Re: Personal webpages can get you fired [CNN]

[Tim May <tcmay@got.net>]

At 5:46 PM -0800 1/15/98, Mark Rogaski wrote:

>Not all that surprising.  If Barrett suggested his pages as an example,
>that makes them part of his curriculum.  Curriculums that don't fit in
>with the Diversity model are usually pretty short-lived.  That's a big
>"Duh" on his part.

And as with the AOL case of Timothy McVeigh (no, not _that_ one) being
kicked out of the Navy for labelling himself as "gay" and as a "boy hunter"
on one of his AOL profiles, there are already calls for new privacy laws.

Which misses the point. By illegalizing the keeping or disclosing of
lawfully obtained information, greater harm is done.

I heard Nadine Strossen of the ACLU arguing today that more laws are needed
to "prevent" these "abuses." In fact, more _technology_ is what's needed.
The technology of Web proxies, remailers, nyms, and such.

(As to what I personally think about these cases...the Barrett case strikes
me as just another PC firestorm, with someone being fired by a scared
college for fear of lawsuits by offended womyn and sistas. But Barrett was
dumb to tell his students about his non-PC page. As for the McVeigh case,
if the Navy allows gay soldiers and sailors....well, I can guess most
straights will refuse to volunteer for the Navy. Again, in a corporation or
such it should be their right to refuse to accept gays, or straights, or
blacks, or whatever they choose. That it is a taxpayer-funded enterprise
makes the case much more confusing and, probably, irreconcilable.)

--Tim May

The Feds have shown their hand: they want a ban on domestic cryptography
---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:----
Timothy C. May              | Crypto Anarchy: encryption, digital money,
ComSec 3DES:   408-728-0152 | anonymous networks, digital pseudonyms, zero
W.A.S.T.E.: Corralitos, CA  | knowledge, reputations, information markets,
Higher Power: 2^2,976,221   | black markets, collapse of governments.
"National borders aren't even speed bumps on the information superhighway."