Zimmermann case is dropped.
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- My lead defense lawyer, Phil Dubois, received a fax this morning from the Assistant US Attorney in Northern District of California, William Keane. The letter informed us that I "will not be prosecuted in connection with the posting to USENET in June 1991 of the encryption program Pretty Good Privacy. The investigation is closed." This brings to a close a criminal investigation that has spanned the last three years. I'd like to thank all the people who helped us in this case, especially all the donors to my legal defense fund. Apparently, the money was well-spent. And I'd like to thank my very capable defense team: Phil Dubois, Ken Bass, Eben Moglen, Curt Karnow, Tom Nolan, and Bob Corn-Revere. Most of the time they spent on the case was pro-bono. I'd also like to thank Joe Burton, counsel for the co-defendant. There are many others I can thank, but I don't have the presence of mind to list them all here at this moment. The medium of email cannot express how I feel about this turn of events. -Philip Zimmermann 11 Jan 96 -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: 2.6.2 iQCVAwUBMPDy4WV5hLjHqWbdAQEqYwQAm+o313Cm2ebAsMiPIwmd1WwnkPXEaYe9 pGR5ja8BKSZQi4TAEQOQwQJaghI8QqZFdcctVYLm569I1/8ah0qyJ+4fOfUiAMda Sa2nvJR7pnr6EXrUFe1QoSauCASP/QRYcKgB5vaaOOuxyXnQfdK39AqaKy8lPYbw MfUiYaMREu4= =9CJW -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----
Good news, but lets not forget that winning the battle isn't winning the war. The dropping of the case means that the legality of the ITAR restrictions goes untested. Had the case not been dropped it would have expired shortly under the statute of limitations. The real issue here is the abuse of the investigative powers of the FBI in support of their own political agenda. Phill Hallam-Baker
We've made no progress. Phil has lots lots of time and gained lots of grey hairs, and everyone who donated to his defense fund lost money. The US can still harass people if they want, and make their life hell. -- Sameer Parekh Voice: 510-601-9777x3 Community ConneXion FAX: 510-601-9734 The Internet Privacy Provider Dialin: 510-658-6376 http://www.c2.org/ (or login as "guest") sameer@c2.org
For once, Thatcher said it best: "Just Rejoice." However, Churchill said it better: "This is not the end. This is not the beginning of the, but rather the end of the beginning". But has Phil sold the photos to a tabloid yet? Simon (defun modexpt (x y n) "computes (x^y) mod n" (cond ((= y 0) 1) ((= y 1) (mod x n)) ((evenp y) (mod (expt (modexpt x (/ y 2) n) 2) n)) (t (mod (* x (modexpt x (1- y) n)) n))))
We've made no progress. Phil has lots lots of time and gained lots of grey hairs, and everyone who donated to his defense fund lost money.
No progress? At least Phil is not going off on a trip to Alcatraz to make small ones out of big ones. Thats a big plus in many peoples books. One of the most overdue reforms of the US government is the renaming of the FBI building to remove the name of J Edgar Hoover. The abuse of power under his administration of the FBI continues to poison the US polity by providing clear proof to many citizens that their government cannot be trusted. While the abuses of Hoover continue to be commemerated in this fashion there can be little public confidence in any claims of reform.
The US can still harass people if they want, and make their life hell.
Not just the US government. There are many crooks out there who have attempted or are attempting worse. At least with the government there are means to bring it to heel eventually. Phill
We've made no progress. Phil has lots lots of time and gained lots of grey hairs, and everyone who donated to his defense fund lost money.
No progress? At least Phil is not going off on a trip to Alcatraz to make small ones out of big ones. Thats a big plus in many peoples books.
I wish I could make another of my pollyannaish posts now, but I agree with Sameer. It's great that Phil's off the hook, but there's nothing to stop them from doing the same thing to someone else tomorrow. What's more,, everyone here knows that, and so the government gets what it really wants: a chilling effect on crypto development. How much credit do you give a guy when he stops beating his wife? They put Phil through the ringer, made him spend his money on lawyers, and added a lot of stress to his life. But they haven't admitted that they were wrong, and they haven't renounced such actions in the future. We're all very happy that Phil's out of the woods, and today's announcement is a great thing. But it's not enough.
On Thu, 11 Jan 1996 hallam@w3.org wrote:
make small ones out of big ones. Thats a big plus in many peoples books.
We've made no progress. Phil has lots lots of time and gained lots of grey hairs, and everyone who donated to his defense fund lost money.
No progress? At least Phil is not going off on a trip to Alcatraz to One of the most overdue reforms of the US government is the renaming of the FBI building to remove the name of J Edgar Hoover. The abuse of power under his administration of the FBI continues to poison the US polity by providing clear proof to many citizens that their government cannot be trusted. While the abuses of Hoover continue to be commemerated in this fashion there can be little public confidence in any claims of reform.
The US can still harass people if they want, and make their life hell.
Not just the US government. There are many crooks out there who have attempted or are attempting worse. At least with the government there are means to bring it to heel eventually.
