Anders Sandberg wrote:
>
> On Fri, Sep 14, 2001 at 06:56:58AM -0700, Robert Coyote wrote:
> > The "bad guys" already have the encryption they need, do you think they will
> > jts say "oh shucks ok well use the one wiht the backdoor in it " the only
> > ppl that will be effected by this are ppl who desire to obey the law
>
> Exactly, and this is of course obvious to anybody with half a brain
> transplant. But in the current climate, getting this kind of legislation
> through is far easier. Critics can be silenced by variants of exclaiming
> "So you EFF guys want Bin Laden to be able to plot the death of american
> innocents in peace?!". Also remember that it is supported not just by
> the intelligence community but also by the content providers (since once
> you have legislated one mandatory hardware/software regulation, the
> related copyright protection systems would be easy to add on).
>
Such measures do absolutely nothing to the terrorists of the
world. They do a lot to silence everyone and to slow down all
types of exchange that cannot be safely be conducted fully in
the open or with government prying eyes (industrial espionage
would be a cinch with such things in place and a few political
bribes).
> The situation is fluid right now, make use of it and try to steer the
> politicians away from making too many dangerous laws in the US. It would
> be sad if it was Bin Laden who managed to make Linux illegal.
It would be more than sad. It would cause another kind of war.
- samantha
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b30 : Fri Oct 12 2001 - 14:40:46 MDT