Paul Wouters on 30 Jun 2000 13:38:35 -0000 |
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[Nettime-bold] Publius Censorship Resistant Publishing System |
http://cs1.cs.nyu.edu/waldman/publius/ http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A21689-2000Jun29.html [ Paul: I'm not sure if this system can work, because it has a weak spot at the server where the key to gather and decrypt data can be found. Who-ever hosts the key can be said to be responsible. In a way the same problem as with GNUtella, where a site needs to exist to search for "identifiers" in the document. ] Overview Publius is a Web publishing system that is highly resistant to censorship and provides publishers with a high degree of anonymity. Publius was the pen name used by the authors of the Federalist Papers, Alexander Hamilton, John Jay, and James Madison. This collection of 85 articles, published pseudonymously in New York State newspapers form October 1787 through May 1788, was influential in convincing New York voters to ratify the proposed United States constitution. Why this is important The publication of written words has long been a tool for spreading new (and sometimes controversial) ideas, often with the goal of bringing about social change. Thus the printing press, and more recently, the World Wide Web, are powerful revolutionary tools. But those who seek to suppress revolutions possess powerful tools of their own. These tools give them the ability to stop publication, destroy published materials, or prevent the distribution of publications. And even if they cannot successfully censor the publication, they may intimidate and physically or financially harm the author or publisher in order to send a message to other would-be-revolutionaries that they would be well advised to consider an alternative occupation. Even without a threat of personal harm, authors may wish to publish their works anonymously or pseudonymously because they believe they will be more readily accepted if not associated with a person of their gender, race, ethnic background, or other characteristics. _______________________________________________ Nettime-bold mailing list Nettime-bold@nettime.org http://www.nettime.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/nettime-bold