At 6:23 PM 7/22/96, Vladimir Z. Nuri wrote:
David suggests that Netscape will be royally screwed if the gov't cracks down on them because of "monkeywrenchers". but quite the opposite is possible. as TCM fondly points out, sometimes you win by losing and lose by winning (not necessarily in those words).
by creating a very large, glaring, and visceral public spectacle of the government cracking down on crypto, the resulting outcry could be absolutely enormous and resonate throughout the entire population. it would be a vivid portrayal of what the government has been doing quietly and secretly for decades, and perhaps the public might finally understand what is going on.
By the way, I certainly don't want to be seen as a main promulagator of "monkeywrenching" Netscape's system! I made a few snide/droll/obvious points that the software will likely leak out fairly quickly, but I was not _advocating_ such a thing, nor was I suggesting that someone be pinned up on the wall as a decoy (;-}). I don't think Netscape is misbehaving. I do have some concerns about a method to control leakage that requires data bases of names and addresses of persons accessing a site. One can imagine this concept extended to requiring data bases of names and addresses to be accessed before Web sites may be connected to. (Especially when such "verifications" are so easily spoofed or the results subverted. For example, if the results reported here are valid, the Netscape downloads are not serialized, so any of the millions who download it could be the exporters...essentially nothing is gained, but the precedent is set for demanding identity before downloading...note that retail software purchases do not as yet require identification--you pay your money and that's that. Even if some dirty furriner could buy his software and take it home in his luggage.) --Tim May Boycott "Big Brother Inside" 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, Licensed Ontologist | black markets, collapse of governments. "National borders aren't even speed bumps on the information superhighway."