EFA Newsletter
Vol 2 No 2 - 2nd August 1996 


     //////     //////    //\\         ELECTRONIC FRONTIERS AUSTRALIA
    //         //        //  \\               editor@efa.org.au

   //         //        //    \\          http://www.efa.org.au/
  /////      /////     /////\\\\\        
 //         //        //        \\        Phone: 08 384 7316 (+618) 
//////// * //      * //          \\ *  PO Box 382 North Adelaide SA 5006
                                          Fidonet: EFA at 3:800/846
Your volunteer voice on the electronic frontier.

It is not the function of our Government to keep the citizen from falling into error; it is the function of the citizen to keep the Government from falling into error.

Contents

The STOP! Campaign

On 9th June 1996, Electronic Frontiers Australia Inc. (EFA) initiated the Australia-wide STOP! campaign aimed at preventing the introduction of poorly conceived state laws regulating the Internet in Australia. EFA mounted this campaign in order to convince the Attorneys General of this country that their proposals were badly drafted, unworkable, economically damaging and would do nothing to achieve their stated aims. The campaign was initially directed at lobbying Attorneys General prior to their meeting on July 11/12.

EFA salutes all those members and other individuals and organisations who responded to the campaign by contacting their respective Attorneys General. The battle is not yet over, but it has now moved to a different battleground.

ABA Report released

On July 5th, the Minister for Communications and the Arts, Senator Richard Alston, announced the release of the Australian Broadcasting Authority (ABA) report. The report is available on-line on the ABA Web site. This extensive report made a number of recommendations supporting a largely self-regulatory regime based on Codes of Conduct to be developed in consultation with the Internet industry. The report also strongly endorsed the PICS standard as a means of controlling access to on-line material.

Attorneys General Meeting

At a meeting in Sydney on July 11/12, the Standing Committee of Attorneys General (SCAG), decided to put the proposed state legislation "on hold" and effectively handed over responsibility to the Australian Broadcasting Authority. Western Australia, however, is still proceeding independently with its own legislation, while Victoria and N.T. are retaining their existing legislation.

EFA has released an Info Document outlining the situation as we currently understand it.

Further activity in the legislative area is now uncertain. The Attorneys General will meet again in October to reconsider the situation. In the meantime, EFA is concentrating its efforts on the ABA and will be submitting a response to the ABA report in the next few weeks.

For further details see the STOP! Campaign page.

Join the Action Mailing List

EFA has established a public mailing list for discussion on regulatory action. This mailing list is open to anyone who is interested in this issue.

To be added to the list, send an E-mail message to:

action-request@efa.org.au
with the word subscribe in the body of the email.

EFA NEWS

Annual General Meeting

The Annual General Meeting of Electronic Frontiers Australia Inc. will be held in Adelaide on Sunday 22 September 1996 at 3.00 pm Eastern Standard Time. Members who are unable to attend the meeting in person will be able to participate by IRC.

Agenda items for the Annual General Meeting close on 25 August 1996.

Voting for motions to be put to the Annual General Meeting will be via postal ballot, with ballots to be received by the Secretary no later than last mail on Friday 20 September 1996.

The agenda for the Annual General Meeting will be circulated to all financial members at least 21 days prior to the meeting, together with voting papers for all motions to be considered at that meeting.

Call for Board Nominations

At the AGM, election of board members and office holders of the EFA will take place.

Nominations for all positions are now being canvassed, and any financial member of Electronic Frontiers Australia Inc. can nominate. Nominations for more than one position will be accepted.

Positions available are:

(The above constitute the Executive of the EFA.)

The board of the EFA meet monthly (currently on the second Sunday of each month) via Internet Relay Chat.

Each board member must be able to regularly attend each meeting (via IRC), and be available for projects or tasks allocated to them by the board (working parties, committees, etc).

Nominations must be sent to the Secretary of Electronic Frontiers Australia at one of the following addresses:

and must be received by NO LATER than 3.00 PM (Eastern Standard Time) on Sunday 15 September 1996.

A nomination should be signed (either by E-mail or personally) and should state which position(s) you are nominating for.

Example:

NOMINATION FORM 

Name:           Jane Doe
Address:        PO Box 382, North Adelaide  SA  5006
Email:          jane_doe@efa.org.au

Telephone:      (08) 1234 5678

I wish to nominate for the following position(s) on the Board of the
Electronic Frontiers Australia Inc.:

        Vice-Chair
        General Board Member

(signed Jane Doe)
Date

EFA on IRC Tuesday Nights

EFA invites you to participate in our regular weekly on-line discussion with the board of EFA and other interested Internet users.

We are looking for a volunteer who will coordinate these Tuesday Night IRC meetings. You should have experience with Internet Relay Chat and be competent in the management of chat channels.

The purpose of the regular on-line meetings is to promote EFA and to encourage lively debate about current online issues. Issues that have been discussed during our meetings have been net regulation and the activities of State Government Attorneys General in moving towards regulation of the Net.

