From: tcmay@got.net (Timothy C. May)
Date: Thu, 12 Sep 1996 04:50:40 +0800
To: Stephan Schmidt <cypherpunks@toad.com
Subject: Re: Digital rights organisation
Message-ID: <ae5c3a5501021004954e@[207.167.93.63]>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain


At 9:46 AM 9/11/96, Stephan Schmidt wrote:
>Hi,
>
>thinking about what happend in Germany,
>are there any 'digital rights' organisations
>in Germany ?
>
>If not, we would like to found one.
>Are there any international orgs (EFF?,...)
>who can help us ?

A wonderful idea, Stephan! You might try contacting EFF to see if a German
branch exists (though EFF is not a strongly member-oriented organization,
though people tell me this may be changing).

Germans should embrace the idea that the cure for bad speech is _more_
speech. Specifically, for the current German concerns, the "cure" for
speech by semi-Nazi skinheads and Holocaust deniers is free and open
speech. Hard to deny the Holocaust when web sites have thousands of
pictures, when archives exist.

(And when speech saying the Holocaust "never happened" is outlawed, a
certain fraction of the population thinks it's cool and chic to engage in
this speech! Human psychology and all. This is probably what 90% of the
skinheads are all about, plus some run of the mill hatred toward Turks and
other immigrants who they think are taking away their jobs....)

I understand that Germans have free speech in a lot of areas, and have less
censorship of sexual material than the U.S. has (television, especially).
But the areas where they _do_ censor, such as discussion of the Second
World War and related issues, are the ones the world see.

Germany needs to embrace completely free speech. This is the best way to
ensure that another dictator like Hitler does not get elected to power.

--Tim May

We got computers, we're tapping phone lines, I 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: 2^1,257,787-1 | black markets, collapse of governments.
"National borders aren't even speed bumps on the information superhighway."