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[Jim Choate <ravage@ssz.com>]

Forwarded message:

> Date: Wed, 5 Nov 97 07:47 MET
> From: Jenaer Mixmaster Anonserver <mixmaster@as-node.jena.thur.de>
> Subject: Libertaria in Cyberspace

> For a truly free communications medium we must have strong cryptography.

Seems to me that this is false. To have a truly free communcations medium we
must have no censors. The very fact that crypto is involved guarantees that
it isn't free. The use of crypto itself is a form of censorship if you don't
have the key.

> This is a given.

No, it isn't.

> Anonymity cannot be insured without strong cryptography

Tell that to publius. 200+ years later and we still fight over who wrote
what and they didn't even use a simple substitution cypher. The secret to
anonymity is the same as keeping a secret, those who know keep their mouths
shut.

> and the freedom of remailers or similar mechanisms to operate
> unobstructed.

How is crypto going to keep them from kicking the turning the phones off,
turning the power off, and kicking the front door in? It isn't.

> Speech is never truly free unless it can be anonymous if
> the author so chooses.

Speech can't be truly free as long as any party can censor the traffic.

> Who wants to espouse an opinion which will get
> them flogged, either figuratively or literally, by their neighbors, their
> government, or in some cases even their family? 

Then be so kind as to explain people who are intentionaly trying to force
legal cases in order to challenge standards? This is a clear 1-to-1 mapping
to flogging (per your example).

> In my opinion, Mr. May is correct when he says that physical space is too
> small and too exposed to outside intervention.

Unfortunately cyberspace can't exist without meatspace.

> Yes, cyberspace does look much more promising. 

Only if you don't have a clue as to the technical, social and economic milieu
that it exists within. Show me a way to run a remailer program without a
computer which exists in meatspace and your proposition might work.

> The amount of "space" in
> cyberspace is unbelievably large.

You have a small imagination. The amount of space in cyberspace in no more
than the sum total of all the hard drives in use on the network or network
accessible at any given time. It's measured in terabytes but that is hardly
unbelievable.

> The amount of data I can store on one
> gigabyte of hard drive is incredible by conventional standards.

Your standards are pretty low when one considers that the largest databases
on the planet are measured in terabytes (1,000 gig's).

> And space is very cheap
> in cyberspace.

Really? Then please be so kind as to pay my monthy bills related to Internet
access. I assure you they are far from 'cheap'.

> A truly free communications medium must allow its users to be anonymous. 

No, it must provide no moderation on traffic. All anonymous access buys one
is reasonable deniability, a far cry from free communcations; and in fact
fundamentaly unrelated to the concept of free speech.

> That an opinion is unpopular does not make that opinion wrong or invalid.

Doesn't make it correct either, the proof is in the pudding.

> That an author does not want his "true name" attached to an opinion does
> not diminish the value of that opinion.

In fact the validity of a thesis should in no way ever rest on the
personality or reputation capital, it should rest solely on what can be
proven and tested about it.

[other stuff deleted]

> Tim May is correct: Libertaria will thrive in cyberspace. 

Only in your collective wet dreams. Libertaria as described by Tim,
yourself, and others will never come to pass in that form.


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