The Press

[tcmay@got.net (Timothy C. May)]

At 12:25 AM 1/28/96, Mark Allyn (206) 860-9454 wrote:
>
>I would like to make a suggestion that D. Denning; others
>who are pro-escrow/clipper; and some of you folks here on
>this forum get together for a debate.

There have already been several debates about Clipper. I recall one at
George Washington University, in D.C., with Prof. Lance Hoffmann as the
moderator, and the usual suspects on each side (Denning representing
Clipper, one or more of the EPIC/EFF/CPSR/ACLU folks on the other side).
Didn't change a lot of views, I suspect. And I'll bet a hundred bucks that
not a single Congresscritter saw the debate, either live (of course not) or
on C-SPAN (assuming it was carried).

And there was an IRC "town meeting" with DRD herself, though I don't recall
the details.

My point was that few cryptographers and computer scientists actively
support the pro-control, pro-GAK position, not that we need more
meaningless debates with Dorothy Denning, Donn Parker, and Stuart Baker.

>Ideally, this would be real nice on a TV show such as the
>McNiel Lehrer show on PBS. Barring that, I would think
>that an IRC chat channel could be set up so that they
>could get on line and engage in an on line discussion.

Absolutely not enough time. The News Hour with Jim Lehrer could only devote
at most 20 minutes to such a story. Hardly enough time to even explain the
issues to a public which has no idea whatsoever what PGP stands for, or
what key escrow means, etc. (Consider how many hours a week of reading this
list and other sources it took before you, the reader, knew which end was
up.)

And if the News Hour _did_ do such a report, they'd look to the canned
experts they have in their backyard: the EPIC/CPSR/ACLU Washington
staffers.

When major media outlets send a film crew out to California it's usually to
get crowd shots of those whacky "Cyberpunks" arguing about privacy. "Is the
head dead yet?"

But, of course, I would never discourage anyone from talking to the local
media. Maybe it will help. Sure. Fine. Whatever.

--Tim

Boycott espionage-enabled software!
We got computers, we're tapping phone lines, we know that that ain't allowed.
---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:----
Timothy C. May              | Crypto Anarchy: encryption, digital money,
tcmay@got.net  408-728-0152 | anonymous networks, digital pseudonyms, zero
W.A.S.T.E.: Corralitos, CA  | knowledge, reputations, information markets,
Higher Power: 2^756839 - 1  | black markets, collapse of governments.
"National borders aren't even speed bumps on the information superhighway."