From: smb@research.att.com
Date: Fri, 19 Aug 94 07:33:22 PDT
To: cypherpunks@toad.com
Subject: Re: cypherpunks-digest V1 #18
Message-ID: <9408191433.AA08423@toad.com>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain


	 Date: Fri, 19 Aug 1994 11:54:45 +0200 (METDST)
	 Subject: 15 years!

	 About the EFF Wiretap Bill:

		 The bill makes it a crime to possess or use an altered
		 telecommunications instrument (such as a cellular
		 telephone or scanning receiver) to obtain unauthorized
		 access to telecommunications services (Sec. 9).  This
		 provision is intended to prevent the illegal use of
		 cellular and other wireless communications services.
		 Violations under this section face imprisonment for up
		 to 15 years and a fine of up to $50,000.


	 I commented on this before but feel like repeating myself: So
	 an alt.2600 tec-addict makes some hardware hacks on his
	 cellular - and gets 15 years in the slammer for catching some
	 airwaves. A punishment scale suggestive of a very repressive
	 state! And why outlawing it in the first place? What is crypto
	 for?

I'm not defending a 15 year sentence; it's far too harsh.  But I
strongly disagree with ``why outlawing it in the first place? What is
crypto for?''  By analogy, why outlaw burglary?  After all, what are
safes and alarms for?

The purpose of a civilized society is precisely to avoid this sort of
``arms race'' between bandits and those who pay for services.  Even
libertarians generally agree that theft is wrong, and theft of service
is just as wrong as theft of tangible objects; otherwise, there is
no way to recover the cost of the capital investment necessary to
provide the service.  That is, the marginal cost -- the electricity,
wear and tear on the ICs, etc., to make a cellular phone call -- is
obviously very low.  But someone had to pay for all the cellular switches
out there, to say nothing of the R&D that went into them, and a large
part of the charges for a call go towards repaying that investment.

Now, a prudent service provider may wish to invest in crypto as a way
to prevent fraud, just as many homeowners invest in alarm systems.
But failure to do so doesn't make either sort of theft correct.

		--Steve Bellovin