An international band of programmers are to release software to bypass World Wide Web restrictions imposed by various countries, including China, Cuba, and Iran, one member told Agence France Presse, Wednesday December 6.
The programmers, known as ”The Cult of the Dead Cow," is a 16 year-old international alliance 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 users to pass digital music files among themselves via the Internet, bypassing mainframe computers.
According to Oxblood Ruffin, a pseudonym for a Cult founder and software engineer, the as-yet untitled software will create simulated computers that allow access to the Internet.
Called servers, these fake computers can then be commandeered by users with the software to bypass local servers blocking access to certain Internet sites.
Since 1996, the Chinese government has banned access to some 100 Web sites, ranging from those carrying outside news reports to sexually explicit pictures. Cuba, Iran and other countries also limit access to various Web sites they deem inappropriate for their citizens.
Ruffin said the program will be distributed by a human rights organization. He said the program is small enough to be passed along on a single floppy drive.
"We're not doing anything illegal," said Ruffin, who cites the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, a 1947 United Nations declaration urging access to information, as his motivation for creating the software.
Ruffin said the program should be available by March after final testing. – AFP.
© 2000 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
