At 7:29 AM 6/7/96, jim bell wrote:

Even so, given how much noise we've been hearing out of DC on the subject of the Internet, digital cash, and good encryption, I'd say SOMEBODY is getting a bit worried. I haven't exactly been keeping this stuff a secret: What do you think their reaction has been, so far? When those government-types start considering various scary scenarios, what do you think they are imagining?

I don't think any significant amount of the current stuff coming out of Washington has anything to do with my words, your words, or the words of anyone on this or any other forum I know about. Importantly, I'm including my own words, explicitly. Sorry to burst _our_ bubbles, but I just don't think the lawmakers and burrowcrats are being driven by loose talk by us. Rather, the reasons for their actions and hyperbole about the Net, the Web, online porn, money laundering, the "information highway," and all that trendy stuff is because they can see many of the same trends we see. While I have a certain amount of pride that my single-page "Crypto Anarchist Manifesto" essentially nailed a bunch of trends which have become obvious to all in the 8 years after I issued it, I don't for a picosecond think anything I wrote then or since has had any significant effect on proposed leglislation. While some of our writings and talk may have inspired "sound bites" in their own reports, the concerns governments have about strong cryptography, transparent borders, alternative forms of money, data havens, etc., are easy to understand.

Not quite yet, anyway. I'm very disappointed to have waited over a year for some slick lawyer to show me how I'd be violating some law or another to do so.

This is factually incorrect. I recall at least one law professor and at least one assistant DA publically commenting on the legal implications of your actual deployment of AP (as opposed to merely speculating about such things, which all agree is protected speech). And this was soon after your initial flurry of posts describing your "wonderful idea." --Tim May Boycott "Big Brother Inside" software! We got computers, we're tapping phone lines, we know that that ain't allowed. ---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---- Timothy C. May | Crypto Anarchy: encryption, digital money, tcmay@got.net 408-728-0152 | anonymous networks, digital pseudonyms, zero W.A.S.T.E.: Corralitos, CA | knowledge, reputations, information markets, Licensed Ontologist | black markets, collapse of governments. "National borders aren't even speed bumps on the information superhighway."