From: Phil Karlton <karlton@netscape.com>
Date: Thu, 23 Nov 1995 09:53:38 +0800
To: cypherpunks@toad.com
Subject: Re: Java & Netscape security [NOISE]
In-Reply-To: <199511221048.CAA26409@jobe.shell.portal.com>
Message-ID: <30B3CE64.6BF2@netscape.com>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain


Alice (or someone representing themselves as Alice) said:

> What I'm trying to say is that if someome posts from watson.ibm.com,
> and IF they are talking about OS/2, we will not accept that they are
> not speaking independantly of the knowledge they have garnered from
> watson.

And that is understable.

> In the same way, someone who writes from Netscape.com or AT&T, or Sun
> and tries to disclaim that they are speaking for the company, when
> they step out as an employee of a company is deluding themselves.

This is a complete non sequitur. See if you can follow this: only those
authorized by the company to speak for the company are authorized speak
for the company.

There is a genuine difference between a corporate officer saying

	The Amalgamated Widget corporate policy on stong crypto is ...

and some engineer from Amalgamated Widget saying

	My private opinion on strong crypto is ...

The consequence of every statement by every employee being taken as
company policy is that every employee (except for public relations) will
be prohibited from contributing to any public forum or even answering
apparently innocuous questions on the net. This would not be a desirable
outcome.

Still speaking for myself,
PK
--
Philip L. Karlton		karlton@netscape.com
Principal Curmudgeon		http://www.netscape.com/people/karlton
Netscape Communications