From: Black Unicorn <unicorn@access.digex.net>
Date: Thu, 26 May 94 14:57:55 PDT
To: mpd@netcom.com (Mike Duvos)
Subject: Re: Unicorn vs....
In-Reply-To: <199405262028.NAA05462@netcom.com>
Message-ID: <199405262156.AA12407@access3.digex.net>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain


Mike Duvos scripsit
> 
> > I have to support Black Unicorn's use of the courts.
> > Really, what choices were available?
> 
> > So, I, for one, think Black Unicorn took the best and most
> > reasonable approach.  I'd be very interested in which course
> > (or some other undefined course I didn't think of) that
> > the anarchists feel would be reasonable...
> 
> Let's see.  I didn't read the thread in question but am reasonably 
> familiar with the unsavory debating tactics of Mr. Tmp from other 
> discussions.  
> 
> As I understand it, Mr. Unicorn and Mr. Tmp, their true identities safely
> concealed behind their respective handles, engaged in a minor flame war
> and major ass-kicking contest related to the topics of crypto, privacy,
> and nasty authoritarian governments.  Mr. Tmp, following his usual modus 
> operandi, engaged in some reasonably clever hand-waving, out-of-context 
> quoting, misdirection, and misrepresentation at the expense of a number 
> of people, including Mr. Unicorn.
> 
> All this would have been water under the bridge were it not for the fact 
> that Mr. Unicorn, who is wont to travel in circles considerably more 
> conservative than most of his political writings, inadvertantly disclosed 
> his identity in the thread while showing a friend how to use Usenet.  
> Certainly this blunder was no fault of Mr. Tmp.
> 
> Ultimately, as a consequence of this leak, certain business associates of
> Mr. Unicorn, with no knowlege of Usenet or the context of the discussion,
> were exposed to portions of it and the identity of Mr. Unicorn was
> disclosed.  Again no fault of Mr. Tmp.
> 
> Said business associates, being relatively anal upper-class European 
> types with a great respect for authority, were singularly unamused by
> Mr. Unicorn's political views and the even worse things falsely 
> attributed to him by Mr. Tmp in the heat of discussion.  Mr. Unicorn 
> became worried that his business might suffer as a consequence.  Since I 
> personally believe that one should not discriminate in doing business 
> based on someones political beliefs, I would certainly characterize this 
> as a moral failure on the part of Mr. Unicorn's business associates, and 
> not the fault of Mr. Tmp.
> 
> Finally, Mr. Unicorn, mustering all the legal and financial resources at
> his disposal, threatens to skewer Mr. Tmp for alleged libel, and Mr. Tmp,
> lacking similar resources and unable to risk a courtroom defeat, is forced
> to go on Usenet and publicly eat you-know-what with a large wooden spoon. 
> 
> Since Mr. Tmp is not well-liked in the Cypherpunk community, response to 
> this sorted tale consists mostly of praise for Mr. Unicorn, and silence 
> by those who might have been critical, but who don't want Mr. Unicorn to 
> treat them the same way.
> 
> I don't think there are any heros in this story.  I think it is a dark 
> day for freedom of expression in general and Usenet in particular.  
> 
> In the past, I have engaged in lots of heated discussions on many 
> hot-button topics, on Usenet and in many other forums, sometimes under my 
> own name, and occasionally under a pseudonym.  I have been called many 
> vile things along the way, and have had my views on occasion 
> misrepresented far more cleverly than Mr. Tmp could imagine or articulate.
> 
> Nonetheless, if I found myself losing work because an unpopular view of
> mine came to light, filing a lawsuit against another Usenet poster would
> be just about the last thing I would think of doing.  Particularly if the
> discussion took place under a pseudonym and I was the person who had 
> broken my own anonymity.
> 
> Antics like this threaten the entire concept of Usenet as a 
> reputation-based cooperative anarchy.  The solution to Mr. Tmp is to put 
> him in your killfile, not sue him into submission.  
> 
> -- 
>      Mike Duvos         $    PGP 2.6 Public Key available     $
>      mpd@netcom.com     $    via Finger.                      $
> 
> 


-- 
073BB885A786F666 nemo repente fuit turpissimus - potestas scientiae in usu est
6E6D4506F6EDBC17 quaere verum ad infinitum, loquitur sub rosa    -    wichtig!