Responding to orders which include a secrecy requirement

[Tim May]

On Saturday, August 30, 2003, at 06:10  AM, Eric Murray wrote:

> On Fri, Aug 29, 2003 at 06:54:03PM -0700, Tim May wrote:
>
>> But when Big Brother commands that his Carnivore boxes be added, ISPs
>> are afraid to shoot his agents who trespass.
>
>> I think my solution may be best: take a few ISPs who have bent over 
>> for
>> Big Brother and kill their owners and staff. A few ISP owners found
>> necklaced and smoking may send a message to others.
>
> The message it sends is to accept the cops offer of on-site 
> "protection"
> when the ISP is faced with allowing the tap or being put in jail.
> By upping the stakes you force the business
> owner to accept the cops as the lesser of two evils.
>
> The mafia's actions tended to make business owners clamor for
> more police and more intrusive police protection.   Not less.
>
> This is a problem that's better solved with crypto.
>

If cops ask local neighborhood members to report any suspicious 
activity, the folks know that any benefits they gain from acting as 
informants tend to be a lot smaller than the danger of being beat up or 
even killed by the Mafia.

When the cost of acting as an informant is zero, no risk, more people 
act as informants.

I think restoring some risk to being a rat is a good thing.


--Tim May