Re: Crypto Anarchy, the Government, and the National Information Infrastructure

[Mike Godwin <mnemonic@eff.org>]

Tim May writes:

> Having read the three main "position papers" on NII (the White House
> paper, the CPSR analysis, and the EFF "Open Platform" piece), I'm as
> convinced as ever that the Data Highway is largely about regaining
> control of the currently anarchic network system. It just isn't about
> giving ghetto residents access to Crays, nor is it about the
> government being benificent in expanding our cable choices from 50
> channels of shit to 5000 channels.
> 
> No, it is about taxing the commerce that is moving increasingly into
> cyberspace. It is about continuing to regulate and control. It is
> about the survival of Big Brother.

For what it's worth, I don't think this interpretation can be read into
EFF's Open Platform paper. EFF doesn't care about making money off the
Data Highway, nor does it think the debate should be about the number of
channels cable offers.

Instead, EFF wants an infrastructure in which Tim May's anarchic vision
can flourish along with the visions of anarchophobes. On an Open Platform,
a hundred flowers can and will bloom, and a thousand schools of
thought will contend.

Anarchists like Jack Kerouac and Neal Cassidy could find
individualistic redemption on the (government-built) road.
EFF thinks private-enterprise roads are better, but we also think 
its promise is unfulfilled if it doesn't allow net.kerouacs and
net.cassidys to create there.


--Mike