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People For Internet Responsibility (PFIR) is
currently a global, ad hoc network of individuals who are concerned
about the present and future operations, development, management, and
regulation of the Internet in responsible ways. PFIR is in the process
of incorporating as a nonprofit 501(c)(3) corporation. The main goal of
PFIR is to provide a resource for individuals around the world to gain
an ability to impact these crucial Internet issues, which will affect
virtually all aspects of our cultures, societies, and lives in the 21st
century. PFIR is nonpartisan, has no political agenda, and does not
engage in lobbying.
PFIR was founded in November, 1999 by Lauren Weinstein of Vortex Technology in Woodland Hills,
California and Peter
G. Neumann of SRI International
in Menlo Park, California. Both have decades of continual experience
with the Internet and its ancestor ARPANET, Lauren originally at the
UCLA lab which was the ARPANET's first site, and Peter at the Net's
second site, located at SRI.
Peter is the chairman of the ACM
(Association for Computing Machinery) Committee on Computers and Public
Policy, and the creator and moderator of the ACM RISKS Forum. Lauren is a
member of the same committee, and he is the creator and moderator of
the PRIVACY Forum.
With the rapid commercialization of the Internet
and its World Wide Web, there are increasing concerns that decisions
regarding these resources are being irresponsibly skewed
through the influence of powerful, vested interests (in commercial,
political, and other categories) whose goals are not necessarily always
aligned with the concerns of individuals and the people at large. Such
incompatibilities have surfaced in areas including domain name
policy, spam, security, encryption, freedom of speech issues, privacy,
content rating and filtering, and a vast array of other
topics. New ones are sure to come!
While corporate, political, and other related
entities most certainly have important roles to play in Internet
issues, it is unwise and unacceptable for their influences to be
effectively the only significant factors affecting the
broad scope of Internet policies.
There are numerous examples. While e-commerce
can indeed be a wonderful tool, it is shortsighted in the extreme for
some interests to treat the incredible creation that is the Internet as
little more than a giant mail-order catalog, with "dot-com" associated
hype on seemingly every ad, billboard and commercial. Protection of
copyrights in a global Internet environment, without abusive
monitoring, is a challenge indeed. The Internet can be a fantastic tool
to encourage the flow of ideas, information, and education, but it can
also be used to track users' behaviors and invade individuals' privacy
in manners that George Orwell never imagined in his 1984
world.
Above all, it's critical that reasonable
discussion be encouraged that is free from the overly polarized
"yelling and screaming" that often characterizes ongoing debates about
Internet issues. It is very important to provide some degree of balance
against those persons or groups who might attempt to impose their views
on the Internet by edict, without meaningful input from the
people whose lives will ultimately be most affected.
PFIR is a resource for discussion, analysis,
education, and information regarding Internet
issues, aimed at providing a forum for all people around the
world to participate in the process of Internet evolution, control, and
use--a forum that is not controlled by entities with existing major
vested financial, political, or other interests. This is accomplished
through the PFIR Web site, the
handling of telephone and e-mail queries, and through digests,
workshops, discussion groups, statements/reports/papers,
broadcast/Internet radio and television efforts,
and other venues.
It is hoped that individuals and
organizations who are in agreement with PFIR's objectives will be
interested in helping to underwrite PFIR's efforts.
The best way to get started is to join the
PFIR mailing list! Announcements, position statements and papers,
status reports, and other materials sent to this list will keep you
abreast of ongoing PFIR activities, issues, and projects. There is of
course no charge to join this mailing list. The list is private, and
your name and/or e-mail address will be used only for the purpose of
distributing PFIR materials.
Individual subscriptions to the PFIR
mailing list are controlled through an automated list handling system.
Important Note: Please do not
attempt to subscribe an address that uses a "challenge-response" system
for spam blocking -- such addresses will not be successfully
subscribed.
To
subscribe or unsubscribe to/from the PFIR mailing list via the Web,
please visit the "pfir"
subscription page.
To subscribe via
e-mail, please send a message (subject and body text are unnecessary
and will be ignored) to:
pfir-subscribe@pfir.org
To unsubscribe via
e-mail, please send a message (subject and body text are unnecessary
and will be ignored) to:
pfir-unsubscribe@pfir.org
If you wish to set
up a local redistribution list for this material, or have other special
e-mail address requests or subscription problems which cannot be
handled by the automated system, please contact:
list-maint@pfir.org
with the details. A human will endeavor to be of assistance.
Individuals, organizations, media, etc. who
are interested in more information regarding PFIR or related Internet
issues are invited to contact:
Phone or E-mail:
Lauren Weinstein
TEL:
+1 (818) 225-2800
lauren@pfir.org
Please send any physical mail to:
PFIR c/o Peter G. Neumann
Principal Scientist
Computer Science Lab
SRI International EL-243
333 Ravenswood Ave
Menlo Park, CA 94025-3493 USA
TEL: +1 (650)
859-2375
neumann@pfir.org
Thank you very much. Be seeing you!
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