From: tcmay@got.net (Timothy C. May)
Date: Thu, 28 Dec 1995 21:39:32 +0800
To: cypherpunks@toad.com
Subject: Re: another anonymous poster helping to destroy our rights
Message-ID: <ad0710d0020210049d6c@[205.199.118.202]>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain


At 5:25 PM 12/27/95, Jeff Barber wrote:
>Fred Cohen writes:
>>
>> We just heard from another anonymous poster trying to destroy our rights
>> to free speech.  How long will the cypherpunks put up with this?
>
>As Tim May has explained over and over again, "the cypherpunks" do not
>exist.  Cypherpunks is a mailing list, not a society or club.
>"The cypherpunks" as a group can do nothing about what gets posted to
>this list except comment on it.

Precisely.

Some of the many advantages of having no centralized structure/leadership,
and no formal rules/policies, are:

-- less wrangling over leadership and rules (if you think we wrangle and
fight too much, look at organizations that spend *all* of their time
choosing leaders, having boardroom fights, setting policies, fighting,
electioneering, etc...it makes our easily-filtered flame wars pale by
comparison)

-- no leaders means no one in a position of leadership to sue for the many
"infractions" some of our list members commit (violations of export laws,
posting of stolen code, libel, etc., all allegedly, of course)

-- no centralized focus, save for the toad.com machine, which could be
replaced quickly (or cypherpunks could become "alt.cypherpunks" and then
truly have no center, not that I am advocating this, for various reasons).
This lack of a point of pressure, a center, means opponents have nothing to
jab at...they can't write threatening letters to the "Board of Directors"
demanding that certain actions cease, etc.

>Finally, it should be noted that the kind of messages you're posting
>lately are eerily reminiscent of Detweiler's mental deterioration just
>before he went off the deep end.  In fact, the line "How long will the
>cypherpunks put up with this?" may be an exact quote.

Indeed. When I saw this "How long will the Cypherpunks put up with this?" I
initially thought it was tongue in cheek. Apparently not.

--Tim May

Views here are not the views of my Internet Service Provider or Government.
---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:----
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."