Robert Michael Hoff writes:

While I agree that the cypherpunk list is too fragmented and informal to pass off as a coherent lobbying group, there remains a very deep need to get information out to the "general public" (read as, "people who might have heard about something the NSA is doing, but don't quite remember what....")

Lets face it. For all the successful lobbying EFF and CSPR and individuals have done, upwards of 75% of the population won't recognize the word Clipper. This needs to change, since the NSA depends on the masses to be uninformed for Clipper to become reality. Press kits and making the cypherpunk label known are steps in the right direction, but we need to go more directly to the people. And sadly, probably the most successful way to stimulate debate and educate in the United States is best demonstrated by...

I wish you luck on your creation of this public relations campaign, the financing and production of a "Harry and Louise" (??...I never saw it) television campaign, etc. Just don't call your campaign "Cypherpunks," as you don't speak for me. I'm not trying to sound snippy and testy here. If you and the others who are advocating an aggressive media and public education campaign can raise the money, get the stuff produced, and so forth, then more power to you. But it ain't a Cypherpunks thing. So don't call it that. Cypherpunks write code, as Eric Hughes says. Or as Phil Karn has expanded on wonderfully: "Don't get mad, get even--write code." As we've discussed, this doesn't mean that writing C or Perl is the only valid thing to do, or that all Cypherpunks activity revolves around this. Rather, it recogizes that fact that the coming changes that center around strong crypto will be most influenced by actual tools, capabilities, digital banks, message pools, reputation servers, data havens, and the like, more so than by "public opinion." And several groups _already_ exist to lobby, located in Washington and staffed by lawyers, media relations people, fund-raisers, etc. (A new one, "EPIC," just got launched with much hoopla this past week.) They have what we don't have: a centralized band of "public policy" types, a budget, offices, etc. And we have what they _don't_ have: hackers and crypto experts, subversive folks willing to violate export laws, guerilla activists, etc. But you knew that.

"Harry and Louise"

You know, that annoying commercial the insurance industry ran? That Bill was concerned enough about to parody? It's time the Clipper debate got one too. Mind you, we'd keep ours factual and non-sensational, but interesting enough to catch the eye of Joe and Mary Blow at the dinner table.

This comes up every few months. Pray tell, just where will the multi-million dollar budget to finance this series of ads come from? (The last such "proposal" was that the Cyherpunks buy a series of 30-minute "infomercials" to educate the public. Several minor flaws: a. such infomercials would be tuned-out by 97% of the population ("Look, Marge, it's a commercial about the dangers of Capstone and the benefits of free use of RSA and Diffie-Hellman key exchange!") (the subject is mostly too complicated for public debate, except at the level of public opinion about the overall concept, where the Time/CNN already has us way out ahead at 80% opposed to Clipper.) b. call up a few t.v. shows and find out the ad rates, locally and nationally. Then you'll see why the insurance business can run ads like this, but a band of Cypherpunks can't. (Unless you and your friends plan to pay for it yourselves. And don't make vague noises about "fund-raisers.") c. Clipper is primarily and Executive Branch issue. Doesn't mean it won't be derailed, and our views are helping in some small way. But it's not something that has to pass through Congress. (Digital Telephony is another matter.) d. whatever we spend, proponents can also spend. And both NSA and AT&T have deep pockets (I've never seen an NSA ad, but they can funnel the money into other places). e. finally, it *still* wouldn't be a Cypherpunks thing....we have no voting system, no rulers, no bylaws, no nothing.

their rules: who dominates public debate wins, not who's right. And the anti-Clipper movement needs to quit the discussion-group mode and move into action. Very, very soon.

Yeah, work on code! A better use of some raised cash--which you are berating us for not raising--would be to finance Phil Zimmermann's "Pretty Good Voice Privacy," or the similar efforts of others (described here in several recent posts). The technological leverage obtainable this way is what has made the current strong crypto issue arise. This is the stunning power of hackers and Samizdat publishers and offshore financial markets...it changes the equation. It ain't politics as usual. --Tim May -- .......................................................................... Timothy C. May | Crypto Anarchy: encryption, digital money, tcmay@netcom.com | anonymous networks, digital pseudonyms, zero 408-688-5409 | knowledge, reputations, information markets, W.A.S.T.E.: Aptos, CA | black markets, collapse of governments. Higher Power: 2^859433 | Public Key: PGP and MailSafe available. "National borders are just speed bumps on the information superhighway."