Cypherpatriots, Here's a little experiment I've been conducting. A week ago I posted an ecrypted GIF to a bizarre new newsgroup that showed up on NETCOM, "alt.binaries.pictures.erotica.children." Quite a controversial group, pushing several buttons. My posting generated some real heat, though there was absolutely no evidence it was anything more than just a file. Apparently the mere fact of it existing was a kind of "thoughtcrime" in these politically correct times. Anyway, I let it brew for one week, then wrote this explanation and posted it. Several Cypherpunk list readers were slightly involved, some to criticize me, some to say "Not so fast." You know who you are. :-} All in all, a pleasant little experiment. Here's the posting I sent out: Newsgroups: alt.binaries.pictures.erotica.children,alt.config,netcom.netnews From: tcmay@netcom.com (Timothy C. May) Subject: GIFs--Now it can be told Message-ID: Date: Sat, 3 Jul 1993 09:28:29 GMT One week ago tonight a new group appeared at my site, "alt.binaries.pictures.erotica.children," a group certain to provoke controversy, to bring out the Net Cops, and to induce a certain kind of "Stockholm Syndrome," wherein some folks scramble to initiate censorship prior even to the Feds doing it. (Their battle cry is "Eeek! If we don't nip this in the bud, _right now_, think of what might happen!) My experience has been that these Net.Censors are usually too quick to claim something has clearly gone beyond the bounds of decency and acceptability. Thankfully, they usually fail in their efforts. Anyway, seeing this strange new group appear on my system, I decided to conduct an experiment. I posted an "encrypted GIF," not further identified, and waited for the reaction. The file was as follows (only part of it shown): -----BEGIN PGP MESSAGE----- Version: 2.2 b2cCrVJKUYUZf7UBA/i1tSSz66dOx4+cJKzNkm1JBhGigMdRvxM8Slm3TyC7kgWW L8J3w/On10thisi487rU/Gl7xOMajxCQedHrb6k0+wYDGjxmVcu9xwLWAWpkgq+5 fUiNKBnF/SUA/JisFrWvn63rt44n+DqROwx8CXuSvL1mUdqLRTS0t/timjHnhIwC VmLN1FTnSD8BBACFa38SqiwByarfcVhFg/fuKWc4AgKtYqSt5oWW6sYLckC3nEen ZcHV+DNFo36Exg7r0trapoBXpjoe9ENCsCbFJ7i/M7FwFYvK1QAcxQ6zGt+3HICM 9Hsxg1d5Goqp4+nmpW+9Y/UVY16+WVl9moY3c7Iv04Cp0ipu2B5qfIxPZoSMAlKv ..... Not to my surprise, about 20 people have (so far) requested the key to this file. (The whole encryption rationale is covered later.) I didn't reply to them...some of them asked for the key a second time! What surprised me is that nobody carefully looked at the file. Here it is again, with some places marked: -----BEGIN PGP MESSAGE----- Version: 2.2 b2cCrVJKUYUZf7UBA/i1tSSz66dOx4+cJKzNkm1JBhGigMdRvxM8Slm3TyC7kgWW L8J3w/On10thisi487rU/Gl7xOMajxCQedHrb6k0+wYDGjxmVcu9xwLWAWpkgq+5 ^^^^ fUiNKBnF/SUA/JisFrWvn63rt44n+DqROwx8CXuSvL1mUdqLRTS0t/timjHnhIwC ^^ VmLN1FTnSD8BBACFa38SqiwByarfcVhFg/fuKWc4AgKtYqSt5oWW6sYLckC3nEen ^ ZcHV+DNFo36Exg7r0trapoBXpjoe9ENCsCbFJ7i/M7FwFYvK1QAcxQ6zGt+3HICM ^^^^ 9Hsxg1d5Goqp4+nmpW+9Y/UVY16+WVl9moY3c7Iv04Cp0ipu2B5qfIxPZoSMAlKv ....... I put a couple of other "subliminal messages" in, which I suppose could provoke the Religious Right into squawking that "Satanic messages" are being hidden in computer files *that children could possibly read*. Gasp! Needless to say, such ASCII surgery performed on a PGP file (which, by the way, was just some random message someone had sent me a while back, utterly unreadable by anyone other than the two of us--and not even that after I mutated various characters) makes it completely unreadable. Even if someone had the other half of the PGP key pair--which never existed--the file would not even checksum as a legal PGP file! (Putting plaintext into the file was both a message I hoped astute readers would eventually notice--though it *is* pretty hard to see--and an ironclad proof that the file could not be a real PGP message, let alone a GIF, let alone kiddie porn.) There are some quasi-legitimate issues surrounding the area of child erotica. Was the child coerced? Was consent meaningful? Etc. But the posting of mere bits qua bits causing such anger and flamage indicates a serious overreaction. Are mere thoughts the crime? Orwell covered this, didn't he? * What if such images merely "look like" children (and just what is the age of consent? 