Newsgroups: soc.motss From: rwockner@netcom.com (Rex Wockner) Subject: WOCKNER STORY--COMPUSERVE BANS GAY MESSAGE BOARDS Message-ID: Organization: NETCOM On-line Communication Services (408 261-4700 guest) Date: Fri, 29 Dec 1995 00:33:30 GMT Lines: 346 Sender: rwockner@netcom21.netcom.com COMPUSERVE DELETES GAY NEWSGROUPS, BLAMES GERMANY by Rex Wockner [Editors: Includes full list of banned newsgroups.] -------------------------------------------------------------- Copyright (c) 1995 Rex Wockner and subscribed publications/broadcasts. Do not reprint in your publication, repost online or broadcast on your program without permission. -------------------------------------------------------------- The CompuServe on-line service deleted more than 200 Internet Usenet newsgroups from its worldwide system Dec. 27, saying it was responding to a "direct mandate from the prosecutor's office in Germany." Gay newsgroups were hit hard in the sweep. Non-sexually oriented groups that were banned include soc.support.youth.gay-lesbian-bi, clari.news.gays, alt.homosexual, alt.motss.bisexua-l, gay-net.coming-out, gay-net.international and shamash.gayjews. Usenet newsgroups are message boards where one Internet user posts a comment and others respond minutes, hours or days later. There is no live interaction. There are over 16,000 Usenet newsgroups, a few of which carry erotic stories (such as alt.sex.stories.gay) or erotic photos. In a press release, CompuServe said the censored newsgroups were "specifically identified to CompuServe by the German authorities as illegal under German criminal law." "CompuServe did not select any groups or determine the nature of the newsgroups that have been impacted by this action," the company said. "German government officials, as part of an investigation of illegal material on the Internet, ordered CompuServe to do what was necessary with respect to specified newsgroups in order to comply with German law." Other zapped groups include dozens beginning with "alt.sex" or "alt.binaries.pictures.erotica" as well as the specific groups alt.recovery.addiction.sexual, alt.religion.sexuality, alt.support.disabled.sexuality, clari.news.crime.sex, clari.news.sex, and rec.arts.erotica. Newsgroups beginning with "clari" are commercial groups that carry nothing but Associated Press and Reuters wire-service news reports. "German authorities are investigating newsgroups and other Internet content that may contain child pornography, other pornographic material illegal for adults, as well as content that although not illegal for adults is of such an explicit nature that it is illegal for minors," CompuServe said. The company pointed out that, "CompuServe, as an access provider, is not responsible for the origination or nature of content on the Internet over which it has no creative or editorial control." CompuServe "is investigating ways in which we can restrict user access to selected newsgroups by geographical location," the company said. In fact, CompuServe users who know their way around the Internet can use any number of Internet tools to traverse cyberspace from within CompuServe and view the banned newsgroups elsewhere. Ultimately, anything generally available on the Net anywhere in the world can, one way or another, be accessed by any computer connected to the Net. The Internet was designed -- by none other than the United States Department