From: Jim Choate <ravage@einstein.ssz.com>
Date: Sun, 8 Sep 1996 03:58:38 +0800
To: cypherpunks@toad.com
Subject: Re: "The Bill of Rights can be dangerous...." (fwd)
Message-ID: <199609071749.MAA01561@einstein>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text



Hi all,

Forwarded message:

> Subject: Re: "The Bill of Rights can be dangerous...."
> From: dlv@bwalk.dm.com (Dr.Dimitri Vulis KOTM)
> Date: Sat, 07 Sep 96 09:35:38 EDT
>
> I remember beig surprised to discover that the library computer at City
> University of New York (state school where I got all my degrees) had an
> (easily accessible) record of every book I've ever checked out in some
> 15 years, And by the way you need to present A LOT of ids to take books
> out of New York's public libraries, or to use the public-access
> computers in them. And by the way you're asked to sign your name and
> affiliation (fortunately, no ID is required) if you want to just enter
> NYPL's Slavic division and use their reading room. Apparently this was
> instituted during the cold war under the assumption that anyone
> interested in Slavic Division's materials needs to be watched.

In the very early 80's while I was attending UT Austin the FBI approached
the libraries and requested access to the loan records. The libraries
refused and went so far as to post a warning at each of the book checkout
points on the event.

Personaly, I was very proud of them for the refusal and the extra step
of the warning.

> A very good friend of mine does EE for a living, and in particular he
> sells some EE equipment by mail order. He told me that every time he
> sells something like the gizmo to write magnetic strips on credit cards,
> he gets a phone call from los federales saying: you sold X who paid with
> Y and shipped it to address Z - do you have any additional details? He
> says every time they know as much about the sale as he does. :-)

I have been dealing with security electronics for over 10 years and have
never been approached by anyone regarding my activities. I make no secret of
the fact that I do that sort of work as well as being able to build custom
equipment if needed. I would suspect that there is a flag on your friend
for something or someone from the past, not on his business in particular.

                                                  Jim Choate
                                                  CyberTects
                                                  ravage@ssz.com