At 2:30 PM -0800 3/21/97, Eric Murray wrote:
That last part just floored me, how could anyone be willing to throw away rights like that? At least here in the US they're not so obvious about it- the cash (or cars or computers) are seized and presumed guilty until proven innocent, and of course you can't mount a defense if everything you own is seized and your bank accounts frozen, but you're still presumed innocent. It was that evil CASH that did it.
Well, combine this revocation of rights in Canada with today's report that Britain plans to license crypto, and with the discussion a few weeks ago about how Anguilla and similar countries lack formal constitutions, etc., and one can see what is going on: most countries are "ad hocracies," making up rules as they go along. For all its many faults, the United States has a strong constitution and laws are often thrown out completely because they conflict with the U.S. Constitution. The danger I see is that the U.S. is moving closer every day to becoming another ad hocracy, with the regulatory and administrative powers of the government ever more stifling and controlling. (By the way, on the "licensing of crypto," the U.S. is about to cause Europe to do to itself what the U.S. is essentially unable to do within the U.S., namely, force central control of cryptography, ban rogue use, and basically criminalize any unauthorized use. David Aaron and Louis Freeh and the rest of the OECD/Wasenaar/NSA cabal have done their jobs well.) --Tim May Just say "No" to "Big Brother Inside" We got computers, we're tapping phone lines, I know that that ain't allowed. ---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---- Timothy C. May | Crypto Anarchy: encryption, digital money, tcmay@got.net 408-728-0152 | anonymous networks, digital pseudonyms, zero W.A.S.T.E.: Corralitos, CA | knowledge, reputations, information markets, Higher Power: 2^1398269 | black markets, collapse of governments. "National borders aren't even speed bumps on the information superhighway."