From: Dale Thorn <dthorn@gte.net>
Date: Wed, 13 Nov 1996 21:05:14 -0800 (PST)
To: Declan McCullagh <declan@well.com>
Subject: Re: Censorship on cypherpunks?, from The Netly News
In-Reply-To: <Pine.GSO.3.95.961112093119.7009B-100000@well.com>
Message-ID: <328AA7B2.22EC@gte.net>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain


Declan McCullagh wrote:
> The Netly News
> http://www.netlynews.com/
> November 11, 1996
> Cypher-Censored
> By Declan McCullagh (declan@well.com)
>        The cypherpunks mailing list, so legend goes, coalesced around two
>    principles: the dissemination of strong encryption and an absolute
>    commitment to free speech. It was a kind of crypto-anarchist utopia:
>    Here was a place where anonymity was encouraged and PGP-signed
>    postings were the norm -- and nobody seemed to be in control.
>        That is, until recently, when Dimitri Vulis was given the boot.
>    After he refused to stop posting flames, rants and uninspired personal
>    attacks, Vulis was summarily removed from the mailing list.

[snippo]

>        Vulis portrays himself as a victim, but as I posted to the list
>    last week, I disagree. Anyone who's spent any time on the
>    100-plus-messages-a-day list can read for themselves the kind of nasty
>    daily messages that came from Vulis's keyboard. The list is on
>    Gilmore's machine and he can do what he wants with it; he can moderate
>    the postings, he can censor material, he can shut the whole thing down.

[mo' snippo]

So you disagree.  Well, the last sentence above says it all - this "list"
that you and 1900+ other people spend so much time on is "just property"
(like a slave), it's censorable (meaning freedom of speech is *specifically
excluded*), and it's terminable without notice (meaning that it's really
just one person's private fantasy, and we'll all bozos on the bus, as it were).

You and several other "personal friends/insiders" to John Gilmore must be
laughing your butts off at the erstwhile schmoes like myself, who labor to
reason with persons like yourself and "gods" like John Gilmore, who, after
all, are obviously superior to us schmoes, since we sit and beg for our
portions of email emanating from John "God" Gilmore's Holy Computer.

Why do you bother telling us that:

  "He can moderate the postings"
  "He can censor material"
  "He can shut the whole thing down"

Why?  Is this your way (or "God"'s way) of waving your dicks in our faces?

Well, I'll tell you what.  You can run your list (or kiss someone's butt
who does), you can shut the thing down, and you can take a long walk off
a short pier for all I or most anyone gives a damn, but let's call a spade
a spade.  You're a suck-up, and Gilmore is a swaggering, overbearing, tin-
plated dictator with delusions of Godhood.  Satisfied?