The role of the IRC coordinator will be to:

  1. publicise the regular meeting via newsgroups and through the EFA Web page
  2. start the chat #efa each Tuesday night at 8.45 pm (Eastern Standard Time)
  3. welcome visitors to the channel
  4. manage the channel

    If you would like to contribute to the success of the EFA, then this would be an excellent way to get involved.

    To express your interest in this role, please send an E-Mail to:

    by Sunday 4 August 1996.

    Details of the IRC sessions are as follows:

    Servers:

    The first two servers are available on ports 6666, 6668, 7000, and 7777 as well as the default 6667.

    Channel: #efa
    Date: Every Tuesday evening
    Time: 9.00 pm (EST)

    Board members will be in attendance throughout the night on the channel and will welcome any questions, comments or feedback you may have. Board Members can be identified by the "\" in front of their nicknames.

    The topic of the current discussion will be posted as part of the channel title.

    At times the channel may become moderated (depending on the number of participants). If this is the case details on how to ask questions and comment will be posted on the channel, or ask one of the board members.

    Women's Committee

    The Women's Committee has now set up two moderated mailing lists for the discussion of issues affecting women online. These are:

    efa-women-learning
    This list is for discussion of matters that concern newcomers to the Net. To subscribe, send an e-mail message to efa-women-learning-request@efa.org.au containing the word subscribe in the body of the message. To post a message to the list, send to efa-women-learning@efa.org.au.

    The moderator of this list is Brenda Aynsley bpa@iss.net.au.

    efa-women-issues
    This list is for discussion of general issues concerning women online. To subscribe, send an e-mail message to efa-women-issues-request@efa.org.au containing the word subscribe in the body of the message. To post a message to the list, send to efa-women-issues@efa.org.au.

    The moderator of this list is Val Thomson vthomson@pcug.org.au.

    Cryptography Committee

    EFA's Cryptography Committee is working towards preventing unnecessary regulation of encryption technologies and promoting the benefits of strong encryption for the online community. Contact Michael Baker mbaker@pobox.com if you would like to become involved. The Committee has prepared a response to Draft Australian Standard DR 96078 entitled Strategies for the Implementation of a Public Key Authentication Framework in Australia. A PKAF is like a subset of a PGP Web of Trust, which will allow users to easily check the authenticity of digital signatures.

    The EFA response to the Standards Australia PKAF draft is available online.

    The Committee is also monitoring the situation in the USA where the Clinton Administration is proposing a key escrow system which has become known as Clipper III.

    Membership Renewals

    Membership renewals for 1995/96 were due as of 1 November 1995. EFA membership is only $20. If your dues remain unpaid, please forward your subscription as soon as possible to support the cause of Net freedom. Only financial members will be eligible to vote in the forthcoming election of board members.

    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 this newsletter, you are among the few members for whom we do not have a valid email address. Please contact membership@efa.org.au with your preferred email address(es).

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

    Overseas News

    News from the U.S. is mixed. The second court case against the CDA has been won, but further legislation is in the works, apparently as a reaction to the Atlanta bombing. The following is a summary of information provided courtesy of Stanton McCandlish <mech@eff.org>.

    Summary: Court finds CDA unconstitutional, as a ban on constitutionally protected communication between adults (that is, CDA is overbroad). Court is less certain about whether or not the CDA is also unconstitutionally vague, but has ordered that the DoJ may not initiate investigation or prosecution of online "indecency" under the CDA.

    The excerpt from the 3-judge ruling is now online. This will be replaced by full text when available.

    US Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) has introduced a rehash of her 1995 Internet censorship amendment (tacked onto anti-terrorism bill but almost completely stripped before passage), this time as an amendment to the Senate Defense Dept. Appropriations bill. This is a response, apparently, to the Atlanta bomb. Feinstein's bill would seek to ban bomb-making info from the Net.

    The older version, from the terrorism bill, is available online together with EFF Commentary.

    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 available online at http://www.efa.org.au/. 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

    EFA Board Members

    Chair
    Kimberley Heitman kheitman@it.com.au
    Vice Chair
    Michael Malone pariah@iinet.net.au
    Secretary
    Brenda Aynsley bpa@iss.net.au
    Treasurer
    James Nunn jnunn@pobox.com
    General Board Members:
    Irene Graham rene@pobox.com
    Jonathon Coombes jon@valhalla.newcastle.edu.au
    Kerrin Pine kerrinp@bns.com.au
    Michael Baker mbaker@pobox.com
    Philip Thornton pthornton@sawasdi.apana.org.au

    What is EFA

    ELECTRONIC FRONTIERS AUSTRALIA INC. is a non-profit national organisation formed in 1994 to define, promote and defend the civil liberties of users and operators of networked systems. EFA's members are Net and BBS users and other people with a common interest in the digital community, computer mediated communication and online information services. The formation of EFA was inspired by the American Electronic Frontiers Foundation (EFF), and EFA is associated with the EFF and similar organisations around the world.

    EFA's 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/, 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.

    © Copyright 1996 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.