From: Theodore Ts'o <tytso@Athena.MIT.EDU>
Date: Fri, 12 Mar 93 22:13:25 PST
To: Marc.Ringuette@GS80.SP.CS.CMU.EDU
Subject: Re: Cypherpunks know they're cool
In-Reply-To: <9303130224.AA15122@toad.com>
Message-ID: <9303130612.AA07820@SOS>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain


   Date: Fri, 12 Mar 1993 21:18-EST
   From: Marc.Ringuette@GS80.SP.CS.CMU.EDU

   > Hmm..... how is this alike, and how is this different, from a hardliner
   > NRA saying, "We should ask people to protect themselves by wearing
   > bulletproof vests, instead of trying to ban guns"?

   Ted, please don't be a bonehead on purpose.  I bet you can see the
   difference between some bits coming down a wire and a bullet coming
   at you at 1000 feet per second.  It has to do with the level of threat
   and the feasibility of protecting yourself.

I'm not being a bonehead; this is a serious question!  I was drawing an
analogy; of course bits and bullets are different!  What is the same is
the philosophy of "the initiator can do know wrong"; i"it's always the
receivers' problems."  I am merely pointing out that your philosophy of: 

>What these solutions have in common is that we ask people to protect
>themselves, rather than requiring everyone else to adhere to their
>notions of good behavior.

is dangerously close, if not identical to "if the victim gets hurts it
his/her fault (for not protecting him/her-self)".  This logic obviously
does not work for rape; whether or not someone protects herself, there
are standards of conduct which say that rape is still a bad thing.  
The question is whether or not there are similar standards of conduct
for cyberspace --- "community standards" or not.

							- Ted