Selling Pointers to Privacy

[Edward J OConnell <ejo@world.std.com>]

WARNING: The following post, I realize, assumes that we all agree that we
should all have the right to buy and sell and take any chemicals we damn
well please. In Extropians, you don't have to mention this. In the world
at large, this elicits wide eyed stares, and sputtering noises of disbelief.

( I recall someone being willing to give up some privacy for 'less crack
in the schools.' Sorry. Not a good enough reason to give up one whit of
privacy.)

SELLING 'OFF THE SHELF' PRIVACY TO THOSE THAT WOULD PAY FOR IT...
(Providing Pointers, that is...)

I've been thinking about this PGP thing. Playing with it has been
a lot of fun, (The ultimate secret decoder ring!) and has made me
wonder, who *needs* this kind of security that doesn't have it
already? Who would pay for it? Who wouldn't care too much about
the legalities? Mid to large scale drug dealers, that's who!

I began to think of things I could do with off the shelf hardware
and software. Ease of use is important--I don't think many drug
dealers are going to want to mess around with command line
interfaces--So I started playing with the idea of a
voicemail/answering machine type thing, using macs with built in
microphones, modems, telecom software, etc. Maybe use hypercard to
create a single application with a phone book, so that they would
just double click on someone's name, and talk into the microphone.
Hit a button to end the message, and then hit, SEND. The hypercard
stack compresses and encrypts using PGP the voice file, which is
decompressed and encrypted automatically at the other end, maybe
producing a blinking button with that persons name on it, and the
time of the call. The interface design would be fun, actually.

Asynchronous, but perhaps useful enough? (With a 1.44 modem and
the 6/1 compression rate of my shareware voice recorder, it would
take about 2 minutes to modem a minutes worth of message--not too
bad, really.) I think it might be interesting to typeset a booklet
describing how to do this, and try to sell it in the back of
magazines--maybe Rolling Stones and High Times. The booklet might
just be pointers to the hardware and software needed, and the few
skills the client would have to acquire. You could sell the "ease
of use" hypercard stack through the booklet, too. You could wait
and see if the thing takes off before actually making the stack.

I've also thought, that you could sell phone support to people who
are trying to get this type of thing going. I'm less enthusiastic
about this; it seems like this would be a good way to get busted.

Of course, the legality of this hinges on the legality of PGP.
I've read some stuff about the copyright infringment aspect, and
have seen on Extropians, a legal action threatened against someone
who was advertising PGP in a big way.

Any thoughts? I'm halfway serious about this. Perhaps it could
exist in the same sort of quasilegal half-life as bongs,
psyloycybin spore logs, and automatic weapon conversion
kits--sure, it's illegal to use this stuff I'm selling, but I'm
not selling illegality...I'm just selling the stuff!

First Draft of Ad:

PHONE WITHOUT FEAR Did you know that personal computers can be
used to communicate with others with absolute privacy? That free
public domain software exists that cannot be cracked? Not even by
the CIA? For plans for a user friendly, voice-mail encryption
system send 10.00 money order to:


Jay.

Maybe. If I don't chicken out. ;-)


__________________________________

Albert Einstein--"God does not play dice with the universe."
Me--"No, he plays Super-Scratch-Card-Wingo (TM)