cryptoanarchy.wiki

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1996-11-29 - Re: The House Rules At The Permanent Virtual Cypherpunks Party

Header Data

From: Dale Thorn <dthorn@gte.net>
To: bryce@digicash.com
Message Hash: 9715ab31821e5e217b1c890b7b257b0d49333e26937722e913778c233f64660f
Message ID: <329E4432.4D93@gte.net>
Reply To: <199611281454.PAA12144@digicash.com>
UTC Datetime: 1996-11-29 03:24:49 UTC
Raw Date: Thu, 28 Nov 1996 19:24:49 -0800 (PST)

Raw message

From: Dale Thorn <dthorn@gte.net>
Date: Thu, 28 Nov 1996 19:24:49 -0800 (PST)
To: bryce@digicash.com
Subject: Re: The House Rules At The Permanent Virtual Cypherpunks Party
In-Reply-To: <199611281454.PAA12144@digicash.com>
Message-ID: <329E4432.4D93@gte.net>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain


Bryce wrote:
> Here is a document I just hacked.  I am breaking several of the Rules
> by posting it, since I am not actually subscribed to cypherpunks
> right now.
> Welcome to the cypherpunks mailing list!  Starting now, you will
> receive hundreds of email letters every week on the subject of
> privacy and social change in an age of cryptographic networks.

[snip]

> I.  Etiquette -- The House Rules At The Virtual Cypherpunks Party
> The Meta-Rule:  It's John Gilmore's virtual house.  He is the
> sole owner of the computer (toad.com) that hosts cypherpunks
> and the sole authority over what the users of that computer
> (you) can do with it.

[mo' snip]

Ordinarily, I'd leave this post alone, but I really hate it when people
twist ideas for their own philosophical purposes.  To whit: "John is the
sole authority over what the users of his computer can do with his
computer" (quote approximate).

I don't *do* anything with *his* computer. I send email into the ether
with an address on it, and he picks it up at his discretion and does
what he wants with it.  I am in no way involved in that process, and I
do not share *any* responsibility for how he handles the email. As far
as his authority goes, I've been subscribed for several months now, and
I don't recall a single statement by Gilmore himself as to what this
"authority" thing means.  But then, why should he, and why should you?
It's patently obvious to anyone with a brain, and we don't need some
authoritarian boot-licking computer-bureaucrat telling us how it is.

Thread