Fight, or Roll Over?
Since the Anti-Electronic Racketeering Act of 1995 might as well be called the "Anti-Cypherpunk Act of 1995", I'm surprised to see Tim throw in the towel already, when the bill hasn't even made it through committee yet. Not that I place a lot of faith in our elected officials, but this bill seems to step on so many toes, and to be so plainly idiotic, that we are bound to get some support from unexpected quarters. Nothing surprised me more, in fact, than all the mainstream IS magazines (like Information Week) denouncing the Exon ammendment. This, though, is a much more subtle and insidious bill, and takes away something that most people don't even know they want yet. (The Exon ammendment, on the other hand, could have been dubbed, "The Cypherpunk Market-Creation Act of 1995.") Nevertheless, it is certainly possible to fight this bill and win, while at the same time, preparing to go underground if it passes. Go underground? Well, as I read it, this bill basically makes cypherpunks a "corrupt organization", subject to the full impact of the RICO statutes. With the passage of this bill, we will have the same status in the US as the neo-Nazis have in Germany, and will have to adopt similar communications and organization techniques. Who knows, maybe this is the best thing that could happen, although I'm real curious about who will back off to protect their ass-ets and who will actually keep on chugging towards crypto anarchy. In the short term, I've renewed or started memberships in the organizations that are likely to fight this -- but I'm also fired up to get more easy-to-use software out there, and do what I can to help build infrastructure that can resist this sort of nonsense.
On Thu, 13 Jul 1995, Douglas Barnes wrote:
Since the Anti-Electronic Racketeering Act of 1995 might as well be called the "Anti-Cypherpunk Act of 1995", I'm surprised to see Tim throw in the towel already, when the bill hasn't even made it through committee yet.
I don't think Tim threw in the towell on this bill, but has come to realize that the overall war on privacy cannot be won by concentrating on the individual battles. We've ALL got to take a deep breath and come up with a different plan of attack; a plan that the TLAs and spooks will be unable to defend against. Right now, as long as we're kept busy with individual bills and initiatives, they have us just where they want us. ____ Robert A. Hayden <=> Cthulhu Matata \ /__ -=-=-=-=- <=> -=-=-=-=- \/ / Finger for Geek Code Info <=> hayden@krypton.mankato.msus.edu \/ Finger for PGP Public Key <=> http://att2.cs.mankato.msus.edu/~hayden
"Robert A. Hayden" writes:
On Thu, 13 Jul 1995, Douglas Barnes wrote:
Since the Anti-Electronic Racketeering Act of 1995 might as well be called the "Anti-Cypherpunk Act of 1995", I'm surprised to see Tim throw in the towel already, when the bill hasn't even made it through committee yet.
I don't think Tim threw in the towell on this bill, but has come to realize that the overall war on privacy cannot be won by concentrating on the individual battles.
Thats true. However, I think that one strategic move would be to get a PR firm involved that is capable of severly embarassing any politico who puts his name any of these proposals. After two or three of those they start getting gunshy. Folks, this isn't trivial. It isn't an easy thing to do by any means. However, it is far from impossible.
We've ALL got to take a deep breath and come up with a different plan of attack; a plan that the TLAs and spooks will be unable to defend against.
There is no such plan. They can't control the technology in the long run but they can throw us all in jail in the short run. I have substantial personal interest in keeping this stuff legal, and I don't give a flying fig *who* sponsors legislation. Do you think the agricultural industry lies down every time that congress proposes to cut subsidies? Do you think that the gun lobby lies down and plays dead? They get a bad bill proposed virtually every week. Do you think the health care industry would have been correct to say "oh, Hillary has us bushwacked -- this is a major initiative. Guess we'd better give up." Anyone who is saying that it is impossible to fight the legislative battles hasn't been thinking. It takes millions of dollars, but there is a lot of money out there to be had in my opinion. Perry
On Thu, 13 Jul 1995, Perry E. Metzger wrote:
Anyone who is saying that it is impossible to fight the legislative battles hasn't been thinking. It takes millions of dollars, but there is a lot of money out there to be had in my opinion.
Nobody's saying it's impossible, what we're saying is that we don't have the resources to DO that on the scale that is needed. Maybe Microsoft does, but we don't. What we can do, however, is to shape the culture of the net. That culture will have to eventually be listened to by DC. ____ Robert A. Hayden <=> Cthulhu Matata \ /__ -=-=-=-=- <=> -=-=-=-=- \/ / Finger for Geek Code Info <=> hayden@krypton.mankato.msus.edu \/ Finger for PGP Public Key <=> http://att2.cs.mankato.msus.edu/~hayden
"Robert A. Hayden" writes:
On Thu, 13 Jul 1995, Perry E. Metzger wrote:
Anyone who is saying that it is impossible to fight the legislative battles hasn't been thinking. It takes millions of dollars, but there is a lot of money out there to be had in my opinion.
Nobody's saying it's impossible, what we're saying is that we don't have the resources to DO that on the scale that is needed.
Since when?
Maybe Microsoft does, but we don't.
I must admit to only having an academic knowledge of this process, but I strongly suspect that you are incorrect -- everything I've read, watched and learned of indicates to me that there are enough people and companies with an interest here to raise a few million dollars. Consider that Netscape alone is a very wealthy company that would have its marketing plans strongly disrupted by this new piece of congressional trash. A few million isn't enough to destroy carreers on the scale of the NRA, but its enough to make things very messy for people.
What we can do, however, is to shape the culture of the net. That culture will have to eventually be listened to by DC.
The beltway crowd doesn't log in. They ignored the petitions sent to Leahy for S.314 because they didn't think of the people who sent the petitions in as "real". I doubt they will understand the net for many years to come, whereas we have to stall out the NSA and company now. Incidently, unlike the NRA, I believe our task is merely to stifle legislation for about five years, at which point it will be too late for legislation. Perry
Perry writes: | watched and learned of indicates to me that there are enough people | and companies with an interest here to raise a few million | dollars. Consider that Netscape alone is a very wealthy company that | would have its marketing plans strongly disrupted by this new piece of | congressional trash. Sun is also a probable ally. John Gage (Sun's chief technical officer?) regularly slams the ITARs, as does CEO Scott McNealy. It would seem that those who don't write code should be out advocating the positive uses of cryptography, and looking for groups who can effectively fight this the way people normally fight bad legistlation in Congress. Petitions don't work. Spending piles of cash does. Writing code works even better. Adam -- "It is seldom that liberty I Support The Phil of any kind is lost all at Zimmermann legal defense fund once." -Hume http://www.netresponse.com/zldf ------------------ PGP.ZIP Part [001/713] ------------------- M4$L#!!0````(`">9ZQX3(*,_DG8!`-JF`P`'````4$=0+D581>S;=UQ3U__X M\9M!$E8,TT@PJ$10$1=*41%WW`KX$=Q[M5KK`&R%(HH+(T.M"S>NME8K=31N M:A$[K+5(K:O5BE405ZE:1"3?UTW`:K_]\/G\?O_^?CX>3^_-S;GGO,^\`^@W ------------------------------------------------------------- for next chunk to export --> http://dcs.ex.ac.uk/~aba/export/
participants (4)
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Adam Shostack -
cman＠communities.com -
Perry E. Metzger -
Robert A. Hayden