I suppose I am developing a reputation amongst the Inside the Beltway Cyber Rights Groups (tm) as a pain in the ass, but nearly everytime I see one of their chief spokeswonks giving a policy statement I realize they are "not on my side." The latest quote is from Marc Rotenberg, on a CNN piece on spam and anti-spam legislation, saying that what the legislators in Congress really need to look into is how the spammers develop their data bases..... Incredible. Does he propose investigations of private data gathering? Perhaps search warrants served on those who take public postings and construct data bases? Look, I'm annoyed by getting 5-10 "unwanted" spam messages a day. But I realize the "spammers" are merely taking publicly available (= legally available, as 99.99% of all such information is) information and using legal channels to contact me. I may not "like" it, but their behavior is as legal as someone calling me on the phone. (And ny nearly any measure of hassle factor, dashing to get to the phone only to find it's a salesman selling something I don't want is worse than any 20 unwanted e-mail messages.) So, Marc Rotenberg wants Congress to "look into" (= interfere with) compilation and use of public information. These people are NOT our allies. --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."