CSPAN

17 Dec 2003

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Although it was probably an exercise in futitility, I sent a note to 
CSPAN suggesting that they have PRZ as a guest on the Booknotes program 
that Brian Lamb hosts.  I figured that maybe they could have him on in 
conjunction with the book version of PGP that the MIT press is coming out 
with.

In my note I made the argument that policy concerning cryto is really
policy concerning wiretapping and surveillance, and that technological
changes are eroding the status quo and forcing us to decide whether we
want a lot more surveillance (or at least the potential for it) or a lot
less, that since this is going to have a lot to do with how the police
interact with the public in the future, it's an important issue, etc.

At the end, I appended the transcript of the talk PRZ gave in NYC that was
recently posted to the list.  I found that particular text to be pretty
impressive, and I'm hoping that the folks at CSPAN will as well.  There
are a few details that I hope will go over well:  MIT's involvement, the
fact that PRZ has debated the NSA's general counsel, the quotes from the
FBI director, etc.  On top of that, the conference from which the 
transcript came seems like the sort of event that CSPAN would televise.

I don't know Phil, and I don't know if he'd even want to appear on the
program.  But there are two things about Booknotes that I think would 
make it a very good forum for the cryto debate.  First of all, Phil would 
have enough time to explain the issues.  That's important, because this 
isn't something that can be easily packed into a sound byte.  Also, 
although I don't know this for a fact, I would imagine that the program 
would probably be a pretty good way to reach people on this Hill, both 
members and staffers.

Anyway, I sent them Phil's phone number and his email address.

The encouraging thing is that I sent this out more than a day ago, and I 
haven't heard back from them yet.  Ordinarily, when you send them email 
you get a form letter back within an hour or two.  That gives me some 
hope that maybe some people over there are reading the transcript, and 
that perhaps they're thinking about it.

I don't know if CSPAN is open to lobbying or not, but the more I think 
about it, the more it seems to me that it could be a very useful forum 
for the debate.  I think it would be worthwhile to let them know the next 
time Phil's going to speak at an event similar to the one I took the 
transcript from, and see if they'd be willing to televise it.

My feeling is that if we can get the word out to the public at large, 
we're going to win.

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Alex Strasheim | finger astrashe@nyx.cs.du.edu
alex@omaha.com | for my PGP 2.6.1. public key

Alex Strasheim

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