At 11:36 PM -0500 11/9/96, Black Unicorn wrote:
On Sat, 9 Nov 1996, L.Detweiler wrote:
just heard an interesting rumor that Timmy has been blacklisted from working anywhere here in Colorado as a dangerous anarchist and/or lunatic revolutionary.
Uh, you're walking the line again here Mr. Detweiler. I hope this is based in fact.
As I would under almost no circumstances sue for such typical net.defamations, how is Detweiler walking the line? Black Unicorn would have a very hard time suing on my behalf when I had no interest in suing. (I may be wrong, but I don't think even with our currently warped judicial system can Black Unicorn file charges/bring suit against Detweiler for alleged defamations of Tim May.) If you mean that Detweiler is violating his "consent agreement," alluded to over the past couple of years, the one that caused him to simply switch to the nom de net of "V.Z. Nuri" (the visionary, I presume), I rather doubt even this is so. Unless your consent agreement had it that Detweiler would never post again under his own name....in any case, not my concern. Again, I think this huffing and puffing about planned lawsuits, about "I have friends in the Office of Legitimate Speech and I'm quite sure they'll be happy to see your illegal speech here," etc., is inconsistent with goals I think many of us hold in high regard. If someone wants to sue, then go ahead. But the huffing and puffing is getting tiresome. Let's see some real action. In cruder terms, put up or shut up. No offense meant to Black Unicorn...it's just that he has on multiple occasions talked about lawsuits, about friends of his or classmates of his who are in various governmental roles, and about how interested they might be blah blah blah. I don't like this kind of bluster. For example, take the recent example of using the "Get back on your medications" quip. Black Unicorn has said in recent days that such a quip might be actionable (I think this was directed at Vulis, but I could be misremembering things). I strongly doubt such a common net.quip is actionable in any way. But, in any case, what about all the quips that Detweiler was off his lithium, off his thorazine, off his meds? Neither Black Unicorn nor his nominal allies were raising this point back then. Let's see some consistency. And let's reduce the amount of "legal saber rattling." OK? (Yes, I read Black Unicorn's piece here about why he tends to think in terms of using the American legal system the way he does. I think most libertarian-minded folks accept the maxim that "sticks and stones may break my bones, but names will never hurt me"...it sounds like something one would hear in pre-school, but it remains as true today as back then. More people ought to remember it. And Black Unicorn's invocation of "false advertising" in connection with the rants of various snake oilers is equally misplaced. There will be snake oil, just as there is bad speech. If Black Unicorn threatens to sic the FTC on Snaketronics...not a good way to debunk crummy products. The proper remedy for bad speech is more speech. And, as I noted, part of my ire is not the use of the legal system, but the huffing and puffing and idle threats to do so.) Sorry if the tone sounds angry. I am not angry, just in "forceful disagreement." --Tim May "The government announcement is disastrous," said Jim Bidzos,.."We warned IBM that the National Security Agency would try to twist their technology." [NYT, 1996-10-02] We got computers, we're tapping phone lines, I 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, Higher Power: 2^1,257,787-1 | black markets, collapse of governments. "National borders aren't even speed bumps on the information superhighway."