Clark Reynard writes:

I must say I had never considered the possibility that the Data Superhighway itself might be a scam; but it's an interesting possibility.

I don't think it's a deliberate scam, just a Bad Idea. On the other hand, once the idea got rolling (Al Gore campaigned on the idea of the Data Superhighway), I'm sure the various government agencies made their comments and meshed their plans for Clipper, Skipjack, Capstone (data encryption, not just voice), and so forth, with the emerging ideas about subsidizing the Net to meet "national goals." By the way, the White House guy I mentioned, Tom Kalil, made much of the plans to tie the "single payer" health insurance system into his discussion, describing how one's "HealthCard" would be used to transfer medical records across the Nets to other hospitals and insurance company computers, how the NII would be used to "cut costs" by computerizing all records, etc. Very scary. (Duncan Frissell, over on Extropians wrote some great stuff on how one might avoid being issued one of these HealthCards...my favorite: "I thought I might be an illegal alien.")

Perhaps the spooks have, as we all know, been buying CD-ROMS and grepping 'em. It could be a conspiracy

Oh, can there be any doubt about this? The "Open Sources" plan just makes this official policy.

"Route 666." I like that. How does one get hold of Pat Robertson's people? And get him to think we're good Christian boys, so they'll do it? I think Pat's _already_ pissed about this Clipper thing, and he'd be happy to talk about evil liberal perfidy in the White House.

Thanks. My reference was of course to the well-known paranoia the Christian Right has to "the mark of the Beast" and the growing concern that an electronified Orwellian world would be the realization of this fear. Phil Karn brought a tape of the "700 Club" Clipper piece with him to Hackers. It was really amazing, honest. The news anchor, a black named Ben Kinchlow (sp?), was very well informed (contrast him with Dan Rather or the like) and was very agitated about the Clipper plans. Granted, the Christian Right does not subscribe to most of our views about other freedoms in society. I won't get into these topics here. But we may as well find allies where we can. The same goes for them RU-486-usin', pot-smokin' lesbos in Baghdad-by-the-Bay. That is, get folks on the Left _and_ the Right to fear what an Orwellian surveillance society would really mean for anyone not in power at the time and thus get them to side against the survelliance society planning per se. If you've read this far, here's a bonus news item (a reward for those who actually read my articles!): John Markoff, the reporter for the "New York Times" who has written many outstanding articles on crypto and computers, told me at Hackers that the Clipper debacle is unraveling: - that AT&T is pissed-off at the bad publicity they're getting, and at the confusion and delays in delivering the final version of the chips (sounds contradictory, but I think you can see how they'd be pissed that they're catching hell---and for nothing on their bottom line so far). - that heads may roll in the NSA/NIST world, with Clint Brooks, the point man on Clipper, being moved sideways or down to another job. Sounds like damage control is starting. - that Dorothy Denning is now almost isolated from her former colleagues, at least in terms of her reputation, and that she herself is trying to do some damage control (but several of us think she'll mainly be the "outside consultant" for the Feds for years to come...that is, she's cast her lot with the Feds). So, the efforts of the EFF, various corporate policy groups, security activists, and even our own group, seem to have paid off. Clipper/Capstone seems to be in a state of confusion. We may not have to push too much harder. I say we increase our attention on the Data Superhighway and try to kill it as well. --Tim May -- .......................................................................... Timothy C. May | Crypto Anarchy: encryption, digital money, tcmay@netcom.com | anonymous networks, digital pseudonyms, zero 408-688-5409 | knowledge, reputations, information markets, W.A.S.T.E.: Aptos, CA | black markets, collapse of governments. Higher Power: 2^756839 | Public Key: PGP and MailSafe available. Note: I put time and money into writing this posting. I hope you enjoy it.