From: terrell@sam.neosoft.com (Buford Terrell)
Date: Fri, 14 Jul 95 09:48:09 PDT
To: cypherpunks@toad.com
Subject: Re: Fight, or Roll Over?
Message-ID: <199507141652.LAA20979@sam.neosoft.com>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain


Doug Barnes wrote:>
>This means, for those not reading between the lines, doing something
>more than online ranting and petition-signing, such as getting out the
>checkbook and supporting those who are organized to fight these things,
>and actually getting off the dime and doing things like writing letters,
>sending telegrams, and otherwise harassing our elected beings through
>media that they understand (since, clearly, they _don't_ understand
>the Internet -- if they did, they wouldn't propose legislation like this.)
>
>Yes, the "bad guys" can crank out unfriendly legislation faster than
>the "good guys" can fight it, but since we are clearly not ready to offer
>technological solutions this month, the "good guys" act as a valuable
>brake on this current swing of the pendulum.
>
Cypherpunks can do more by being cypherpunks.  Your keyboards are
better weapons than checkbooks in this case.  Why isn't PGP so simple
that every luzer on AOL will use it without thinking?  Why hasn't
the NetScape key been broken?  Prove these proposed laws are just as
silly and ineffective as they look by demonstrating it.

Lots of people will attack these laws on legal grounds, and you should
too if your conscience so moves you, but very few have the
capabilities to attack them on technical grounds where their
vulnerabilities are real, not just a matter of opinion.

Buford C. Terrell                       1303 San Jacinto Street
Professor of Law                              Houston, TX 77002
South Texas College of Law                voice   (713)646-1857
terrell@sam.neosoft.com                     fax   (713)646-1766