At 11:16 PM -0500 2/12/01, Declan McCullagh wrote:
FSC Does Nightline WASHINGTON - Free Speech Coalition general counsel Jeffrey Douglas and lobbyist Kat Sunlove will discuss the so-called "virtual child porn" case, FSC v. Reno, tonight on Nightline, the long-running late-night ABC news program hosted by Ted Koppel. The program usually begins at 11:30 p.m. Eastern and Pacific times on local and regional ABC affiliates following local news. Check your local television listings - you will not want to miss this critical discussion on the question of whether a computerized image that resembles a child can be classified the same way as an actual image of an actual child.
It's amusing to watch issues brought up on Cypherpunks 8 or 9 years ago surfacing in recent weeks. Morphed images, stego for dead drops, cyber-stalking, etc. Reminds me of the opening months of the first Clinton term, when "trial balloons" to ban crypto were being floated by Administration lackeys masquerading as disinterested parties. The CIA Director is out there scaring the congresscritters, giving them the public scare story and, presumably, the "if you only knew what we know" secret briefing which is designed to turn even the staunchest free speechers into quivering police state apologists. Somewhere this coming spring they probably need another Reichstag fire, though. A Sarin attack, or some really juicy cyber-snuff MPEGs cooked up by the spooks. Journalistic sniffing around is increasing. I've had three calls for interviews in recent weeks. One I did, but the focus unfortunately shifted to the sensational and I expect the final result to be uninteresting. Another I declined, citing overexposure of these tired old issues. The third I mostly deflected, saying I'm not the best person to talk to. Whew. "Just when I think I'm out, they _pull_ me back in." --Tim May -- Timothy C. May tcmay@got.net Corralitos, California Political: Co-founder Cypherpunks/crypto anarchy/Cyphernomicon Technical: physics/soft errors/Smalltalk/Squeak/agents/games/Go Personal: b.1951/UCSB/Intel '74-'86/retired/investor/motorcycles/guns