EFF Renewal response

[merriman@metronet.com (David K. Merriman)]

25 January, 1995

EFF
1557 K Street, Ste. 801
Washington, DC   20006

Sirs;
	This letter is in response to your recent membership renewal reminder.

	I have elected to withdraw my membership from EFF. My reasons for this are
really quite simple: I do not believe that certain past actions of the EFF
have been to the benefit of "the electronic frontier" - so much so that I
feel I must question whether the EFF truly represents my views.

	Specifically, I am referring to the debacle of the Digital Telephony act.
While the EFF was right in opposing this legislation, I believe that it was
grievously in error to make any kind of 'compromise' with federal officials
by assisting in the wording of the Act. While the EFF's stated position was
that it considered the legislation 'inevitable', and sought to make it as
palatable as possible, I do not believe that the EFF's willingness to
cooperate was appropriate at all. The EFF's actions have been likened to a
dog that barks quite loudly at a burglar, and then rolls over to have it's
belly rubbed when offered a treat by that same burglar - a description I
find to be more appropriate than that put forward by EFF representatives
(which, incidentally, sounded quite similar to the old adage "if you're
going to be raped, you might as well lay back and enjoy it." - an attitude I
find offensive in either context).

	While the EFF's stated goal of protecting the electronic frontier and
cyberspace is quite laudable, I do not see how such protection is possible
by compromising with the political and philosophical equivalents of thieves,
brigands, rapists, and common thugs. By cooperating with federal officials,
you have granted them the sanction of legitimizing their position, rather
than holding it up as an example of the untoward intrusion and violation of
the personal rights and freedoms of the citizens of cyberspace that more
accurately described it - and you have do so for the political equivalent of
30 pieces of silver.

	You need not make any response to this letter, should you be so inclined -
EFF, with it's actions regarding the Digital Telephony bill has completely
and thoroughly 'thrown away' any trust or faith in it's position, policies,
or effeciacy that I may have once had.

Sincerely,


David K. Merriman


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