From: rishab@dxm.ernet.in
Date: Thu, 29 Dec 94 12:58:42 PST
To: cypherpunks@toad.com
Subject: Re: Morality masks technical ignorance
Message-ID: <gate.ZBX5Xc1w165w@dxm.ernet.in>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain


blancw@pylon.com:
> Responding to msg by rishab:
> I always thought the emphasis on this list was on 
> _technological_  rather than _political_ or _legal_ or _moral_ 
> means to protect privacy and  free expression - including the 
> current limitations.
> .......................................................
> So Rishab -  do you think there's any good reason why 
> governments shouldn't require the implementation of key escrow 
> [...]
> The key words in my inquiry are *reason why*.

And the key word in _my_ post was _means_, not _reason why_. I.e. that
(in my view of the Cpunk position) one can protect privacy not through morals,
policies or law, but through technology. There may be very good reasons why
governments should not require the implementation of key escrow, or why
people shouldn't pry into their girlfriends' secrets (which if you really want
to know I find reprehensible). Unfortunately those reasons of morality need not
prevent the actions.

Which is why Cypherpunks discuss untraceable anonymous remailers despite 
occasionally (aka Detweiler, for instance) decrying their (immoral) misuse,
and why they should discuss breaking Norton Encrypt (or DES, or Skipjack, or
16384-bit RSA keys), while giving sermons about immoral boyfriends. Nobody
(the Single-Horned One included) thinks reading other peoples' mail is moral,
but that should not preclude a legitimate discussion of crypto technology.

As it so happens, hardly anyone here knew about Norton Encrypt so we got
embroiled in this argument. If we were to adopt a consistently (and solely)
moral stance, we would accept Detweiler's position that remailers are bad
and should be banned because they can be easily misused.

Well, I guess these are the glitches in discourse we have to face on a list
that's for both technology and policy.


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Rishab Aiyer Ghosh                                "In between the breaths is
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