From: Bill Stewart <stewarts@ix.netcom.com>
Date: Sun, 3 Dec 95 18:07:08 PST
To: rthomas@pamd.cig.mot.com (Robert Owen Thomas)
Subject: Re: Globally legal Netscape
Message-ID: <199512040209.SAA03343@ix12.ix.netcom.com>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain


Fred Cohen wrote:
> Law enforcement is almost universally used as an excuse to
> collect information on individuals in the name of helping society,
> but this power is easily abused.

In addition to Fred's good examples of abuse of information, 
I'd like to add the use of census data to arrest Japanese-Americans during
World War 2 - not only was the data collected under great promises that
citizens could trust the government, and that it would only be accessible
for lawful purposes, it was used to attack people who weren't doing
anything illegal or wrong when it was collected.  

Everything you say on the nets sticks around, and if the government
has master keys, then even what you said in private sticks around.
It's not illegal to say "[expletive deleted]" in private mail today,
and won't be even after Exon-II passes, but it _may_ be kept around
so they'll know whose mail to get law enforcement access to to enforce
the Verbal Morality Act of 2001.

At 04:26 PM 12/3/95 -0600, rthomas@pamd.cig.mot.com (Robert Owen Thomas) wrote:
>look, this is just a *bit* extreme.  having been one of those folks sworn
>to uphold the Constitution, I can tell all of you that there is no master
>plan to rid the American people of their rights and freedom.

Remember the fundamental job of any bureaucracy - self-preservation and growth,
by whatever means necessary.  No need for any master plan or conspiracy.
Are there herds of opportunists interested in taking political advantage of
anything
that comes their way?  You bet.  Listen to Louis Freeh talk about
the need to be able to eavesdrop on anybody they want to be able to catch
narco-terrorist child pornographers, and think about whether you want the FBI
able to tap your email - especially if you occasionally send email to people
whose chronological age you don't know using language that Senator Exon
might disapprove of.  Reminds me a lot of Harry Anslinger talking state
governments into banning Evil Marihuana in the waning days of Prohibition.

>o  Robert Owen Thomas:  Corvette pilot. Cymro ydw i. User scratching post.  o
                                         ^^^^^^^^^^^
Between the anti-encryption cops and the English-Only right-wingers,
you may not be able to say that much longer - Welsh isn't quite as heavily
encrypted as, say, Navajo, but it's bound to violate some law soon enough :-)
#--
#				Thanks;  Bill
# Bill Stewart, Freelance Information Architect, stewarts@ix.netcom.com
# Phone +1-510-247-0663 Pager/Voicemail 1-408-787-1281

# Anybody notice that Microsoft's Wide Open Road ad has barbed-wire fences
# on both sides of the road?