From: tcmay@got.net (Timothy C. May)
Date: Sun, 28 Jan 1996 15:02:35 +0800
To: cypherpunks@toad.com
Subject: Re: "German service cuts Net access" (to Santa Cruz)
Message-ID: <ad30597900021004ba4e@[205.199.118.202]>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain



Detweiler will foam and rant that I am acting as a stooge for the NSA
(though he used to be on the side of the NSA and violently opposed to our
views...go figure), but I feel it important to point out a few things for
ISPs to consider:

At 5:54 AM 1/28/96, Lucky Green wrote:

>Wonder how long before they will include gereral purpose proxies in the
>proposed ban.
>
>We should start a "banned websites pool". If a site gets banned, the
>controversial content will be mirrored at all other sites. There are enough
>ISPs on this list to make that happen. Will they have the courage?

Consider some points:

* the Germans recently arrested an American who landed in Germany
somewhere, as part of a trip. It seems he had been involved with the
production of Neo-Nazi material, somewhere out west. This was the last I
heard about the story. Sorry, I'm going from carbon-based memory.

* the Germans had kept a record of certain names, and picked him up for
violation of their laws about hate crimes, Holocaust revisionism, etc.

* consider how much easier it is getting to store the names of those who
violate the laws of a country.

I would not want to be the operator of a site which mirrored the Zundelsite
if I ever expected to pass through Germany. Or possibly any other country
which has liberal extradition arrangements with Germany.

At least the Germans don't snatch people from other countries, as the U.S.
and Israel have done.

By the way, while I haven't heard what happened to the American nabbed when
he landed in Germany--the story was a few weeks or months ago, as I
recall--there was a humorous slant to the story. Seems the American was
going on and on about his Constitutional rights to free speech....


--Tim

Boycott espionage-enabled software!
We got computers, we're tapping phone lines, we know that that ain't allowed.
---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:----
Timothy C. May              | Crypto Anarchy: encryption, digital money,
tcmay@got.net  408-728-0152 | anonymous networks, digital pseudonyms, zero
W.A.S.T.E.: Corralitos, CA  | knowledge, reputations, information markets,
Higher Power: 2^756839 - 1  | black markets, collapse of governments.
"National borders aren't even speed bumps on the information superhighway."