On Thu, 3 Apr 1997, Greg Broiles wrote: -> A southern Washington newspaper, The Columbian (apparently published in -> Vancouver) provides a "greeked" (e.g., squiggles instead of text) version of -> its front page at http://www.columbian.com (you'll have to pick the frame for -> "The latest Columbian headlines") - and today's page one above-the-fold -> headline is "Affidavit: Internet essay solicits murder". -> -> It looks to me like this is real. Yow. Jim Bell is a goddamn loon, but I -> haven't seen him write anything that I thought was criminal. I read the essay when it was published (a year or two ago?). As I remember it, it simply extrapolated the consequences of encryption and anonymity to their logical conclusions. Specifically, that social control could be exerted through a "lottery" for "predicting" the dates of death for certain unpopular politicians. He stressed the untraceability, unaccountability, and as far as possible, legality of everything proposed in his essay. There was some debate concerning the essay which I did not follow. So, I don't know what concensus was finally reached. But, his proposal seemed generally workable to me. I would definately not consider the essay to be evidence of him being a "goddamn loon" anymore than Greg Broiles' post being evidence of him being a goddamn idiot. However, the majority of the public who form their oppinions through newpaper headlines and the like certainly are. Jim Bell's essay is, IMO, definately free speech. And, as you can see from the IRS Inspection report, he was not charged with anything relating to the essay itself. In fact, the raid happened a long time after he published the essay, and may truely be unrelated. ............................................................................ . Sergey Goldgaber <sergey@el.net> System Administrator el Net . ............................................................................ . To him who does not know the world is on fire, I have nothing to say . . - Bertholt Brecht . ............................................................................