From: tcmay@got.net (Timothy C. May)
Date: Fri, 1 Sep 95 14:21:55 PDT
To: cypherpunks@toad.com
Subject: Re: Fuhrman needed a digital pseudonym!
Message-ID: <ac6cc467020210049bd1@[205.199.118.202]>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain


At 9:00 PM 9/1/95, Jeff Barber wrote:

>I don't see any "surveillance state" issue.  Fuhrman openly agreed to
>speak to the screenwriter.  AFAIK, he had no reason to believe the
>screenwriter wouldn't tell anyone else.  Nor should he have counted on
>that anyway.  Any loss of credibility (or other penalty) he receives
>is entirely deserved, IMO.

By the way, McKinny did not volunteer the tapes, nor did she consent to
having them taken from her and used by the Defense. Private property was
taken by a court action (the North Carolina lower court ruled that the
tapes were the property of McKinny and could not be taken, then an appeals
court overruled this decision and ordered McKinny to produce the tapes).

(It is not clear how Cochrane and his team learned of the tapes.
Speculation is that McKinny's agent or lawyer was doing some freelance
shopping-around of the script. McKinny has denied that she was trying to
sell the tapes. Regardless, they are her property and should only come in
to a court case when directly and centrally involved. This is closely
related to the Church of Scientology issue, and is being debated on another
mailing list I'm on, the Cyberia list.)

This raises serious issues. She was a screenwriter, Fuhrman was helping her
to generate a salable script. Neither was speaking for the LAPD. (Kind of
like the disclaimers we see on the Net, which I suspect are becoming
worthless.)


>> Anyway, I am greatly disturbed by this "mining" of ancient comments, made
>> to a screenwriter.
>
>Not me.  A few weeks there was a thread concerning the use of
>information by private "reputation" bureaus.  I can't find the thread
>in the archives but I seem to recall you defending the right of
>private entities to keep and distribute such information (my apologies
>if this was someone else).  Anyway, to me, these tapes fall clearly in

You're imputing to my comments about what will happen, and what cannot be
stopped except by coercion, a conclusion which you think is at odds with my
point here.

Just because I think people (like me, you, Laura McKinny, etc.) have the
"right" to compile records, make notes, make tapes of conversations, etc.,
does not mean I think that courts can order them given to the court. (This
is an issue I have with "discovery" in general, where even peripheral
witnesses can be compelled to turn over diaries, journals, letters, tapes,
records, financial reports, etc.)

>the same domain.  This screenwriter isn't a government agency, the
>information was freely given, and the screenwriter has every right to
>offer it for whatever purpose she deems appropriate, for free or
>for money (barring any agreements to the contrary, of which I have
>heard nothing).

Again, to make it clear, McKinney did not offer the material and fought in
the North Carolina courts to have her property kept confidential. The court
ordered her to turn it over.

(And apparently members of the defense team leaked the most damaging, and
out of context, parts, provoking Ito to announce a major investigation of
this is to come, with severe sanctions for those who leaked it.)

We need a justice system which will not be dragged into spending a full
year on this matter, with every indication that a mistrial or hung jury
will result. I look forward to a day in which an OJ would get a reasonable,
month-long trial...and then, if found guilty, be given an execution date no
longer than a month away.

As it is, OJ will be guesting on the talk show circuit. He butchers two
people--from the overwhelming mound of evidence I've seen--and essentially
cuts the head off of his ex-wife, but will likely get off as this trial
spins out of control and fragments in various ways.

Don't misunderstand my motivations: I'm sort of happy this is all
happening. It makes people even more suspicious of governments and lawyers,
and it will accelerate the disintegration of the current system.


--Tim May

---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:----
Timothy C. May              | Crypto Anarchy: encryption, digital money,
tcmay@got.net  408-728-0152 | anonymous networks, digital pseudonyms, zero
Corralitos, CA              | knowledge, reputations, information markets,
Higher Power: 2^756839      | black markets, collapse of governments.
"National borders are just speed bumps on the information superhighway."