From: angels@wavenet.com (CyberAngels Director : Colin Gabriel Hatcher)
Date: Wed, 1 May 1996 16:00:46 +0800
To: liberty@gate.net (Jim Ray)
Subject: Re: Freedom and security
Message-ID: <v01510108a9e71a45899e@[198.147.118.163]>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain


Jim Ray wrote

> Freedom is already diminishing at an alarming pace.
>That is why cypherpunks spread crypto, and why Libertarians like
>me rant. Freedom does not increase through more laws.

Nor does freedom increase through less laws or no laws.  Freedom increases
as respect and care for one another increases.  Meanwhile, since we do not
live in utopia, all societies at a certain level of economic development
and of a certain size of population require law and law enforcement to
protect citizens from predators.

The Internet is beyond the stage of small communities exercising informal
social controls (peer pressure).  It's now a major industrial city and will
develop law, law enforcement and government, whether anyone likes it or
not, not least because the Community will always respond to crime by trying
to protect itself.  And the crime is already here.  The idea that the
Internet is not controlled is IMHO one of the biggest myths around.  It's
like a large group of people are still living in some far-off utopian rural
paradise.  Does anyone really doubt the extent of State control and power
across the Net?  My point is that this is inevitable.  The Internet is a
mirror of the rest of the world, not a new form of society, and I fail to
understand why anyone should be surprised that that is the case.

 >.... laws only breed more laws, which always lead to
>less freedom.

I disagree with this statement. I do not believe that laws breed more laws
nor that laws lead to less freedom.  I believe bad laws compromise freedom
(eg CDA) while good laws protect freedom.

>>I don't believe that security is the enemy of
>>freedom.  I believe that freedom needs security in order to exist at all.
>
>Good. Join us in spreading cryptography around, and security will
>bloom (along with freedom).

Cryptography enhances and protects privacy, which does not inevitably lead
to greater security.  Security for the sender, yes, in that no one else can
read the message, but security for the Community?  Doesnt that depend what
the message said?  The technology itself is neutral.  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.  And that's not the tyranny
of government but the tryanny of criminals.

I do in fact support cryptography for personal security, not least because
I can ensure that my messages are authenticated.  CyberAngels PGP public
key will be up on our new website opening very soon.  I've had enough of
people forging my email.


*********************************************************
Colin Gabriel Hatcher - CyberAngels Director
angels@wavenet.com

"Two people may disagree, but
that does not mean that one of them is evil"

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