The Coming Crypto Winter

[Tim May]

On Friday, October 5, 2001, at 12:24 PM, John Young wrote:

> Walter Mossberg, WSJ technology columnist, wrote
> yesterday about the need for the Internet coming to be
> treated like other forms of communication, that now
> is the time for its special treatment to end. He said
> to get rid of pseudonyms and anonymity, that people
> need to own up to who they are. Implied that national
> security is at stake.
>

The sheeple and the scribblers are falling all over themselves to 
sacrifice liberty.

Mossberg, Young, and all of the other recent enemies of liberty don't 
understand that the right to keep private diaries, to speak in whispers, 
to draw the curtains, to meet in private, and to post anonymous 
handbills goes back to the founding of the nation.

"Time for the special treatment to end" is a display of ignorance. 
Perhaps he should reread some of the pseudonymous writings in the 
Federalist Papers.

I would write more, but what's the point? If they haven't grokked the 
essence of liberty before, our words can't help. Only technology can.

As predicted by many of us over the years, the "Crypto Winter" is coming.


--Tim May, Corralitos, California
Quote of the Month: "It is said that there are no atheists in foxholes; 
perhaps there are no true libertarians in times of terrorist attacks." 
--Cathy Young, "Reason Magazine," both enemies of liberty.