On Tuesday, June 17, 2003, at 03:48 PM, Thomas Shaddack wrote:
Adam
PS: Bob Blakely once defined privacy as the right to lie and get away with it, which fits into some of what many people mean by privacy.
Another possible definition is the right to tell the truth and get away with it.
But both definitions are rather about free speech than about privacy, but then we'd get to a fight over definitions which is in this context better to leave on the shoulders of people making encyclopedias.
Maybe I have a minor corollary to Somebody's Law: "All debates about privacy eventually degenerate into foolish and off-target debates about the meaning of truth." It never makes sense to argue about a "right to lie" or a "right to tell the truth." One man's lie is another man's truth. And even _asking_ for a true response is usually an overstepping, as it presumes the asker knows what is true and what is not. Pilate said it all 2000 years ago. --Tim May