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Monthly Posting

			FAQ: Internet Users Strike Back at Censors
			
			      <http://www.paranoia.com/~goat/fdma/index.html>
				  

When people started posting ideas he didn't like, Michael Scheidell
began deleting posts to the anarchistic world bulletin board USENET
from his company's Internet presence.  Under the justification that
the messages were unwanted "spam," or posts sent to too many
newsgroups, Scheidell deleted almost half of a debate before someone
noticed.

However, the someone who noticed told others, who investigated and
uncovered the bizarre Web of his own that Scheidell was weaving on the
Internet -- a paranoid conspiracy to strengthen the viability of
USENET as a commercial medium so that he could sell computer
equipment, software, consulting, and Bible study guides through the
'Net.

Other posters helped collaborate in the research and eventual Web site
to publicize the event.  After some deliberation, they decided to call
for a "boycott of Scheidell and his company, Florida Datamation,
Inc.".  When asked why, one poster said, "Well, he was deleting posts
so that they wouldn't interfere with the 'serious business' of USENET
-- Scheidell's serious business!  We got in the way of his dream of a
virtual salescape."

Florida Datamation, Inc., based in Boca Raton, FL, sells computer
hardware such as 486 and Pentium machines as well as software,
including the top-selling THEOS and QNX operating systems.  Scheidell,
previously a consultant, started the business in 1981 after other
business ventures ended prematurely.

Although Scheidell denied all claims against him, three Internet users
aided the investigation by using World Wide Web search tools to
discover deleted messages in the public archives of USENET.  The
archives, kept by Digital Research corporation, revealed that messages
were deleting for being posted to as few as two groups and often
without announcement.

Coming in the space of indecision after the courts have refused to
enforce the controversial Communications Decency Act, this boycott
could author the prototype for future response against abusers of the
Internet.  "I wouldn't be surprised if this motivates some people to
boycott their taxes," said one of the Internet researchers.

Take a look at what others have discovered and read what the
victimized posters have to say in "Striking Back at Censorship" at
<http://www.paranoia.com/~goat/fdma/>.


Copyright 1996 mH productions