EFA Newsletter
Vol 1 No 5 - 2nd November 1995 


     //////     //////    //\\         ELECTRONIC FRONTIERS AUSTRALIA
    //         //        //  \\               editor@efa.org.au
   //         //        //    \\          http://www.efa.org.au/EFA
  /////      /////     /////\\\\\        ftp://ftp.efa.org.au/pub/efa
 //         //        //        \\        Phone: 08 384 7316 (+618) 
//////// * //      * //          \\ *  PO Box 392 North Adelaide SA 5006
                                       Fidonet: EFA Editor at 3:632/552
Your volunteer voice on the electronic frontier.

Contents

First they came for the hackers. But I never did anything
illegal with my computer, so I didn't speak up.
Then they came for the pornographers. But I thought there was
too much smut on the Internet anyway, so I didn't speak up.
Then they came for the anonymous remailers. But a lot of nasty
stuff gets sent from anon.penet.fi, so I didn't speak up.
Then they came for the encryption users. But I could never
figure out how to work PGP anyway, so I didn't speak up.
Then they came for me. And by that time there was no one left
to speak up.
--based on a quote from Pastor Martin Niemoller
(Alara Rogers, Aleph Press) [via paul@hsh.com ]

NEWS

EFA board for 1995/96

At the Electronic Frontiers Australia Annual General Meeting on 9th October 1995, the following people were elected to board positions:
Chairman
Kimberley Heitman
Vice-Chairman
Michael Malone
Secretary
Brenda Aynsley
Treasurer
John Leishman
General Board Members
David A. Vincent
Simon Vandore
Val Thomson
Kerrin Pine
Michael Baker
At subsequent meetings, additional areas of responsibility were allocated as follows (please note these should you wish to contact EFA):
Kimberley Heitman:
General EFA business, Internet regulation and legal matters
Brenda Aynsley:
Membership, Women's issues
Michael Baker:
Cryptography
David A. Vincent:
EFA Internet services
Simon Vandore:
Newsletter
The board intends to soon make further appointments as follows:
Information Officer
keeping all info about EFA up to date
Volunteer Coordinator
arranging tasks for people and people for tasks
Press Officer
issuing press releases, keeping high profile with media
Political Research
background research on politicians, issues, etc
Please contact EFA if you feel you can help with any of these areas.

DCA responds to EFA input

Earlier this year, EFA submitted a detailed response to proposals outlined in the draft consultation paper on the regulation of on-line information services, released by The Department of Communications and the Arts (DCA) in Australia.

We have received word from the Informaiton and Communications Services Policy Group at the DCA, that a report on the consultation process will soon be released, quoting EFA's response.

US privacy report

A new US government report urges all communications providers to adopt a self-regulated, voluntary approach to the online privacy of their users. The National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) report, released on October 23, is available online at http://www.ntia.doc.gov:70/00/policy/privwhitepaper.html. A text version is located at: gopher://www.ntia.doc.gov:70/00/policy/privwhitepaper.txt

Your time is up!

Membership renewals for 1995/96 are due as of 1 November 1995. EFA membership is only $20, so please lend your support to this good cause.

You can renew your membership in any of the following ways:

If any of your details have changed, please let membership@efa.org.au know so as to update your record.

Lost members - if you are a member and did not receive email notification of the AGM, you are among the few members for whom we do not have a valid email address. Please contact membership@efa.org.au with your prefered email address(es). Thank you.

If you can take a more active role please do contact volunteer@efa.org.au to offer your services. We can really use you!

New directions

EFA has formed three new committees to handle burning issues within the Australian online community.

The first action of the WOMEN'S COMMITTEE was to set up a moderated mailing list for the discussion of issues affecting women online. To subscribe to this forum, send an e-mail message to majordomo@efa.org.au containing the words "subscribe efa-women" in the body of the message. To post a message to the list, send it to efa-women@efa.org.au. Contact Brenda Aynsley (secretary@efa.org.au) or Val Thomson (vthomson@pcug.org.au) for more information.

Meanwhile, EFA's CRYPTOGRAPHY COMMITTEE will work towards preventing unnecessary regulation of encryption technologies (PGP, etc) and promoting the benefits of strong encryption for the online community. Contact Michael Baker (mbaker@frisbee.net.au) if you would like to become involved, as EFA is seeking to include several non-board members on this committee.

Convenor of the NET SERVICES COMMITTEE is David A. Vincent (dvincent@zeta.org.au). This group will work on expanding EFA's online services, such as our Web site at http://www.efa.org.au/EFA and our FTP site, ftp.efa.org.au (directory /pub/efa).

The cyberspace AGM

Australia is a big country, and there are EFA members in every state -- it's hard to get everyone together for a meeting. Therefore, EFA is trying to develop a good model for online meetings.

The board meets regularly via Internet Relay Chat, but 9th October was our first experiment with a combined virtual/physical AGM.

The AGM went very well, in contrast to the regular board meetings, where typing speeds and communications lags had dragged down the pace of the physical meeting.

We believe the AGM worked because the format was very different -- our rules state that all business to be transacted has to be included in the notice calling the meeting. Each item on the agenda had an associated motion, with reports backing up several of the items, and though there were many discussions, there were few distractions and the meeting concluded in good time.