of Defense -- to be sabotage-proof. You can't even kill it with bombs; it would re- route around the devastation. The simplest way to circumvent CompuServe's censorship is merely to cross-post messages between banned and non-banned groups -- so that traffic for alt.homosexual is carbon-copied to, for example, soc.motss. soc.motss is one of the busiest gay newsgroups ("motss" stands for "members of the same sex"); it probably survived the German attack because it contains neither the word "sex" nor the word "gay" and because the cybercops did not know what "motss" means. CompuServe has 4 million subscribers in more than 140 countries. Here is the complete list of censored newsgroups: alt.binaires.pictures.erotica.teen alt.binaries.erotic.senior-citizens alt.binaries.multimedia.erotica alt.binaries.pictures.black.erotic.females alt.binaries.pictures.erotic.anime alt.binaries.pictures.erotic.centerfolds alt.binaries.pictures.erotic.senior-citizens alt.binaries.pictures.erotica alt.binaries.pictures.erotica.amateur.d alt.binaries.pictures.erotica.amateur.female alt.binaries.pictures.erotica.amateur.male alt.binaries.pictures.erotica.animals alt.binaries.pictures.erotica.anime alt.binaries.pictures.erotica.art.pin-up alt.binaries.pictures.erotica.balls alt.binaries.pictures.erotica.bears alt.binaries.pictures.erotica.bestiality alt.binaries.pictures.erotica.black.females alt.binaries.pictures.erotica.black.male alt.binaries.pictures.erotica.blondes alt.binaries.pictures.erotica.bondage alt.binaries.pictures.erotica.breasts alt.binaries.pictures.erotica.butts alt.binaries.pictures.erotica.cartoons alt.binaries.pictures.erotica.cheerleaders alt.binaries.pictures.erotica.d alt.binaries.pictures.erotica.disney alt.binaries.pictures.erotica.female alt.binaries.pictures.erotica.female.anal alt.binaries.pictures.erotica.fetish alt.binaries.pictures.erotica.fetish.feet alt.binaries.pictures.erotica.fetish.hair alt.binaries.pictures.erotica.fetish.latex alt.binaries.pictures.erotica.fetish.leather alt.binaries.pictures.erotica.furry alt.binaries.pictures.erotica.gaymen alt.binaries.pictures.erotica.latina alt.binaries.pictures.erotica.male alt.binaries.pictures.erotica.male.anal alt.binaries.pictures.erotica.midgets alt.binaries.pictures.erotica.oral alt.binaries.pictures.erotica.orientals alt.binaries.pictures.erotica.plushies alt.binaries.pictures.erotica.pornstar alt.binaries.pictures.erotica.pornstars alt.binaries.pictures.erotica.pre-teen alt.binaries.pictures.erotica.pregnant alt.binaries.pictures.erotica.redheads alt.binaries.pictures.erotica.spanking alt.binaries.pictures.erotica.tasteless alt.binaries.pictures.erotica.teen alt.binaries.pictures.erotica.teen.d alt.binaries.pictures.erotica.teen.female alt.binaries.pictures.erotica.teen.fuckTeens alt.binaries.pictures.erotica.teen.maleTeens alt.binaries.pictures.erotica.terry.agar alt.binaries.pictures.erotica.transvestites alt.binaries.pictures.erotica.uncut alt.binaries.pictures.erotica.urine alt.binaries.pictures.erotica.voyeurism alt.binaries.pictures.erotica.young alt.binaries.pictures.groupsex alt.binaries.pictures.lesbians alt.binaries.pictures.lolita.misc alt.binaries.pictures.nude.celebrities alt.binaries.sounds.erotica alt.homosexual alt.magick.sex alt.magick.sex.angst alt.motss.bisexua-l alt.politics.sex alt.recovery.addiction.sexual alt.recovery.sexual-addiction alt.religion.sexuality alt.sex