At 1:18 PM -0700 6/19/97, Declan McCullagh wrote:
That's hardly a pro-privacy, pro-encryption bill, says the ACLU's Don Haines. "The ProCODE vote shows the political bankruptcy of the pro-business agenda. Even in the Commerce Committee, commerce arguments didn't work," he says.
This of course was the crux of my criticism of SAFE, and to a lesser extent, Pro-CODE, and of the nominally pro-liberty groups like EPIC and CDT. They supported "business friendly" bills, perhaps catering to their telecom and computer industry contributors, and did not take a strong civil libertarian stance. The whole system is corrupt. The only hope now is the Junger and Bernstein cases, the hope being that the Supreme Court will eventually rule in one or both of these cases that encrypted speech is just a form of speech and that the First Amendment protects such speech, even on networks partially funded by the Federal government. (Gee, nearly all highways receive Federal funds, due to the way the tax monies are collected and then disbursed. Does this mean the government can regulate speech in any care travelling on any highway even partly built or operated with Federal funds? Think about the parallels.) The whole system is corrupt. --Tim May There's something wrong when I'm a felon under an increasing number of laws. Only one response to the key grabbers is warranted: "Death to Tyrants!" ---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---- 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: 2^1398269 | black markets, collapse of governments. "National borders aren't even speed bumps on the information superhighway."