WHO THE HELL ARE THESE PEOPLE ANYWAY? :)

We thought you might like to know a little more about the board...
Kimberley Heitman
is a Perth lawyer, 37 years, with a long-time interest in legal issues concerning online services. Co-ordinates EFA's legal work and assists related organisations, EFA general enquiries and official submissions.
Michael Baker
is 46, has a PhD in Energy Resarch, is a Software Engineer with GEC Marconi Systems, lives in the Adelaide Hills with his daughter and has been involved with EFA since asking "is there an organisation like EFF in Australia?" on Echos and Newsgroups two years ago.
Michael Malone
is a director of Western Australian Internet Service Provider iiNet Technologies and a board member of Linux International. Michael is now vice chairman of EFA, but still principally handles technical matters.
Brenda Aynsley
is 47, an Internet consultant and operator of The Cyber Net Space internet access and training centre, a cyber cafe in Glenelg, Adelaide, South Australia. Personal URL: http://www.iss.net.au/bpabio.html
D A Vincent
is 31, has a BSc in Computer Science, is a Software Engineer with STN Atlas (Australia) lives in South Sydney, and has been involved with EFA since its formation.
Val Thomson
is 45, a former music teacher, former public servant, retired on account of mobility problems. Online since 1991, Internet access since 1995. Strong interest in ensuring that CMCs are open to everyone.
Simon Vandore
is 25, holds a degree in Communication and works as a freelance writer based in Sydney, NSW. He began using the Internet in early 1994, seeing it as the future of media, and joined EFA after stumbling across its Web site and finding a request for a newsletter editor.
Kerrin Pine
resides in South Australia and is an online citizen from way back. Kerrin is quite possibly EFA's youngest member with his major interests in cryptography and fundamental privacy, be it on- or off-line.

STAY IN TOUCH WITH EFA!

How to join

Membership of EFA costs just $20 per year and for that you get to belong to the premier electronic communications organisation in Australia; you get issues of the Newsletter on line or in the mail if you have no electronic address, you have the opportunity to contribute to the growth of Electronic Frontiers Australia and volunteer your time and talents in this endeavour. Please consider joining us -- it only costs $20 and the form to complete is attached to the end of this newsletter, as well as being online at http://www.efa.org.au/EFA and ftp://ftp.efa.org.au/pub/efa. The membership form is also mailed automatically to anyone who sends email to efa-info@efa.org.au or netmail to efa-info at 3:800/846.

How to follow EFA activities

Members of the Board

Position
Name Fidonet Internet address
Chairman
Kimberley Heitman 3:690/254.14 kheitman@it.com.au phone 09 458 2790, fax 09 356 1247
Vice Chair
Michael Malone pariah@iinet.net.au
Secretary
Brenda Aynsley secretary@efa.org.au
Treasurer
John Leishman 3:632/552 jleishma@ozemail.com.au
Net Surfing & FTP Admin
David A Vincent 3:632/552 dvincent@zeta.org.au
Crypto
Michael Baker 3:800/838 mbaker@frisbee.net.au
Val Thomson 3:620/243.6 vthomson@pcug.org.au
Kerrin Pine kerrinp@byron.apana.org.au
Newsletter
Simon Vandore 3:632/552 simon@magna.com.au

TIP OF THE MONTH

What is PGP?
PGP (Pretty Good Privacy) has been called "public-key encryption for the masses". It's a clever piece of software which lets you send e-mail and other files to anyone in the world, in complete privacy. It also allows "authentication" - like a digital signature - so that you can be sure who the message is really coming from. Best of all, it's free!
Check out <http://www.ifi.uio.no/pgp/why_PGP.shtml> for a well written summary of why you might need to use PGP.
There is a common misconception that normal people don't need to use cryptography - that only big corporations and criminals have a need to hide their communications. If this was true, then surely we'd be writing all our letters to each other on postcards. Using PGP on e-mail is no stranger than using envelopes in real life.
Never before has military-grade encryption been available to the normal public. Whether you're transfering your credit card information to make an on-line purchase, or simply e-mailing a friend, PGP is an investment in your privacy.
How to obtain PGP
Because of patent restrictions, and the fact that PGP is classified as a munition by the US government (yep, right next to tanks and air-to-air missiles), PGP is not available to Australians from FTP sites in the US.
An international version free of all restrictions is available from the International PGP Home Page <http://www.ifi.uio.no/pgp/>, or from an Australian mirror: FTP to ftp.cc.adfa.oz.au, directory /pub/security/pgp26i.
The latest and best version is 2.6.2i, and versions are available for DOS/Windows, Macintosh and UNIX, among others.
ELECTRONIC FRONTIERS AUSTRALIA Inc. is an association of Net.residents and people with a common interest in the digital community, computer based communication systems, online information services, and "cyberspace", whatever that means. Modelled on the USA's Electronic Frontiers Foundation, its objectives are: Policymakers and media representatives are encouraged to contact EFA for input and comment where relevant.

On the Internet, you can find more information about EFA at our World Wide Web site, http://www.efa.org.au/EFA, or by sending email to efa-info@efa.org.au.

Ways to get EFA information via Fidonet:

Submissions to this newsletter are strongly encouraged. Ideas and brief articles for future issues should be sent to editor@efa.org.au or EFA Editor at 632/522. Keep the ideas coming!
© Copyright 1995 Electronic Frontiers Australia Inc.
Permission is hereby given for redistribution on networks, but distribution via other media is subject to the written permission of the EFA Board. Views expressed in this newsletter are those of the authors only, and not necessarily those of Electronic Frontiers Australia.

MEMBERSHIP FORM

The EFA Membership Form is online at membership and ftp://ftp.efa.org.au/pub/efa. The membership form is also mailed automatically to anyone who sends email to efa-info@efa.org.au or netmail to efa-info at 3:800/846.