From: mpd@netcom.com (Mike Duvos)
Date: Wed, 1 May 1996 17:29:01 +0800
To: cypherpunks@toad.com
Subject: Lolitas and Cyber Angels
Message-ID: <199605010543.WAA01100@netcom8.netcom.com>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain


(CyberAngels Director : Colin Gabriel Hatcher) writes:

 > Child pornographers encrypt their hard drives so that law
 > enforcement cannot gather crime evidence - that is certainly
 > a state of greater security for the pornographer, but it
 > does not improve our Community, and as child pornography
 > increases, the law is by definition broken more and more,
 > and so the Community becomes less free than before.

This is silly on several levels.  First, given that a finite
amount of resources are available to combat the sexual
exploitation of children, law enforcement should concentrate
their resources on the production of such material, and not on
the incidental evidence of its production long after the fact,
and in a context completely unrelated to any economic link back
to the original producers.

Someone who has an encrypted file on their hard drive from some
motheaten child porn magazine published 20 years ago is no more
guilty of the exploitation of the models portrayed than someone
who downloads the Simpson crime scene photos from
alt.binaries.pictures.tasteless is guilty of killing Nicole and
Ron.  If anything, such a picture is little more than historical
documentation of a bygone era and an expensive distraction for
police officers who might better spend their time. 

Indeed, if encryption inhibits the ability of the government to
create exceptions, based solely on irrational public hysteria, to
the First Ammendment right of citizens to communicate amongst
themselves on any subject, including via the use of visual
material, then encryption is serving a valuable purpose.

Now before anyone accuses me of advocating a thriving market in
child porn, let me say that I have no objection at all to laws
which set a minimum age for working as a performer in the sex
industry, and to enthusiastic prosecution of individuals who
violate those laws.

I just think the police should concentrate their resources on
real children experiencing real abuse, and leave their prurient
interest in the contents of libraries and other peoples computers
behind when they go to work.

--
     Mike Duvos         $    PGP 2.6 Public Key available     $
     mpd@netcom.com     $    via Finger.                      $