-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Lucky, are you just the cynic's cynic, a farther-gone revolutionary than you seem, or did you just have a bad month? shamrock@netcom.com (Lucky Green) wrote (on various occasions): - ---------- Prepare to see "felony Internet access" on the books before long. - ---------- Nothing new here. Pornography and the other Three Horsemen will be use to ban the spread of 'dangerous' thoughts on the Internet. This was clear years ago. Let me emphasize a few facts: o Non-GAK Encryption will be outlawed. o 'Immoral' texts and pictures will be banned. o The dissemination of 'dangerous ideas' will become a felony. At best, Cypherpunks can hope to provide the infrastructure that will allow an underground to communicate semi-securely. We are unable to stop the global tidal wave of fascism. Let's not waste our time on bemoaning the freedoms crushed in its path. We have more important work to do. - ---------- But how many of them will be willing to forward certain newsgroups if doing so carries a mandatory 10 year prison term? Hint: count the number of narcotics dealers that advertize in your local yellow pages. - ---------- Some site in physical space has to host the nntpd, the ftpd, and the httpd. That site will be subject to search, seizure, and arrest and conviction of owner. - ---------- o Outer space: not very realistic o Offshore boats: see the fate of drug trafficers in international waters after the Coast Guard is through with them. o Stable dictatorships: Not stable enough to withstand an humanitarian mission by the US Army. - ---------- Wrong. Only 0.03% of the home PCs have to be seized and the owners incarcerated. The remaining users will cease to carry controlled data on their own. - ---------- Seems to me that the laws are becomming unified on a global scale. The people in power all over the world have the same interests. To stay in power. The 'unregulated' Internet is in direct confilict with this interest. Since these powers make the laws, they will use the laws to reduce the threat the present day Internet presents. Will C2 carry certain newsgroups/info after doing so has become a felony? Who wants to be an 'illegal data' kingpin and face execution? (Kingpins are 'data trafficers' that carry more than 1.5 Megs of 'controlled information'.) - ---------- That is called a conspiracy. The consequence is that all machines involved will be confiscated and their respective owners jailed. - ---------- Well, you can seize the machine running the OS for the crimes it committed. I am serious. No prosecution needed. - ---------- Prosecution followed by conviction is what will happen to the owner of the computer on which the OS was running. - ---------- Time to bring up my favorite CP invention of the last years: Wai Dai's Pipenet. Of course running Pipenet would be a felony in the future I forsee, but it sure is a great idea. - ---------- Pretty hard. That's why the corporate officers will be jailed instead. Not that this would be necessary to stop the corporation from operating. The authorities can just confiscating all the equipment and thereby put the corporation out of business. Saves time and trial costs. They just haul off the computers and declare that they are now property of the government. - ---------- Only to have the box impounded within a few days after going on-line. A very costly and likely short lived hobby. - ---------- All participants in this network are clearly guilty of conspiracy. Their assets will be confiscated under RICO. As Brian mentioned, the law enforcement agencies are creating a surplus by such seizures. The costs associated with more prosecutions are more than offset by the revenue generated. Your computer will make a welcome addition to their budget. - ---------- Inevitably, a DC net or the Token Ring approach described earlier will be used for illegal purposes. Once, not if, that comes to pass all participants will be guilty of conspiracy and their property subject to forfeiture. No trial needed and it will happen to the applause of the general public. ======================================== The answer to much of what you write off without a fight is fairly obvious, but not yet being mentioned in open conversation. Without intending this to be a flame, I'd respectfully suggest that giving up the living room and den in the hope of a back- bedroom campaign against a home invader is probably not a workable strategy (if you'll allow a metaphor uncomfortably close to the subject matter). One rule of these types of things is to carry the battle to the opponent's ground. Allowing the battle on your own ground is hard on the furniture. We Jurgar Din (that will have to suffice: I do not yet live in a free country) +"The battle, Sir, is not to the strong alone. It is to the+ +vigilant, the active, the brave. Besides, Sir, we have no + +election. If we were base enough to desire it, it is now + +too late to retire from the contest." -Patrick Henry 1775 + -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: 2.6.2 iQBVAwUBMOuAJEjw99YhtpnhAQFdHAIAiaIBOIVVTU1sQwPCDbRgY5Acmg+9oQiL SwLItL4dVz4xPoo6OU3AwDbQvbENuYb2bL7EdUrg6GG4/TRFv1zuiA== =x7j7 -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----