Re: Fight, or Roll Over?

["Pat Farrell" <pfarrell@netcom.com>]

In message Thu, 13 Jul 1995 16:12:16 -0700,
  tcmay@sensemedia.net (Timothy C. May)  writes:
>
> There was once talk, in April of '93, about the Washington, D.C.
> Cypherpunks group adopting "lobbying" as their own special focus area,
> with educational visits to Congressional aides and attendance at
> crypto-related hearings. Nothing came of this, for whatever reasons.

My cut on why it failed is that lobbying is too hard to do effectivly on a
part time basis, and those attending that the meeting realised it.

On a full time basis, lobbying is expensive, and requires that you raise
tons of money. The EFF found tons of money, and sponsored last year's
Digital Telephony disaster. He who pays the piper names the tune. EFF
got lots of corporate money, and "liked" the 94 DT bill.
So they're gone.

> say one thing: the leaders of EFF may have realized what a trap lobbying
> can become, and have chosen to instead focus on other areas.)

I read this in their actions too.

> Anyway, Cypherpunks is a worldwide, technological-oriented group. We can

Cypherpunks write code?

There is nothing vaguely pro-government about much of strong cryptography.
Tim's sig, fall of governments, and all that. Why should they listen to us?
Write code. Send money to EPIC and ACLU, let them lobby.

Pat

Pat Farrell    Grad Student      http://www.isse.gmu.edu/students/pfarrell
Info. Systems & Software Engineering, George Mason University, Fairfax, VA
PGP key available on homepage               #include <standard.disclaimer>