From: tcmay@netcom.com (Timothy C. May)
Date: Tue, 6 Jul 93 21:40:37 PDT
To: fergp@sytex.com (Paul Ferguson)
Subject: Re: Live for today
In-Reply-To: <DFPa7B1w165w@sytex.com>
Message-ID: <9307070441.AA21415@netcom3.netcom.com>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain


Paul Ferguson writes:


>  I applaud your exploit in the bitwise/erotica/net-police experiment.
>  I personally think it was damned clever and proved a valuable point.
>  In fact, I'd like to get your permission to reprint your original
>  message in Legal Net News, por favor.

By all means! Just be sure to provide enough context and to included
the "explanation." Also, several other people made some excellent
comments, and you might want to somehow include their points.


>  Ask us. We will tell you -- its about stirring up the pot.

Yeah, I think a lot of us got involved in this whole thing (now called
Cypherpunks, but it started percolating years ago) precisely to stir
things up. And to the credit of you folks, I think some progress has
been made. The remailers, the awareness of Cypherpunks-type issues in
the media ("Wired," "Whole Earth Review," "New York Times,"
"Newsweek"), and our role in the Clipper/Capstone/Skipjack/whatever
matter, are all positive steps.

It is true we haven't deployed digital cash, nor have we set up data
havens in cyberspace, nor a bunch of other things, but these things
are instrinsically hard to pull off. Someday they'll come.

Finally:

>                Quis Custodiet Ipsos Custodes?

(I've been tempted recently to come up with a "crypto" version of
this famous "And who shall guard the guardians?" line. Something, in
Latin of course (for effect), about "And who shall eavesdrop on the
eavesdroppers?" or somesuch. Perhaps the original is best as it is.)

-Tim May


-- 
..........................................................................
Timothy C. May         | Crypto Anarchy: encryption, digital money,  
tcmay@netcom.com       | anonymous networks, digital pseudonyms, zero
408-688-5409           | knowledge, reputations, information markets, 
W.A.S.T.E.: Aptos, CA  | black markets, collapse of governments.
Higher Power: 2^756839 | Public Key: PGP and MailSafe available.
Note: I put time and money into writing this posting. I hope you enjoy it.