Seth Finklestein wrote:
...
If you want to do something to help Jim Bell in getting a good defense, here is my suggestion, take it for what it's worth to you:
...
Explain the whole "cypherpunks", err, state of mind. Give the guy a chance. Look at it this way - if he is in collaboration with the prosecution, your discussion with him can hardly make things much worse. However, if he is not, if he is an honest defense attorney doing the best he can in a bad situation, then you are in a good position to aid him. The risk is low, the potential benefit is large.
Trying to "explain" the Cypherpunk ideology and outlook (such as it is), is not likely to be helpful. Not that John's or Declan's or anyone else's job is to help Bell in his defense. Bell chose his path. Frankly, the more the court, or any of its officers, knows about the CP ideology, the less sympathetic and useful they will be. Anyone think this would be useful?: "Your Honor, I was given a lengthy briefing by members of the list, given copies of their posts and their manifestos. I now understand them. I now understand why Jim Bell is advocating the assassination-by-lottery of judges and prosecutors. Fuck the State, Man!" Useful? Didn't think so. Look, folks, Bell does not represent my views--and vice versa. Bell arrived late on the scene to the CP list, circa 1995 if I am recalling the dates correctly, having already written about his AP scheme. He lacked crypto and digital cash, and heard from someone else that our list had discussions of it. He learned enough about digital cash to weave it into his AP scheme. Given that digital cash, especially the "true" bidirectionally untraceable kind, does not yet exist, it is technologically impossible at this time to set up a robust AP system. There are other issues making AP not realistic in the near future. (By the way, there had been discussions, though rarely advocacy, of untraceable contract killings in the early days of the list. I, for one, talked about these things as early as 1988, in my Crypto Anarchist Manifesto. Not advocating them, just pointing out the technological and political forces and trends. Murder pools have also been discussed in fiction, as early as Jack London, IIRC.) The notion that Bell's defense will be "helped" if only the Court or its various prosecuting and defending attorneys are given an education in The Cypherpunk Way is just plain ludicrous. Also, I don't recall Bell being charged on anything relating to his AP ideas, even if his writings helped make a prosecution more likely. The "interstate stalking" stuff doesn't seem to have _any_ contact with the Cypherpunks list. So why would educating the Court and its officers in Cypherpunks issues help? Should Bell ever be charged based on the AP ideas, then maybe expert witnesses could be called to point out that AP was technologically impossible at the time Bell was alleged--for instance--to have set up a real AP system. But this is not that case. Personally, I refuse to be drawn into either defending or repudiating Bell. Bell has one particular slant on things. I didn't find him one of the more interesting debating partners when he was on the list, so I had little contact with him. Probably this is what has saved me from being called as a witness for either side. A journalist called me about the Bell case and I declined to say much about Bell. What little I _did_ say about Bell he agreed would be off the record and would not be taped or written about in notes. Nothing juicy (for those prosecutors now reading this!), just my impressions and recollections. I probably should have said nothing to this journalist. If Declan is forced to testify, beyond a very basic acknowledgement that he was the author of the articles in question, I sure plan to refuse to ever speak to any journalist again about anything which someone might twist in front of a jury. "Hey, Declan, nice weather we're having, eh?" I'll continue to be Declan's friend, presumably, but I just won't talk to him about anything that may get extracted from him in this or in any future star chamber prosecutions. (Unless I "need" to, a la Toto and Bell, to get my story out, to spin things in my direction---a sad state of affairs when largely neutral parties are unwilling to speak to journalists and only those with axes to grind want their stories told.) --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