Re: Fight, or Roll Over?

[cman@communities.com (Douglas Barnes)]

>At 10:41 AM 7/13/95, Douglas Barnes wrote:
>
>>Since the Anti-Electronic Racketeering Act of 1995 might as well
>>be called the "Anti-Cypherpunk Act of 1995", I'm surprised to see
>>Tim throw in the towel already, when the bill hasn't even made it
>>through committee yet.
>
>I'd hardly call my view "throwing in the towel." What I said clearly enough
>was that the Washingtonians can throw out repressive legislation much
>faster than we can--and I speak in terms of "we" as being the EFF, EPIC,
>NRA, ACLU, etc., and _not_ the Cyherpunks, who have no lobbying activities
>to speak of.
>

I'm not advocating that cypherpunks lobby -- we clearly don't have the
organization or the right image to be doing that. I _do_ think that it's
important to support the EFF, EPIC and ACLU who will almost certainly
be fighting this very important rearguard action while we try to get
_our_ act together. I'm not sure the NRA bears on this exact matter,
but I think it's high time one of the other three started doing "jack
booted thug"-type fundraising letters.

This means, for those not reading between the lines, doing something
more than online ranting and petition-signing, such as getting out the
checkbook and supporting those who are organized to fight these things,
and actually getting off the dime and doing things like writing letters,
sending telegrams, and otherwise harassing our elected beings through
media that they understand (since, clearly, they _don't_ understand
the Internet -- if they did, they wouldn't propose legislation like this.)

Yes, the "bad guys" can crank out unfriendly legislation faster than
the "good guys" can fight it, but since we are clearly not ready to offer
technological solutions this month, the "good guys" act as a valuable
brake on this current swing of the pendulum.