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Re: Freedom and security
On Tue, 30 Apr 1996 [email protected] wrote:
> The Internet is beyond the stage of small communities exercising informal
> social controls (peer pressure).
Disagree strongly. The net is a LARGE number of SMALL communities. This
is why spammers are so offensive: they trespass and violate boundries.
This is why killfiles were invented. You ask about people who don't know
about killfiles. Teach them. This requires no formal organization.
> paradise. Does anyone really doubt the extent of State control and power
> across the Net?
Yes. If there was state control of the Internet, there probably wouldn't
be any anonymous remailers. And the Cyberangels would go away.
> My point is that this is inevitable.
Very few things are inevitable; that's a very strong word. The Cypherpunk
Agenda is to provide exactly those tools which make this "inevitable"
thing absolutely impossible.
> The Internet is a
> mirror of the rest of the world, not a new form of society, and I fail to
> understand why anyone should be surprised that that is the case.
Disagree modestly.
> I disagree with this statement. I do not believe that laws breed more laws
> nor that laws lead to less freedom. I believe bad laws compromise freedom
> (eg CDA) while good laws protect freedom.
Have you taken a good hard _honest_ look at the War on Drugs? I also
believe that bad laws compromise freedom and good laws protect freedom.
One of the problems is that good laws often breed bad laws to patch
things up.
> Cryptography enhances and protects privacy, which does not inevitably lead
> to greater security. Security for the sender, yes, in that no one else can
> read the message, but security for the Community? Doesnt that depend what
> the message said?
No. True security for the community rests in a shared social standard
which discourages actions which are harmful to the community or
individuals. Security which requires a class of Guardians to protect
everyone else is not security. It's safety, but it's temporary safety.
Jon Lasser
----------
Jon Lasser (410)494-3072 - Obscenity is a crutch for
[email protected] inarticulate motherfuckers.
http://www.goucher.edu/~jlasser/
Finger for PGP key (1024/EC001E4D) - Fuck the CDA.