1993-09-29 - Stickers

Header Data

From: “Christian D. Odhner” <cdodhner@indirect.com>
To: cypherpunks@toad.com
Message Hash: b2aabc55cbecfd73620ae72c11484a54d2414491d63a6f71cab248db53ba7a12
Message ID: <199309290329.AA27847@indirect.com>
Reply To: N/A
UTC Datetime: 1993-09-29 03:31:36 UTC
Raw Date: Tue, 28 Sep 93 20:31:36 PDT

Raw message

From: "Christian D. Odhner" <cdodhner@indirect.com>
Date: Tue, 28 Sep 93 20:31:36 PDT
To: cypherpunks@toad.com
Subject: Stickers
Message-ID: <199309290329.AA27847@indirect.com>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain


I recently received email from Whit Diffie regarding some concerns he had
about the "Big Brother Inside(tm)" stickers. I asked for and received
permission to repost the message to the group, however I seemed to have
misplaced (ie, hit the wrong button) it, so I'll paraphrase.

Firstly, he suggested that I wait before ordering/distributing the
stickers because without clipper phones to put them on they may very well
be stuck in random places, and that could reduce the impact of a good,
focused, silmultanius distribution. 

Secondly, He asked that I try to add some more substantial information to
the stickers, such as a short note that basicly says this phone is
pre-tapped, use at your own risk.

After some thought, I sent in the order anyway. My reasons for this action
were that 1) Some people stated that they had already sent me money, and I
wouldn't want to change the facts of the matter after the money was sent,
and 2) Any more substantial information would increase the size of the
sticker, which would make it more visible, harder to place, and would
anger the owners of the property on which it was placed substantialy more.

I think it is appropriate at this time to restate the reason that these
stickers have been (are being) produced/distributed.

Everyone on the list is familiar I'm sure with the clipper wiretap chip
and the issues surrounding it.  Everyone on the list I am equaly sure has
seen at one time or another the "Intel Inside" stickers on Ibm and Dell
and other computers, and in ads for those computer and ads paid for by
intel itself. It is an image seen by a signifigant portion of the
population each and every day. I was in a local computer store not too
long ago when I heard a man ask a salesperson "Does this one have intel
inside?" and I'm sure that he had not a clue in the world what that meant.
Everyone on this list I'm fairly certain has either read George Orwell's
famous book, _1984_, or has at least been exposed to it's influence of
society through the introduction of such words and phrases as "Big
Brother", "Thought Police", "Doublespeak", etc.. Horible images of
goverment invasions of privacy, mass media mind control, and legalslation
run amok come to mind quite easily...

Our Big Brother Inside sticker has been designed to look as much like the
intel logo as possible, without breaking any copyright laws or anything
like that. But instead of conveying the message "This product contains
parts built by a company you know and trust" our sticker seems to say,
"This product is a tool built by the goverment to keep tabs on your
personal life".  It is intended to be descretely applied to telephones,
faxes, modems, computers, and other devices containing the clipper or
capstone chips or other key-escrowed technology.  It is intended to be
seen by those who would potentialy purchase such items, as an attempt to
dissuade them from doing so. It is intended _NOT_ to be seen by the owners
of establishments selling said items, as that would lead to thier removal
at least; prosocution at most.

I think another sticker, in brighter colors and containing informative
text, could be usefull for applying to clipper phones etc that have
already been deployed; a use at your own risk type thing. The time for
that has not yet come.

I hope I didn't leave anything out, Please use discretion regarding what
messages get sent to the list and what can be handled through email.

BTW; My total of sticker orders and contributions (not counting today) is:

6875 stickers sold                                      $166 contributed

I sent a check for $145 today, so everything past that is going to my cost
to mail out the stickers to the people who ordered them. Any funds left
over wil be used as a starting point for some cypherpunks tshirts, and
proceeds from the shirts (if I ever do them) will go to the eff.

Happy Hunting, -Chris
______________________________________________________________________________
Christian Douglas Odhner     | "The NSA can have my secret key when they pry
cdodhner@indirect.com	     | it from my cold, dead, hands... But they shall
pgp 2.3 public key by finger | NEVER have the password it's encrypted with!"
  "If guns are outlawed, only the government will have guns." -E. Abbey
My opinions are shareware. For a registered copy, send me 15$ in DigiCash.
  Key fingerprint =  58 62 A2 84 FD 4F 56 38  82 69 6F 08 E4 F1 79 11 
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