Voila News. December
7, 2000
SAN FRANCISCO (AFP) - - An international band of programmers is about to
release software that will by World Wide Web restrictions imposed by various
countries, including China, Cuba and Iran.
The programmers, who call themselves "The Cult of the Dead Cow,"
are a 16-year-old international group of anonymous "hackers" -- so
named because of their expertise in breaking into computer networks.
The technology will work much like Napster, the software that allows s
to digital music files among themselves via the Internet, bying
mainframe computers.
According to "Oxblood Ruffin" -- a pseudonym for one of the
group's founders -- the as-yet untitled software will allow s to by
local servers that block access to certain Internet sites.
Cindy Cohn, an attorney with San Francisco's Electronic Frontier Foundation,
an Internet free speech organization, said the software will help break through
government censorship.
"Governments are, more and more, blocking access to the Internet to
guard against information that's critical of them or offensive to the culture,"
said Cohn. "Tools like this can counteract that trend."
Since 1996, the Chinese government has banned access to some 100 websites,
ranging from those carrying outside news reports to sexually explicit pictures.
Cuba, Iran and other countries also limit access to various websites they deem
inappropriate to their citizens.
Ruffin said the program is small enough to be stored on a single floppy
disc, and will be distributed by human rights organizations.
"We're not doing anything illegal," said Ruffin, who cites the
Universal Declaration of Human Rights, a 1948 UN declaration urging access to
information, among other rights, as his motivation for creating the software.
Ruffin said the program should be available by March after final testing.
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