BESS's Secret LOOPHOLE (censorware vs. privacy & anonymity)

[Mac Norton]

Pot. Kettle. Chip. Shoulder.
You boys are getting a little silly.
MacN

On Wed, 15 Aug 2001, Tim May wrote:

> On Wednesday, August 15, 2001, at 06:21 PM, Seth Finkelstein wrote:
> 
> > On Wed, Aug 15, 2001 at 08:17:02PM -0400, Declan McCullagh wrote:
> >> At one point Seth was capable of sane arguments and discussions
> >> without insults. This was, of course, many years ago, and now he's
> >> just nutty and should not be taken particularly seriously.
> >
> > 	I'm sorry Declan, I just can't take the cypherpunks list
> > seriously anymore. After you testified for Federal government
> > prosecutors, helping to put members in jail - not once, but twice -
> > and anyone still respected you, I just lost all ability to regard that
> > zeitgeist as other than a joke.
> >
> 
>  From what I know of the situations, based on journalistic reports (from 
> reports _other_ than from Declan), Declan took the obvious and legal 
> steps to limit his testimony to statements of the form:
> 
> "Yes, I am a reporter for "Wired News.""
> 
> "Yes, I wrote the story you are referring to."
> 
> He was subpoenaed to testify, he and/or his employer hired lawyers to 
> deal with the subpoena and to seek ways to state only things like the 
> above, and, so far as I have ever heard, he did not offer "helpful" 
> suggestions or speculations.
> 
> By contrast, Jim Choate was visited by the FBI for one of the show 
> trials and offered speculations that I (Tim) am a dangerous person with 
> lots of guns and money. The court records show these depositions from 
> Choate. No such malicious help came from Declan, at least none in court 
> records.
> 
> Declan has been to my house several times. (Choate has never been to my 
> house and will never be welcome.)
> 
> If he writes a story about me, or you, or anyone, and the court demands 
> for evidentiary reasons that he confirm or deny that he authored a 
> particular chunk of text, he would presumably do so. However, if FBI 
> agents on a fishing expedition ask him for incriminating speculations, I 
> assume he would tell them to leave.
> 
> As for you, you are not to be taken seriously by anyone, narcs or others.
> 
> 
> --Tim May