alt.sex.aliens alt.sex.anal alt.sex.animals alt.sex.asphyx alt.sex.balls alt.sex.bears alt.sex.bestiality alt.sex.bestiality.barney alt.sex.bestiality.hamster.duct-tape alt.sex.bondage alt.sex.bondage.furtoonia alt.sex.bondage.sco.unix alt.sex.boredom alt.sex.boys alt.sex.breast alt.sex.brothels alt.sex.carasso alt.sex.children alt.sex.cthulhu alt.sex.disney alt.sex.doom.with-sound alt.sex.dylan alt.sex.enemas alt.sex.erotica.market.place alt.sex.erotica.marketplace alt.sex.escorts.ads alt.sex.escorts.ads.d alt.sex.exhibitionism alt.sex.extropians alt.sex.fat alt.sex.femdom alt.sex.fencing alt.sex.fetish.amputee alt.sex.fetish.diapers alt.sex.fetish.drew-barrymore alt.sex.fetish.fa alt.sex.fetish.fashion alt.sex.fetish.feet alt.sex.fetish.hair alt.sex.fetish.jello alt.sex.fetish.motorcycles alt.sex.fetish.orientals alt.sex.fetish.peterds.momma alt.sex.fetish.power-rangers.kimberly.tight-spandex alt.sex.fetish.robots alt.sex.fetish.scat alt.sex.fetish.size alt.sex.fetish.smoking alt.sex.fetish.sportswear alt.sex.fetish.startrek alt.sex.fetish.the-bob alt.sex.fetish.tickling alt.sex.fetish.tinygirls alt.sex.fetish.trent-reznor alt.sex.fetish.waifs alt.sex.fetish.watersports alt.sex.fetish.wet-and-messy alt.sex.fetish.white-mommas alt.sex.fetish.wrestling alt.sex.first-time alt.sex.fish alt.sex.furry alt.sex.gangbang alt.sex.girl.watchers alt.sex.girls alt.sex.guns alt.sex.hello-kitty alt.sex.historical alt.sex.homosexual alt.sex.incest alt.sex.intergen alt.sex.jesus alt.sex.jp alt.sex.magazines alt.sex.marsha-clark alt.sex.masturbation alt.sex.midgets alt.sex.modem-kamikaze alt.sex.motss alt.sex.movies alt.sex.necrophilia alt.sex.nudels.me.too alt.sex.oral alt.sex.orgy alt.sex.pedophilia alt.sex.pedophilia.boys alt.sex.pedophilia.girls alt.sex.pedophilia.pictures alt.sex.pedophilia.swaps alt.sex.pictures alt.sex.pictures.d alt.sex.pictures.female alt.sex.pictures.male alt.sex.plushies alt.sex.pre-teens alt.sex.prostitution alt.sex.reptiles alt.sex.safe alt.sex.services alt.sex.sgml alt.sex.sm.fig alt.sex.snakes alt.sex.sounds alt.sex.spanking alt.sex.stories alt.sex.stories.d alt.sex.stories.gay alt.sex.stories.hetero alt.sex.stories.moderated alt.sex.stories.tg alt.sex.strip-clubs alt.sex.super-size alt.sex.swingers alt.sex.tasteless alt.sex.telephone alt.sex.toons alt.sex.trans alt.sex.ugly alt.sex.uncut alt.sex.video-swap alt.sex.voxmeet alt.sex.voyeurism alt.sex.wanted alt.sex.wanted.escorts.ads alt.sex.watersports alt.sex.weight-gain alt.sex.wizards alt.sex.young alt.sex.zoophile alt.sexy.bald.captains alt.stories.erotic alt.support.disabled.sexuality alt.tv.tiny-toon.sex clari.news.crime.sex clari.news.gays clari.news.sex aus.sex de.talk.sex es.alt.sexo fido.ger.sex fido.sex-ger fido7.ru-sex fido7.ru-sex.adv fido7.russian-sex finet.sex fiod7.other.russian.sex fiod7.ru.sex gay-net.behinderte gay-net.btx-ecke gay-net.coming-out gay-net.dfue gay-net.erotic-stories gay-net.gruppen.general gay-net.guide.bundesweit gay-net.guide.weltweit gay-net.haushalt gay-net.international gay-net.kontakte gay-net.labern gay-net.lederecke gay-net.spiele gay-net.test rec.arts.erotica shamash.gayjews slo.sex soc.support.youth.gay-lesbian-bi t-netz.sex t-netz.sex-stories tw.bbs.sci.sex ucb.erotica.sensual uw.alt.sex.beastiality uw.alt.sex.bestiality uw.alt.sex.bondage uw.alt.sex.stories uw.alt.sex.stories.d zer.t-netz.sex - fin - -- \/\/\/\/\/\ Rex Wockner /\/\/\/\/\/