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Be better. http://click.topica.com/aaaalHbz8SnrbAjwjxa/ScoreCardUSA6 ------------------------------------------------------------ __________________________________________________________________________ The Internet Anti-Fascist: Tuesday, 16 May 2000 Vol. 4, Number 41 (#422) __________________________________________________________________________ Web Sites of Interest: "The Truth Campaign [sic]" The Authoritarian Net In the News Declan McCullagh (Wired), "Cyber-treaty Goes Too Far?," 3 May 00 Reuters, "Denounced Museum to Open Its Archive on Internet," 11 May 00 Reuters, "Paris prosecutor condemns Nazi auctions on Yahoo," 15 May 00 -------------------------------------------------------------------------- WEB SITES OF INTEREST: "The Truth Campaign [sic]: Conspiracies, Health Issues, Enlightened Science, Spirituality" <http://www.vegan.swinternet.co.uk/truthcampaign.html> This web site is interesting for the empirical evidence it provides for the existence of "green fascism" and how those phenomenon grouped under "New Age" can easily take on a reactionary form. The site features the Holocaust-denying Institute for Historical Review and Radio Islam. It describes denier David Irving as "the world's foremost WW2 historian" and features a new translation of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion. At the same time it also features People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, the Vegan Society, and the British Anti-Vivisection Association. It seems that Jews and the Roma ("Gypsies"), but not dogs and cats, are the only groups that can be ethically visisected! -------------------------------------------------------------------------- THE AUTHORITARIAN NET IN THE NEWS: Cyber-treaty Goes Too Far? Declan McCullagh (Wired) 3 May 00 WASHINGTON D.C. -- U.S. and European police agencies will receive new powers to investigate and prosecute computer crimes, according to a preliminary draft of a treaty being circulated among over 40 nations. The Council of Europe's 65KB proposal is designed to aid police in investigations of online miscreants in cases where attacks on intrusions cross national borders. But the details of the "Draft Convention on Cybercrime" worry U.S. civil libertarians. They warn that the plan would violate longstanding privacy rights and grant the government far too much power. The proposal, which is expected to be finalized by December 2000 and appears to be the first computer crime treaty, would: * Make it a crime to create, download, or post on a website any computer program that is "designed or adapted" primarily to gain access to a computer system without permission. Also banned is software designed to interfere with the "functioning of a computer system" by deleting or altering data. * Allow authorities to order someone to reveal his or her passphrase for an encryption key. According to a recent survey, only Singapore and Malaysia have enacted such a requirement into law, and experts say that in the United States it could run afoul of constitutional protections against self-incrimination. * Internationalize a U.S. law that makes it a crime to possess even digital images that "appear" to represent children's genitals or children engaged in sexual conduct. Linking to such a site also would be a crime. * Require websites and Internet providers to collect information about their users, a rule that would potentially limit anonymous remailers. - - - - Denounced Museum to Open Its Archive on Internet Reuters 11 May 00 AUGSBURG, Germany -- A German museum denounced by the World Jewish Congress for concealing the past of its Nazi art dealer patron said Thursday it backed probes into looted artworks and would open its archive on the Internet. Augsburg cultural affairs spokesman Ekkehard Gesler told Reuters the city's Municipal Art Museum was also considering employing a historian to catalog documents relating to major donor Karl Haberstock, who sold Hitler more than 100 paintings. "We are playing an open hand and don't want to cover anything up," Gesler said. He admitted the omission of Haberstock's Nazi connections from a 1991 exhibition catalog was insensitive but he rejected WJC accusations that exhibits had been plundered from Holocaust victims and a WJC researcher denied access to museum records. The WJC said Wednesday it was considering whether to ask German intellectuals and the country's other museums to boycott Augsburg for glorifying a man who U.S. military records condemn as "the leading Nazi art dealer." But Gesler said the museum did not honor Haberstock -- who has a gallery named after him and whose bust once held pride of place near the entrance - - and refused to disown its major donor. He rejected WJC demands to strip the Haberstock foundation of the name of its patron, who died in 1956 after he escaped sentencing at the Nuremberg war crimes tribunal in return for giving evidence against other dealers. "That would require a change to the foundation's whole constitution and that's not at our discretion," he said. Art historian Jonathan Petropoulos says Haberstock acquired his collection by getting rich from Holocaust victims, but most of the art in the Augsburg museum was vetted by the Allies after World War Two and is therefore not Nazi plunder. The managers of the Haberstock foundation would publish details of the origins of the disputed paintings by next Monday, Gesler said. WJC executives are expected to formally submit their complaints to the Augsburg museum on May 18. - - - - - Paris prosecutor condemns Nazi auctions on Yahoo Reuters 15 May 00 PARIS -- A French state prosecutor demanded on Monday that a judge take action against Internet portal Yahoo! Inc (NasdaqNM:YHOO - news) for allowing the sale of Nazi memorabilia on one of the web sites it hosts. The International League against Racism and Anti-Semitism (LICRA) brought the case against the California-based company in April in a bid to stop the English language on-line sales from appearing in France. Prosecutor Pierre Dillange told a Paris court that it would be "opportune" to impose "constraints and an injunction" against Yahoo, but did not specify exactly measures he wanted applied. Judge Jean-Jacques Gomez is expected to give his verdict on May 21. Web companies are closely watching the case, which could have big implications for Internet usage in France. Lawyers representing Yahoo said it was not technically possible for the company to scan the content of all the sites carried on its service and added that under U.S. law such auctions were permissible. A Yahoo.com auction site puts hundreds of Nazi or neo-Nazi, or Ku Klux Klan objects up for auction each day, including films, swastikas, uniforms, daggers, photos and medals. Under French law, it is illegal to exhibit or sell objects with racist overtones. "Yahoo is an ally of revisionists and contributes to their propaganda," LICRA lawyer Stephane Lilti told the court. Yahoo came under fire in February from another anti-racism group, the Anti- Defamation League, which accused the web service provider of hosting dozens of sites that promoted messages from racist hate groups including neo-Nazis and the Ku Klux Klan. * * * * * In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. section 107, this material is distributed without profit or payment to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving this information for non-profit research and educational purposes only. __________________________________________________________________________ FASCISM: We have no ethical right to forgive, no historical right to forget. (No permission required for noncommercial reproduction) - - - - - back issues archived via: <ftp://ftp.nyct.net/pub/users/tallpaul/publish/tinaf/> --- Sponsor's Message -------------------------------------- Play sports? How GOOD are you? Create your free personal Scorecard. Keep your sports stats online. 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