At 9:00 PM 9/1/95, Jeff Barber wrote:

I don't see any "surveillance state" issue. Fuhrman openly agreed to speak to the screenwriter. AFAIK, he had no reason to believe the screenwriter wouldn't tell anyone else. Nor should he have counted on that anyway. Any loss of credibility (or other penalty) he receives is entirely deserved, IMO.

By the way, McKinny did not volunteer the tapes, nor did she consent to having them taken from her and used by the Defense. Private property was taken by a court action (the North Carolina lower court ruled that the tapes were the property of McKinny and could not be taken, then an appeals court overruled this decision and ordered McKinny to produce the tapes). (It is not clear how Cochrane and his team learned of the tapes. Speculation is that McKinny's agent or lawyer was doing some freelance shopping-around of the script. McKinny has denied that she was trying to sell the tapes. Regardless, they are her property and should only come in to a court case when directly and centrally involved. This is closely related to the Church of Scientology issue, and is being debated on another mailing list I'm on, the Cyberia list.) This raises serious issues. She was a screenwriter, Fuhrman was helping her to generate a salable script. Neither was speaking for the LAPD. (Kind of like the disclaimers we see on the Net, which I suspect are becoming worthless.)

...

Anyway, I am greatly disturbed by this "mining" of ancient comments, made to a screenwriter.

Not me. A few weeks there was a thread concerning the use of information by private "reputation" bureaus. I can't find the thread in the archives but I seem to recall you defending the right of private entities to keep and distribute such information (my apologies if this was someone else). Anyway, to me, these tapes fall clearly in

You're imputing to my comments about what will happen, and what cannot be stopped except by coercion, a conclusion which you think is at odds with my point here. Just because I think people (like me, you, Laura McKinny, etc.) have the "right" to compile records, make notes, make tapes of conversations, etc., does not mean I think that courts can order them given to the court. (This is an issue I have with "discovery" in general, where even peripheral witnesses can be compelled to turn over diaries, journals, letters, tapes, records, financial reports, etc.)

the same domain. This screenwriter isn't a government agency, the information was freely given, and the screenwriter has every right to offer it for whatever purpose she deems appropriate, for free or for money (barring any agreements to the contrary, of which I have heard nothing).

Again, to make it clear, McKinney did not offer the material and fought in the North Carolina courts to have her property kept confidential. The court ordered her to turn it over. (And apparently members of the defense team leaked the most damaging, and out of context, parts, provoking Ito to announce a major investigation of this is to come, with severe sanctions for those who leaked it.) We need a justice system which will not be dragged into spending a full year on this matter, with every indication that a mistrial or hung jury will result. I look forward to a day in which an OJ would get a reasonable, month-long trial...and then, if found guilty, be given an execution date no longer than a month away. As it is, OJ will be guesting on the talk show circuit. He butchers two people--from the overwhelming mound of evidence I've seen--and essentially cuts the head off of his ex-wife, but will likely get off as this trial spins out of control and fragments in various ways. Don't misunderstand my motivations: I'm sort of happy this is all happening. It makes people even more suspicious of governments and lawyers, and it will accelerate the disintegration of the current system. --Tim May ---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---- Timothy C. May | Crypto Anarchy: encryption, digital money, tcmay@got.net 408-728-0152 | anonymous networks, digital pseudonyms, zero Corralitos, CA | knowledge, reputations, information markets, Higher Power: 2^756839 | black markets, collapse of governments. "National borders are just speed bumps on the information superhighway."