ANON: Steshenko, nntp

[nobody@shell.portal.com]

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The discussion on Mr. Steshenko's termination of employment has taken
off in misc.jobs.misc and news.admin.policy.  Some people have
e-mailed me saying that what happened to Mr. Steshenko isn't uncommon
at all.  This fact bothered me all weekend long, that somebody can get
fired for views expressed in a private e-list, which probably
extrapolates to USENET posting as well.  Apparently, Mr. Steshenko
forgot to include the "disclaimer: my opinions" with his email.

Is this all that is required?  If he merely would have added the
disclaimer, would his former employer be facing possible legal action?
Would he still be employed?  Is there some "minimal" text that must be
included?  I mean, I've seen disclaimers that are nearly a paragraph
long to ones that try to be cute (#include <std.disclaimer> and so
forth).

I'm not saying his employer is in the wrong (I haven't really thought
about this issue too much) since they are a private company and can
censor and control use of their machines and all that stuff; it just
goes to show sometimes you have to be really careful what you say and
to whom.

(If you missed the post to alt.comp.acad-freedom.talk and various
other groups and don't get usenet let me know and I'll post it to the
list if there is enough interest.  I'm not sure if email copies I sent
out made it since some bounces occured.  Plus the good old "cannot
deliver for 3 days; message queued" sort of error.)

It bugged me because I really beleive that it is impossible to carry
on a rational discussion if one side is afraid to voice an opinion.
I'm not advocating libel or misuse (personal attacks, threats of
violence, etc.) but every once in a while a really hot topic comes up
which stirs the emotions.

So, we can all forge mail with smtp, use the cypherpunk remailers, use
"anonymous" servers like penet and charcoal, email-to-usenet gateways,
etc.  I've never seen instructions on how to forge a usenet post, so
here goes:

1) Telnet to an NNTP server (see Yanoff's internet services list)
2) Type 'post'.  After a bit, you'll get an OK message.
3) Type in what you want to appear.  Have in mind before you start
   what fields you want in the header, or check other posts to see what
   they have.
4) End with a period on a line all by itself.  After a bit, you'll get
   a "Post OK" message.
5) Type 'quit'

For example, I was experimenting and telnetted to news.fu-berlin.de 119:

======================================================================
menudo> telnet news.fu-berlin.de 119
Trying 130.133.4.250...
Connected to gibb.math.fu-berlin.de.
Escape character is '^]'.
200 gibb NNTP server version 1.5.11 (10 February 1991) ready at Thu Jul  8 16:19:05 1993 (posting ok).
post
340 Ok
Newsgroups: alt.binaries.pictures.d
Path: one!two!three
From: mr.smiley@other
plane
Subject: A test II
Content-Type: text
Sender: the MailMan
Nntp-Posting-Host: castle
Organization: other plane hackers
Date: Thu, 8 Jul 1993 07:45:00 GMT
Lines: 1

This is another test.