nightline TONIGHT morphed kiddy porn case

[Tim May]

At 11:16 PM -0500 2/12/01, Declan McCullagh wrote:
>FSC Does Nightline
>WASHINGTON - Free Speech Coalition general counsel Jeffrey Douglas 
>and lobbyist Kat Sunlove will discuss the so-called "virtual child 
>porn" case, FSC v. Reno, tonight on Nightline, the long-running 
>late-night ABC news program hosted by Ted Koppel. The program 
>usually begins at 11:30 p.m. Eastern and Pacific times on local and 
>regional ABC affiliates following local news. Check your local 
>television listings - you will not want to miss this critical 
>discussion on the question of whether a computerized image that 
>resembles a child can be classified the same way as an actual image 
>of an actual child.

It's amusing to watch issues brought up on Cypherpunks 8 or 9 years 
ago surfacing in recent weeks. Morphed images, stego for dead drops, 
cyber-stalking, etc.

Reminds me of the opening months of the first Clinton term, when 
"trial balloons" to ban crypto were being floated by Administration 
lackeys masquerading as disinterested parties. The CIA Director is 
out there scaring the congresscritters, giving them the public scare 
story and, presumably, the "if you only knew what we know" secret 
briefing which is designed to turn even the staunchest free speechers 
into quivering police state apologists.

Somewhere this coming spring they probably need another Reichstag 
fire, though. A Sarin attack, or some really juicy cyber-snuff MPEGs 
cooked up by the spooks.

Journalistic sniffing around is increasing. I've had three calls for 
interviews in recent weeks. One I did, but the focus unfortunately 
shifted to the sensational and I expect the final result to be 
uninteresting. Another I declined, citing overexposure of these tired 
old issues. The third I mostly deflected, saying I'm not the best 
person to talk to. Whew.

"Just when I think I'm out, they _pull_ me back in."

--Tim May
-- 
Timothy C. May         tcmay at got.net        Corralitos, California
Political: Co-founder Cypherpunks/crypto anarchy/Cyphernomicon
Technical: physics/soft errors/Smalltalk/Squeak/agents/games/Go
Personal: b.1951/UCSB/Intel '74-'86/retired/investor/motorcycles/guns