Perry E. Metzger opines:
HARUP16@delphi.com says:
I think what Matt was trying to get at is that privacy should be free The day that I feel the need to have to pay $100 to ensure that my business is nobody's business but my own is the day I leave this country for a nice outlet free desert island.
Nothing is free. Food isn't free. Clothing isn't free. Places to live aren't free. Computers to run crypto sofware are not free. There is no reason on earth that privacy should be free.
Sorry to get on your case yet again, Perry, but I just cannot accept that, and I don't think anyone else here can either. Privacy should be free, just like freedom should be free, and the right to say what you want should be free. This is not to say well made tools for ENSURING these rights should be free. A radio broadcasting station will sure help you exercise your speech rights, but you aren't likely to get one for christmas. Likewise, crypto software should not be expected to be free, unless, as in the case of PGP, the author makes it free of their own accord. You are very right that
we should not forget that they were in no way obligated to be as nice as they were.
While this is true, I would urge people to keep in mind that while we can be expected to pay for tools to help us maintain our rights, no one can charge us a fee for those rights themselves. Privacy is free, it is our birthright. -- Testes saxi solidi! ********************** Podex opacus gravedinosus est! Stanton McCandlish, SysOp: Noise in the Void Data Center BBS IndraNet: 369:1/1 FidoNet: 1:301/2 Internet: anton@hydra.unm.edu Snail: 8020 Central SE #405, Albuquerque, New Mexico 87108 USA Data phone: +1-505-246-8515 (24hr, 1200-14400 v32bis, N-8-1) Vox phone: +1-505-247-3402 (bps rate varies, depends on if you woke me up...:)