At 05:25 AM 9/14/95 -0400, you wrote:
Will the federal prosecutors and Fibbies on this list please emphasize that the Internet was not involved in the AOL kiddie porn case. The Internet has enough opportunities for bad publicity as it is.
I watched the local news coverage of that case. The report was given by an individual who has made that mistake before. (He hosts a "Town Hall" program that exploits various subjects of the day. He was corrected as to "AOL not being the Internet" during one of them. I know, I was the one who corrected him.) The coverage showed lots of shots of the various internet binaries echos (including alt.binaries.pictures.erotica.children, but not alt.binaries.pictures.cops.), the web including the Penthouse site (as if Penthouse has kiddy porn), and other unrelated and non-AOL pictures. The Internet has become the new scapegoat of choice. The general media cannot (or is unwilling) to distinguish the difference between electronic nets. The Internet is a generic term for them and since when is the media willing to look beyond the surface? How does this connect to crypto? Well, aiding and abetting in a scapegoat is a capitol crime in this country. You can be assured that the Department of Scapegoat Management will link kiddy porn and crypto at some point in the minds of the generic public. Hopefully that perception can be "headed off at the pass". Having cryptography as a means of avoiding crime and criminals in the perception of the public is a good idea. The question is how to get that perception into the minds of the general public before the other meme can be inplanted by Scapegoat management and the other TLAa?
"Who wonders: How it is that CompuServe was able to exist from 1979 to the arrival of Prodigy and AOL without major sex, and drugs, and rock and roll problems?"
I think the six-dot-three filenames has something to do with it... | Visualize whirled keys | alano@teleport.com | |"It's only half a keyserver. I had to split the | Disclaimer: | |other half with the government man." - Black Art | Ignore the man | | -- PGP 2.6.2 key available on request -- | behind the keyboard.| | http://www.teleport.com/~alano | <fnord> |