Re: Denning vs. Gilmore

[jim bell <jimbell@pacifier.com>]

At 04:14 PM 7/29/96 +0100, Roderick Simpson wrote:
>Today, Monday, July 29, Dorothy Denning begins her debate vs. John Gilmore
>over The Absolute Right to Privacy on Wired Online's Brain Tennis site. Do
>citizens of the world have an "unalienable right" to privacy - or are there
>reasons why governments ought to have access to our communications? This
>debate will run daily through August 7. Follow along at
>http://www.wired.com/braintennis/. To get into the debate yourself, go to:
>
>http://www.hotwired.com/cgi-bin/interact/replies_all?msg.21655
>
>An excerpt of Dorothy's first post today:
>
>     "I'm not ready to accept 'the cat is out of the bag.'

The Wicked Witch of the East wasn't "ready to accept" a house being dropped 
on her.  Denning's personal desires are equally irrelevant.


>     Let's look for a way of enjoying
>     the benefits of encryption without
>     unnecessarily hindering the ability of law
>     enforcement to perform its mission. 


I consider the primary benefit of good encryption to be the "hindering the 
ability of law enforcement to perform" the particularly abusive "mission" 
they've chosen for themselves.

>     Let's use encryption for privacy, but also give
>     law enforcement access to communications and
>     computer files when there is probable cause
>     and a judge has issued a court order.

Many if not most of us out here believe that the ("probable cause") system 
is abusive, and has all the prospects of continuing to be abusive in the 
future.


>      In some cases, that access must be
>     surreptitious. 

But some of us consider such access to be unconstitutional, however "useful" 
you may believe it to be.  In the past, the government has had the extreme 
luxury of not being forced to convince the public of its "right" to wiretap. 
 Now, the advance of technology is forcing the question of such approval to 
be answered, and the Denning-types are getting really worried that the 
public isn't going to give that approval.  Tough!

Jim Bell
jimbell@pacifier.com