On Monday, July 1, 2002, at 02:23 PM, Anonymous wrote: > [Repost] > > Bear writes: > >> A few years ago merchants were equally adamant and believed >> equally in the rightness of maintaining their "right" to not >> do business with blacks, chicanos, irish, and women. It'll >> pass as people wake up and smell the coffee. Unfortunately >> that won't be until after at least a decade of really vicious >> abuses of private data by merchants who believe in their >> god-given right to snoop on their customers. > > My God, how low the cypherpunk list has sunk. Here we have someone > not only demanding that merchants be forced to deal with pseudonymous > customers, he invokes civil rights laws to support his argument! > > Where's Tim May when we need him?
I'm right here. But you have missed something very important: "Bear" did not write that article for the _Cypherpunks_ list. It was one of many articles cross-posted between the _Cryptography_ list and the _Cypherpunks_ list and even some of Hettinga's many lists. Here are the headers: From: bear <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Date: Sat Jun 29, 2002 10:03:33 PM US/Pacific To: Barney Wolff <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Cc: "'[EMAIL PROTECTED] '" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>, "'[EMAIL PROTECTED] '" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: Re: Ross's TCPA paper > > Here's a clue, Mr. Bear. The cypherpunks list was founded on the > principle that cyberspace can enhance freedom, and that includes freedom > to associate with whomever you choose. Racism is evil, but the solution > must lie in people's hearts. Pointing a gun at them and forcing them > to act in a politically correct manner (which is what civil rights > regulations really do) is no solution to the problem. Bear left the Cypherpunks list a long while ago, citing fundamental disagreements. "Cryptography" was formed as a putatively apolitical list. Apparently this is no longer so, and its politics are at odds with the main themes on our list. (I believe this partly comes about precisely _because_ it supposedly has no political compass heading.) I have strong views on all this DRM and TCPA stuff, and especially on the claim that some form of DRM is needed to prevent government from taking over control of the "arts." But we said everything that needed to be said _years_ ago. No point in repeating the same points. --Tim May "Dogs can't conceive of a group of cats without an alpha cat." --David Honig, on the Cypherpunks list, 2001-11
