Another Cypherpunks Investigation?

Tim May timcmay at got.net
Sat Sep 13 10:46:50 PDT 2003


On Saturday, September 13, 2003, at 10:36  AM, Tyler Durden wrote:

> Tim May wrote...
>
> "The questions being asked of Jim may have to do with the Feds making 
> the only prosecution they can make: that those passing on such threats 
> via mailing lists are somehow guilty of some crime. This is just 
> speculation on my part."
>
> I thought the Feds questions to Jim Choate had more to do with 
> anti-spam enforcement....
>

Assuming this is not some silly joke comment,

First, the Feds have no significant "anti-spam enforcement" role. 
Anti-spam laws, such as they exist now, are not being criminally 
enforced, hence a DOJ role is unlikely.

Second, the Pennsylvania connection is unlikely for an anti-spam 
action, even if some poor soul in Penn. got spammed via a subscription 
list (meaning, likely no basis for complaint!).

Third, nothing in Choate's message mentioned spam or anything in 
detail. So why you would think the issue was related to "anti-spam 
enforcement" is a mystery to me.

Fourth, the search results I got were pretty convincing to me that a 
direct death threat was leveled against a government official, by name. 
The message even referred to waiting for her as she jogged by (or 
somesuch language, see the posting about Mary Beth Buchanan for 
details). The Feds take these kinds of posts a _lot_ more seriously 
than they do anti-spam measures, which likely don't even have the 
status of being actual criminal laws, at least not yet. And the 
recipients of a mailing list have no basis for claiming they were 
spammed through a list they voluntarily signed up for.

Q.E.D.


--Tim May

"I think the root of the problem is that we tend to organize ourselves 
into tribes.  Then people in the tribe are our friends, and people 
outside are our enemies.  I think it happens like this: Someone uses 
Perl, and likes it, and then they use it some more.  But then something 
strange happens.  They start to identify themselves with Perl, as if 
Perl were part of their body, or vice versa.  They're part of the Big 
Perl Tribe.  They want other people to join the Tribe.  If they meet 
someone who doesn't like Perl, it's an insult to the Tribe and a 
personal affront to them."
--Mark Dominus, "Why I Hate Advocacy," 2000





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