers to adhere to specific technical requirements so as to not disrupt
telephone service, thus assuring the free flow of information.

We demand you immediately notify Mr. Ahmet Cosar that you will no longer
permit abuse of the network by his site, or any of the other "sites"/"users"
that he provides with a feed.  We demand that Mr. Cosar *fully* comply with
the following terms or else have his UUNet connection terminated until he
agrees to *all* of these terms:

- All posts made from or through his site must comply with the "Rules for
  Posting", periodically posted to the newsgroup news.announce.newusers.
  One of these rules, which has been chronically violated through Cosar's site,
  states that the subject matter of all posts must comply with the established
  Charter of the newsgroup.  If no Charter exists, then the posts must comply
  with the well-developed traditions and intent established for the newsgroup.
  
- He and all of his users must restrict the daily total number and kilobytes
  of posts per user per day to within some upper limit acceptable to Usenet.
  This must be worked out in good faith between UUNet, Mr. Cosar, and
  representatives of the Usenet community.  In addition, because it is unclear
  who the "users" are (and to avoid the creation of non-existent "users" to 
  get around the byte/number limitation per user), clear proof must be given
  to UUNet, upon demand, that any "user" actually exists and is not just a
  pseudonym for another user.  In no way shall Mr. Cosar's First Amendment
  rights to free expression and to be able to reply to others be inhibited.
  (We encourage Mr. Cosar to establish a ftp site to store and make his
  material available to the net so he can refer individuals to it and save
  bandwidth.)

- The line lengths of all "Subject:" headers must be less than 70 characters
  and must not use any enhancements such as underlining.

- He and all of his users must not physically threaten anyone through Usenet
  posts or through e-mail.  Physical threats are not protected by the First
  Amendment.

- He and all of his users must not post Usenet messages, or transmit e-mail
  messages, with forged "From:" headers.

- The "From:" line in all posts and e-mail originating from or through Cosar's
  site must contain the domain name 'anatolia.org'.

- He and all of his users must not cancel the postings of others.

- He and all of his users must not rmgroup any newsgroup from any hierarchy
  unless they follow the accepted procedure established on Usenet for the
  hierarchy the newsgroup is located in.  Removing newsgroups without such
  approval violates the First Amendment rights of others.

- He must make sure that all e-mail addresses used to post Usenet messages
  accept e-mail, or alternatively, provide *valid* e-mail addresses for all
  users posting through his site.

- He and all of his users must not "mailbomb" any individual or site with
  unsolicited messages.  We define a "mailbomb" as unsolicitated e-mail to
  any user totaling 32K or more (sum total for all messages), or a total of
  four or more e-mail messages, regardless of size.  If the individual
  demands by an e-mail reply that no further e-mail be sent to him/her
  through Cosar's site, then no more unsolicited e-mail on any subject and of
  any size can be sent to that individual through Cosar's site at any time in
  the future.

- He and all of his users must not use inappropriate "Followup-to: *.test"
  headers, as well as using other newsgroups that also violate the "Rules for
  Posting".


These restrictions should apply to all users of "anatolia.org", and all 
users of all leaf nodes of "anatolia.org".  We do recognize that in his role
as site administrator, Mr. Cosar may not have total control of the "users"
under his jurisdiction (assuming they are not Mr. Cosar himself), so UUNet
must take into account the steps Mr. Cosar takes to stop the errant user from
continuing activity not allowed in the terms given above.  In this case UUNet
will consider the "good faith" of Mr. Cosar in dealing with any complaints
about his site or any of his users.  Note, too, that UUNet could give
authority to an independent committee, for example drawn from the Internet on
a volunteer basis, to study alleged violations of the above terms, and other
abuses if they arise, and to make recommendations to UUNet as to the proper
response.

The terms and conditions outlined above do not, by any means, restrict Mr.
Cosar and his "users" from exercising their First Amendment rights to free
expression.  We believe these terms will not only stop the abuse of the
Internet/Usenet from "anatolia.org", but they will benefit Mr. Cosar since
readers will now be able to focus more on "what" is said in the posts rather
than on "how" it is said.  Many of us do find the information coming from Mr.
Cosar's site to be worthy of critical discussion, but it is impossible for us
to look at it objectively when it is presented in such an offensive and
abusive manner, and that discourse on it is prevented by the terrorist-like
tactics outlined above.

Sincerely,

The undersigned members of the Internet Community.

------------------The End of the Petition Statement------------------------


---- 4) Appendix:  Newsgroups That Have Recently Been the Target of Abuse ----

alt.activism
alt.binaries.pictures.erotica.d
alt.college.fraternities
alt.college.sororities
alt.comp.acad-freedom.talk
alt.conspiracy
alt.fan.serdar-argic
alt.fraternity.sorority
alt.journalism.criticism
alt.politics.correct
alt.retromod
alt.revisionism
alt.usenet.kooks
bit.listserv.literary
bit.listserv.politics
misc.headlines
misc.legal
news.admin.misc
news.admin.policy
rec.arts.books
sci.anthropology
sci.engr
sci.physics
soc.college
soc.culture.arabic
soc.culture.bosna-herzgvna
soc.culture.british
soc.culture.canada
soc.culture.croatia
soc.culture.europe
soc.culture.german
soc.culture.greek
soc.culture.iranian
soc.culture.israel
soc.culture.jewish
soc.culture.malaysia
soc.culture.nordic
soc.culture.soviet
soc.culture.turkish
soc.culture.yugoslavia
soc.history
talk.politics.guns
talk.politics.mideast
talk.politics.soviet


-------------------- The End of the Petition, Thank You --------------------

Please Sign this Petition!  It's Easy!  Instructions at the top of this post!

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