Jonathan has written a very nice essay, most of which I agree with fully. However, there is one item that I have a different angle on: At 12:41 AM 1/31/96, Jonathan Rochkind wrote:
It will undermine their credibility among cypherpunks for a long time, certainly. Maybe even among the net--but among the vast majority of the public? It's possible that as "among the net" grows to include increasingly more of the 'the public', things will change. But at present, I don't think things will have changed yet. The FV propaganda will probably net good results for FV, although not among cypherpunks. .... Most people aren't equipped with the knowledge to tell that this was a 'fluff' piece, not meriting a full page story. In fact, most people rely on newspapers themselves to make these sorts of determinations for them--what topics are seriously important and newsworthy, and what topics aren't. Which is why companies can be so succesful when they can use press releases to influences what shows up in the news. Generally, press releases aren't seen by the majority of the public, so they don't realize that a story is taken directly from a press release. Most papers use press releases to write stories--maybe not the NYT, but most local papers. And most people either don't realize it, or don't care.
Here's my different angle on this: I'm not so sure there even _is_ a "public" on stories like this. Certainly my brother won't read about this, nor my sister, nor my parents, nor most of my neighbors. As with political stories that are read mostly by people interested in politics, I'm sure that most potential readers of the "First Virtual" story either skipped right past it or skimmed it lightly. No doubt the FUD of this story, and the FUD of earlier stories about Internet weaknesses, random number attacks, etc., left a vaguely feeling in these casual readers that all is not right with Internet commerce. But, having said this, I wouldn't underestimate the effects of a group such as ours lose respect for First Virtual, Nathaniel Borenstein, and Simson Garfinkel, to the extent we have. We'll be the sorts who keep the story going, who talk to other journalists, and who make decisions for our companies on what products and strategies to use. The "public" has probably already forgotten the story; we have not. --Tim Boycott espionage-enabled software! We got computers, we're tapping phone lines, we 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: 2^756839 - 1 | black markets, collapse of governments. "National borders aren't even speed bumps on the information superhighway."