Re: Zimmermann case is dropped.

[Bill Stewart <stewarts@ix.netcom.com>]

Congratulations, Phil!  And to all the EFF folks, Phil's lawyers, et al.

At 07:00 PM 1/11/96 -0600, ecarp@netcom.com wrote:
>Mike Godwin can speak to this a lot better than I can, but I believe that 
>by abandoning their case against PRZ, they have seriously weakened their 
>case against anyone else that they feel has violated the ITAR in a 
>similar manner - it's called "selective enforcement" and courts have been 
>taking a dim view of that sort of thing.

They've weakened it far less than if they'd indicted Phil and lost,
and they _would_ have lost if they'd had a trial.  
Indicting him would have done _him_ far more damage, of course,
so I'm glad for his sake they dropped it.  
(Dan Bernstein may disagrees on whether they'd lose, and his suit against
the government is the next chance to test this in court.)

Prosecuting Kelly Goen would have been far more interesting;
they _might_ have been able to win something against him,
though the statute of limitations is probably about to cover him.

Meanwhile, they've demonstrated that you can tie up a person for years,
and cause him to spend huge legal expenses, without being stopped by the
Constitutional right to a speedy trial, and by not prosecuting they're
preserving the powers of Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt.
And while they've given PGP some extra publicity, they've also slowed
down the adoption of high-quality privacy tools for several years;
while they can't prevent hard-core privacy-addicts from getting it,
but they can make sure that it's not included in everybody's first
computer for a couple of years at least, until they get Clipper 2
or Exon 3 or Freeh-base Wire Taps or _something_ in place.

And they can always argue that "Well, the case against Phil didn't
have quite enough direct evidence to prosecute, but we caught SAMEER
and three of his customers Red-handed, and plan to prosecute those
crypto-narco-anarco-porno-terrorist Commie-sympathizing Nazi-protecting
Foreign-looking money-laundering EEEVIL conspirators from BERKELEY
to the fullest extent of the law!*" and spend a couple of years
harassing them, and then find another victim after that.

Enough of those cases in a row could eventually annoy a judge or two,
but if it gets them a few more years, it gets them a few more years.


====
* Oh, "and your little dog, too!"
====

#--
#				Thanks;  Bill
# Bill Stewart, stewarts@ix.netcom.com, Pager/Voicemail 1-408-787-1281
#
# "The price of liberty is eternal vigilance" used to mean us watching
# the government, not the other way around....