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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 moderated digests sent to this list will keep you abreast of
ongoing PFIR activities, issues, and projects. The frequency of items sent
to this list will never exceed one per day, and currently is much less
frequent. 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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