From: karn@qualcomm.com (Phil Karn)
Date: Fri, 25 Jun 93 03:21:16 PDT
To: tcmay@netcom.com
Subject: Re: Weak stenography.
Message-ID: <9306251019.AA13652@servo>
MIME-Version: 1.0
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Tim May:
>Some solutions:

>1. Make programs like "readdat.exe" ubiquitous...distribute them on
>shareware disks, CD-ROMs, etc. Thus, many households and offices will
>have "readdat.exe"-like programs, whether they use them or not. Mere

I like this idea, as long as the mere possession of such programs
isn't also criminalized. Don't laugh -- the government actually seems
to think that they can enforce laws banning the mere private
possession of certain types of bit patterns, like child pornography.

I have about two dozen CD-ROMs on my shelf, containing the usual
oodles of gigabytes of stuff. Mostly mirrors of anonymous FTP archives
and shareware BBSes. So far I have read only a tiny fraction of the
bits on those disks, and I expect I'll never read much more. There's
no reasonable way I could be expected to know if there isn't a
contraband file or two buried in all those gigabytes. But consider the
Akron BBS operator who got busted for a file that somebody had
uploaded to his machine, transferred off to backup and forgotten.  I
wonder how many similar files have already made it to CD-ROM?

Makes me kind of wish I had bought all my computer equipment and
software anonymously, for cash...

Phil