Phill
(defun modexpt (x y n) "computes (x^y) mod n" (cond ((= y 0) 1) ((= y 1) (mod x n)) ((evenp y) (mod (expt (modexpt x (/ y 2) n) 2) n)) (t (mod (* x (modexpt x (1- y) n)) n))))
From: sameer <sameer@c2.org> Date: Thu, 11 Jan 1996 15:29:11 -0800 (PST) Cc: prz@acm.org, cypherpunks@toad.com X-Mailer: ELM [version 2.4 PL20] Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Sender: owner-cypherpunks@toad.com Precedence: bulk We've made no progress. Phil has lots lots of time and gained lots of grey hairs, and everyone who donated to his defense fund lost money. To the contrary, Phil won big. He avoided going to Federal court as the defendant in a felony case. That's what matters most. Yes, a lot of time, money and effort was spent reaching this outcome, but none of it was wasted. The US can still harass people if they want, and make their life hell. Of course they can; they're the U.S. government. No possible outcome of Phil's case would have changed this fact. If the Federal government wishes to make your life miserable they can always do so. The legal challenges to the ITAR regulations will continue forward in the various Federal courts, but that fight will no longer be on Phil Zimmermann's back. --bal
Of course they can; they're the U.S. government. No possible outcome of Phil's case would have changed this fact. If the Federal government wishes to make your life miserable they can always do so.
The more important point being missed of course that Phil has and no doubt will continue to make certain elements of the U.S government quite miserable indeed. Something that I suspect doesn't make Phil too miserable at all. -- +----------------------------------+-----------------------------------------+ |Julian Assange | "if you think the United States has | |FAX: +61-3-9819-9066 | stood still, who built the largest | |EMAIL: proff@suburbia.net | shopping centre in the world?" - Nixon | +----------------------------------+-----------------------------------------+
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
We've made no progress. Phil has lots lots of time and gained lots of grey hairs, and everyone who donated to his defense fund lost money.
To the contrary, Phil won big. He avoided going to Federal court as the defendant in a felony case. That's what matters most. Yes, a lot of time, money and effort was spent reaching this outcome, but none of it was wasted.
The US can still harass people if they want, and make their life hell.
Of course they can; they're the U.S. government. No possible outcome of Phil's case would have changed this fact. If the Federal government wishes to make your life miserable they can always do so.
The legal challenges to the ITAR regulations will continue forward in the various Federal courts, but that fight will no longer be on Phil Zimmermann's back.
Mike Godwin can speak to this a lot better than I can, but I believe that by abandoning their case against PRZ, they have seriously weakened their case against anyone else that they feel has violated the ITAR in a similar manner - it's called "selective enforcement" and courts have been taking a dim view of that sort of thing. I predict that you will start seeing a *lot* of crypto software showing up on FTP sites within the next 24-48 hours, as news of this spreads. - -- Ed Carp, N7EKG Ed.Carp@linux.org, ecarp@netcom.com 214/993-3935 voicemail/digital pager 800/558-3408 SkyPager Finger ecarp@netcom.com for PGP 2.5 public key an88744@anon.penet.fi "Past the wounds of childhood, past the fallen dreams and the broken families, through the hurt and the loss and the agony only the night ever hears, is a waiting soul. Patient, permanent, abundant, it opens its infinite heart and asks only one thing of you ... 'Remember who it is you really are.'" -- "Losing Your Mind", Karen Alexander and Rick Boyes -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: 2.6.2 iQCVAwUBMPWywyS9AwzY9LDxAQF9zwP/Q8STXpBYNNJgvA5YUWDnxaV5YvmrS6SR Zyp6KKyeEmCmMAJRqazoSkQWXuCbg8iPserEnxDMvZUDRkGxmO3EI2zX1Aqr5Am/ GXAPdGBxQ0tsCy7I4F4Icorgx7ZA8D0d6VJmBxCNu6NrmZvFvn1EMNLZjzqmlls/ ufHh+YG6zFI= =OC4X -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----
On Thu, 11 Jan 1996, sameer wrote:
We've made no progress. Phil has lots lots of time and gained lots of grey hairs, and everyone who donated to his defense fund lost money. The US can still harass people if they want, and make their life hell.
Agreed. To me it was always a question of _when_ the charges would be dropped, not _if_. The point of these things is generally not to prosecute people but to harrass them, paralyze them, and make them blow lots of money. Unfortunately, the government was successful on all three counts. The good news is that if the case hadn't been dropped it would have meant more of all three for Phil, whether or not he "won" the case in the end. --Dave. -- ******************************************************************************* Bear Stearns is not responsible for any recommendation, solicitation, offer or agreement or any information about any transaction, customer account or account activity contained in this communication. *******************************************************************************
Congratulations! You must be very relieved, as are the rest of us in the cryptographic community in the US. One question, though. In your comments, you write I'd also like to thank Joe Burton, counsel for the co-defendant. This raises the obvious question - do you know if the entire case has been dropped, or have you just been eliminated as a target with the possibility still open that others may yet be indicted? Again, my congratulations. -matt
participants (10)
-
Alex Strasheim -
Brian A. LaMacchia -
David Mandl -
Ed Carp [khijol SysAdmin] -
hallam＠w3.org -
Julian Assange -
Matt Blaze -
Philip Zimmermann -
sameer -
Simon Spero