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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. 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@vortex.com
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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