From: Mike Godwin <mnemonic@eff.org>
Date: Fri, 12 Nov 93 09:14:33 PST
To: doug@netcom.com (Doug Merritt)
Subject: Re: Privacy, Property, Cryptography (long)
In-Reply-To: <199311120644.WAA16116@mail.netcom.com>
Message-ID: <199311121711.AA06984@eff.org>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain


Doug writes:
 
> Mike Godwin <mnemonic@eff.org> said:
> >This quotation needs to be debugged a little bit. The actual quotation [...]
> >as against the government, the right to be let alone--the most [...]
> >(Note in particular that it's "let," not "left.")
> 
> It's always nice to get quotations down correctly, but surely the
> original "let" translates in today's speech to "left"? If not, I'd
> like to hear about the difference.

Oh, it means almost the same thing--there's only a slight connotative 
difference. But the issue for me is the precise accuracy of the
quotation, not the nuance. I spotlighted that difference
because otherwise it would likely be overlooked.

If one prefers to "translate" rather than to quote, one shouldn't use
quotation marks, IMHO. Besides, Brandeis's comment is perfectly good
20th-century speech--only six or seven decades old. 


--Mike