18? 16? "Children" of 15 can get married in most countries of the world.)...are such "fakes" illegal? * What if they are computer-generated images, of children that never existed outside of a computer? Which children were exploited? We're back to thoughtcrime again. (Don't laugh, a leading interpretation is that even computer-generated child porn would be illegal, not because of crimes committed against children, but because of the "atmosphere" and "climate" it might produce. That is, thoughtcrime.) * What if the images were morphs? Not wholly computer-generated, but the morph of an adult image into that of a child? * What if one 15-year old child took photos of a another 15-year old child? What if one child "exploited" another? What if a child took pictures of herself, self-portraits? * What if the images, if they were ever to be posted, originated someplace where they are legal? Perhaps Amsterdam, someone suggested. If the U.S government tries to stop the Net (which is already a market anarchy, thankfully) from distributing this material, mightn't all the various countries that have different laws than ours do the same thing? There goes alt.fan.salman.rushdie. And there goes soc.motss and all the "normal" alt.binaries.pictures.* groups. Of course it won't likely happen, nor will alt.binaries.pictures.erotica.children go away,either. Get used to it. (Again, I don't care for it, but wailing and moaning won't make it go away.) * What if someone scanned-in images from the widely available books by David Hamilton, or Robert Mapplethorpe? Certainly many of these photos are of nude children...would the imminent death of Usenet finally happen if someone went down to B. Dalton Books, bought a David Hamilton collection, and posted some of the photos in a.b.p.e.c.? So, I would encourage folks to lighten up. In a week on the Net, not a single kiddie porn picture has been posted. And if it does happen, try to just ignore it. The kid whose picture was taken is probably grown up by now (I'm guessing that many such images are from old magazines, etc.). In any case, the occasional picture is hardly going to create a new slave trade in children. The issue of how the media may react is a more serious one. Part of the reason I'm explaining my little experiment now is to make sure my posting, at least, is not used by some nitwit reporter as the basis of a story. (If it's being used, then he'll soon have egg on his face.) That's the story. I hope you enjoyed the ride. P.S. I said I'd say something about why I used encryption. Aside from not being a real PGP-readable file, the idea was to make it look like one. This is the likeliest way for such material to get posted, along with anonymous remailers. The "look for the key in the 'usual places'" bit was to resonate with the "binary nerve gas" idea, where the dangerous pieces are stored separately and only combined at the last minute. I don't know if such techniques are already in use, but I expect them soon. The mutant condors that one reader (who claimed to be a Pope in the Church of the Subgenius, but who humorlessly missed the joke--but I forgive him, for he knew not what he saw) wanted to feed me to, can now stop circling my house. -Tim May -- .......................................................................... Timothy C. May | Crypto Anarchy: encryption, digital money, tcmay@netcom.com | anonymous networks, digital pseudonyms, zero 408-688-5409 | knowledge, reputations, information markets, W.A.S.T.E.: Aptos, CA | black markets, collapse of governments. Higher Power: 2^756839 | Public Key: PGP and MailSafe available. Note: I put time and money into writing this posting. I hope you enjoy it. --