Netscape Security Flaw is a Feature

[Tim May]

At 8:19 AM -0700 6/13/97, Declan McCullagh wrote:
>On Thu, 12 Jun 1997, Tim May wrote:
>
>> According to Netscape spokesmen, this feature was added to the kernel of
>> Mosaic, then Navigator, in 1993, as part of the Clipper Key Recovery
>> Program. As James Clarke put it an interview tonight on MSNBC, "Dorothy
>> Denning asked us to insert the "remote read" capabilities to ensure that
>> the legitimate needs of law enforcement are met. No person cruising the Web
>> has any expectation of privacy, as even Declan McCullagh has pointed out."
>
>Tim misrepresents my position, or does not understand it. I did not say
>that. Rather, I argued that you have no "right of privacy" that allows you
>generally to restrict the right of others to gossip, trade, or otherwise
>share information about you. Such a rule would violate their rights of
>free speech.
>
>Like Marc, I hope there is still some role for truth in the debate about
>privacy issues.

And like Marc, you take satire entirely too seriously.

My one line paraphrasing of your point, ostensibly a deliberately clumsy
rephrasing by Jim Clarke appropriating for his own uses your  general
point, could hardly have been expected to be a fully-nuanced explication of
your point.

Jeesh. You've been in D.C. too long, or have "headed" too many soccer balls
lately.


--Tim May

There's something wrong when I'm a felon under an increasing number of laws.
Only one response to the key grabbers is warranted: "Death to Tyrants!"
---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:----
Timothy C. May              | Crypto Anarchy: encryption, digital money,
tcmay at got.net  408-728-0152 | anonymous networks, digital pseudonyms, zero
W.A.S.T.E.: Corralitos, CA  | knowledge, reputations, information markets,
Higher Power: 2^1398269     | black markets, collapse of governments.
"National borders aren't even speed bumps on the information superhighway."