anti-prosecution tactics. (Was Re:)

[Jim Bell]

John, I don't discourage your comments such as this.  Caution must always be employed.  But as Freud said, "Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar".  Cypherpunks sometimes talk about 'scary' subjects.  Imagine if, hypothetically, Phil Zimmerman (who created PGP) had been a Cypherpunk list member in, say, 1990.  (Yes, I know the list didn't exist until 1992...)  Suppose he had said, "Gee, somebody could write a program using RSA algorithms, that even the NSA couldn't crack!"   <insert Beavis and Butthead laughter.>   Then, another list member could say, "Well, somebody else could post it on a U.S. website, and it could be downloaded by a person in a foreign country!"  <insert more Beavis and Butthead laughter>  And a third listmember could chime in: "And thereby crypto could be exported, ILLEGALLY, and nobody would know who did it!" <insert still more Beavis and Butthead laughter>.    Similar kinds of discussions could be imagined about the
 development of thwarting the Clipper chip, imagining AP or (now) 'Sanjuro's 'AM',  designing Bitcoin, or about setting up a Silk Road-type website, or anything else that somebody might consider provocative.  

All of the persons reading the CP list need to learn about the 1969 Supreme Court case, Brandenburg v. Ohio.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brandenburg_v._ohio    Text of that case at:  http://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/395/444/case.html      Talking about a crime, and even openly advocating its commission (with the exception of 'imminent lawless action') is generally considered protected by the 1st Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.  That said, I generally make it a rule not to "openly advocate the commission of a crime", mostly because government investigators and even prosecutors may not be aware of the rights described in the Brandenburg case:  Or, a prosecutor may PRETEND to not realize that such open advocacy is not, in itself, beyond 1st Amendment protection, at least not until he has already obtained a search warrant, investigators have planted evidence, made an arrest, etc.   
But, over time, I believe that we (and all other citizens) should come to regularly use all the Constitutional protections we have, in part to ensure that some of us aren't victimized by using a seldom-used right.  
          Jim Bell  
For a comedic take on this theme, see:    http://reason.com/blog/2013/06/12/nsa-anti-surveillance-suggestion-operati      
“Operation Everyone Talk Like a Terrorist All the Time”
  
----------------------

From: John Young <jya at pipeline.com>
To: cypherpunks at cpunks.org 
Sent: Monday, January 13, 2014 1:39 PM 
Subject: Re: 'Jury Booty' and Anti-prosecution tactics.  (Was Re:)
 

Maybe Tim May is channeling me, but this talk of messing
with authorities on cypherpunks smells like list tampering to
bait and ensare really dumb newbies.

Playing games is fine, but running entrapments is against
the house rules.

That was encouraged in days of old and got jail sentences
for susceptibles. Since then agent provocateurs, turn-coats
and informants have become a nice-paying online industry
and handsome budget inflators for the feds.

And has bagged a wad of hackers, daring coders and alleged
accomplices, among them:


Jim Bell
Carl Johnson
Aaron Swartz
Chelsea Manning
Julian Assange
Edward Snowden
Gottfrid Warg
Rop Gonggrijp
Brigitta Jonsdottir
Jacob Appelbaum
Hector Monsegur
Jake Davis
Ryan Cleary
Ryan Ackroyd
Darren Martyn
Donncha O'Cearrbhail
Mustafa al-Bassam
Jeremy Hammond
Christopher Cooper
Joshua Covelli
Raynaldo Rivera
Cody Kretsinger
Lauri Love
Neal Rauhauser
Keith Downey
Mercedes Haefer
Donald Husband
Ethan Miles
James Murphy
Drew Phillips
Jeffrey Puglisi
Daniel Sullivan
Tracy Valenzuela
Christopher Vo
Barrett Brown
Ross Ulbricht
Andrew Jones
Gary Davis
Peter Phillip Nash
Vladimir Drinkman
Aleksandr Kalinin
Roman Kotov
Dmitriy Smilianets
Mikhail Rytikov

These are in last few years.

Many more in the years before that, some after prison
becoming security peddlers, journalists, hacker organizers
and for the rest of their lives rats or sent back into the pokey.

At least consider being bit more discreet, assholes,
and in spare time read Gentlepersons Guide to Forum
Spies:

http://cryptome.org/2012/07/gent-forum-spies.htm
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