Re: Philosophy of information ownership

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

At 7:38 PM 5/28/96, Bruce Baugh wrote:
>At 12:29 AM 5/28/96 -0700, Timothy C. May wrote:
>
>>Contracts are the key.
>
>Agreed. The more that can be explicitly spelled out about these matters, the
>better.
>
>A separate problem arises when the government compels the disclosure of
>information for one purpose - getting a driver's license, say - and then
>turns around and sells it to others. It's much harder to either negotiate a
>new contract or go to a competitor when the other party is a government.

And I agree, too.

I can support "data privacy laws" when the government is the party affected
by the laws. (Though, being somewhat cynical and having seen many cases
where governments conveniently exempted themselves from laws or simply
ignored them, I am not hopeful that any data privacy laws will have the
intended effect.)

--Tim May

Boycott "Big Brother Inside" 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,
Licensed Ontologist         | black markets, collapse of governments.
"National borders aren't even speed bumps on the information superhighway."