From: alt@iquest.net (Al Thompson)
Date: Wed, 6 Sep 95 23:21:56 PDT
To: cypherpunks@toad.com
Subject: Re: Are booby-trapped computers legal?
Message-ID: <m0sqaLG-00061XC@dorite1.iquest.net>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain


At 03:38 PM 9/6/95 -0400, hallam@w3.org wrote:

>People who go round drawing parallels to gun ownership and cryptography 
>ownership are simply playing into the governments hands. 
  
Which of our rights would you have us surrender so as to not play into the
government's hands?


>Cryptography has net  benefits to society. 
  
You would have a hard time proving that cryptography has more, or
different "net benefits to society" than gun ownership does.
  


>Most advocates of gun ownership tend to convince me of 
>little more than they are a danger to society. Regardless of their case
they are 
>the biggest argument for gun control, and therfore poor advocates of their 
>cause. 
  
Statists say the same thing about crypto-advocates.  Talking about 
keeping secrets, and discussing which methods are uncrackable
by the government is not what a statist wants to hear - and neither
is talk about the real reason behind the 2nd Amendment.