From: Tim May <tcmay@got.net>
Date: Sat, 3 May 1997 03:46:31 +0800
To: Bill Stewart <stewarts@ix.netcom.com>
Subject: Re: Power Blocs in the Crypto Debate
In-Reply-To: <v03007804af8d2de3f630@[207.167.93.63]>
Message-ID: <v03007805af8ffe302853@[207.167.93.63]>
MIME-Version: 1.0
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At 11:17 AM -0800 5/2/97, Bill Stewart wrote:
>At 10:23 AM 4/30/97 -0800, Tim May wrote:
>>              Users of crypto, concerned citizens, the public
>>                     Cypherpunks, EFF, ACLU, EPIC, etc.
>>                             /
>>                            /
>>                    Public/Users
>>                    /         \
>>                   /           \
>>                  /             \
>>      Corporations  -  -  -  -  Government - - NSA, FBI, military,
>>          /                              law enforcement, regulators,
>>         /                                    SEC, FCC, etc,
>>    PGP, Inc., RSADSI, Cylink
>>    Verisign, Netscape, etc.
>
>It's a useful start, but treating corporations as one bloc
>makes it too easy for journalists and government to say things like
>"Industry wants <foo>!"

Yes, but any analysis able to be quickly comprehended--which is what this
diagram was meant to be a stab at--has to avoid complexification. I could,
for example, split each of these three main legs into multiple subfactions,
or could argue that there are 5, or even more, legs to the diagram.

Saying "industry wants foo" is of course an oversimplification, but, in
fact, we're seeing my analysis somewhat confirmed by the debate over the
SAFE bill. (Though in this case I would move CDT and related groups over to
the "Corporations" side...it was probably a major mistake by me to place
them mostly in the "Users" orbit.)

My point was that the interests of these major blocs rarely coincide, for
various reasons.

Recall--and you were at that meeting, Bill--that Phil Zimmermann despaired
publically over the drift of PGP, Inc. into the orbit of those companies
prepared to sacrifice basic Consitutional rights in exchange for being able
to export (and to sell to government agencies, which I believe is a major,
major factor in PGP, Inc.'s increasing tendencies to abandon the civil
rights origins of "PGP the guerilla program" in favor of "PGP, the tool of
choice for securing the enterprise."

--Tim May

There's something wrong when I'm a felon under an increasing number of laws.
---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:----
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: 2^1398269     | black markets, collapse of governments.
"National borders aren't even speed bumps on the information superhighway."