Hold on to your news servers

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1

Hey guys, this is a heads-up about Karl Denninger's new clean-news
system. I haven't seen any posts on this list about it. His message
describing the implementation is attached below, posted "publicly" on
chi.internet. (skip the quoted stuff)

Karl is about to send out cancel messages, cancelling _every_ Usenet
binary that is not PGP-signed by someone registered with his system.
He says that these cancels will only go out to people he explicitly
peers with, and not Usenet at large. He then adds that what these
peers do with the cancel msgs is their own business.

Folks, the goal is good, but the implementation is bad.

These cancel msgs will leak out to Usenet at large. History proves
this; leaking of net.*, bofh.*, clari.*, etc. occurs all the time
despite admins' best efforts.

And when these cancels leak, every news server on Usenet will
* suddenly be receiving _thousands_ of additional cancels, and
* 99.9999% of the binaries out there will disappear from your servers.

I do not want to be handling the support calls when this occurs.

If you are interested in this issue, there is a discussion on
news.admin.net-abuse.usenet, thread "Karl Denninger loses his marbles..."

Or ask me, I'm more than happy to outline the technical ramifications
of this, and why it's a bad idea, in more detail. I'll cut and paste

  Jeff
  (news admin/consultant)

P.S. Had mailer problems. Apologies if you are seeing this twice.

Path: news.teleport.com!uunet!in3.uu.net!nntp.ntr.net!news.maxwell.syr.edu!news-xfer.newsread.com!netaxs.com!newsread.com!news.mcs.net!ddsw1!news.mcs.net!not-for-mail
From: karl@Denninger.Net (Karl Denninger)

Newsgroups: chi.internet
Organization: Karls Sushi and Packet Smashers
Message-ID: <72dmea$stt$1@Nntp1.mcs.net>
NNTP-Posting-Host: kdhome-2.pr.mcs.net
X-Newsreader: trn 4.0-test69 (20 September 1998)
Xref: news.teleport.com chi.internet:17477

In article <72dgku$jo6@enews4.newsguy.com>,

2

Wouldn't it be nice if people actually quoted things correctly....

Quoting from his FAQ as posted on inet-access.

" THIS CANCEL ADVISORY SYSTEM IS OPT-IN; THE CANCELS
  WILL *NOT* BE GENERALLY INJECTED BACK INTO THE USENET
  NEWS STREAM. "

3

Oh, those who want to try to sink this with public opinion (won't work;
anyone who's known me for more than a day knows how much I count that
in my evaluations) don't have to bother telling the truth.

4

It sounds like you want to censor UseNet and you want to be the god
that gets to do that. I think UseNet will survive you as it has
survived everyone else. Everyone will OPT you OUT. I'm curious of
several things. 1.) Did you consult any Internet standards group or
organization about your plan for UseNet? 2.) What is your motivation
political or profit? Or do you answer to a higher authority?

Oh, those who want to try to sink this with public opinion (won't work;
anyone who's known me for more than a day knows how much I count that
in my evaluations) don't have to bother telling the truth.

-
--
Karl Denninger (karl@denninger.net) http://www.mcs.net/~karl
I ain't even *authorized* to speak for anyone other than myself, so give
up now on trying to associate my words with any particular organization.

Wouldn't it be nice if people actually quoted things correctly....

Quoting from his FAQ as posted on inet-access.

" THIS CANCEL ADVISORY SYSTEM IS OPT-IN; THE CANCELS
  WILL *NOT* BE GENERALLY INJECTED BACK INTO THE USENET
  NEWS STREAM. "

/------------------------------------------------\

Alan Spicer (tech@ebiznet.com) NIC:AGS14 |
Systems Analyst / Administrator / Tech Support |
                                               >
www.ebiznet.com | www.websgreatesthits.com |

\------------------------------------------------/

5

It sounds like you want to censor UseNet and you want to be the god
that gets to do that.

It sounds to me like you disagree with free speech and the right to decide
what happens on private property - unless its what YOU demand others do.

I think UseNet will survive you as it has
survived everyone else. Everyone will OPT you OUT. I'm curious of
several things. 1.) Did you consult any Internet standards group or
organization about your plan for UseNet?

Why should I? This isn't a standard.

2.) What is your motivation
political or profit? Or do you answer to a higher authority?

Excuse me? That question made no sense; my views on this matter, and Usenet
in general, are hardly new, as anyone who has known of me for the last 10 or
so years is well aware.

6

<SATIRE>
You mean BESIDES the voices in his head?
</SATIRE>