

From the Radio Free Michigan archives



ftp://141.209.3.26/pub/patriot



If you have any other files you'd like to contribute, e-mail them to

bj496@Cleveland.Freenet.Edu.

------------------------------------------------



EFF Quotes of the Week Collection 5.0

=====================================



Updated: Mar. 9, 1995



A collection of the wittiest and stupidest, most sublime and most inane

comments ever said or written about cryptography, civil liberties, 

networking, government, privacy, and more.





For more information on the Electronic Fronter Foundation, Clipper, Digital

Telephony, and related civil liberties issues, contact EFF via the Internet,

phone, fax, or US Mail.



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WELL: g eff



_____________________________________________________________________________







"Is this true or only clever?"

  - Augustine Birrell







"...some starry eyed individuals who access the Net think of Cyberspace as

a community, with rules, regulations and codes of behaviour. Don't

you believe it! There is no community. Perhaps there was some truth in

that concept in the past, when the Internet was used exclusively by a small,

homogeneous group of academics and corporate technical researchers. 

Today, with Internet access available to everyone, Iway travellers reflect

every heterogeneous nuance of the world population. Along your journey,

someone may try to tell you that in order to be a good Net "citizen", you

must follow the rules of the Cyberspace community. Don't listen. The only

laws and rules with which you should concern yourself are those passed by

the country, state and city in which you live. The only ethics you

should adopt as you pursue wealth on the Iway are those dictated by the

religious faith you have chosen to follow and your own good conscience."

  - Laurence Canter & Martha Siegel ("the Green Card Lawyers"), from an early

    review copy of their book, _How_To_Make_a_Fortune_on_the_Information_

    _Superhighway_, 1994.





"Any time you throw information from the Internet at a student, you have 

to filter it." 

  - Steve Shotwell, director of computer services for the Troy, Michigan 

    school district.





"Trying to control information in the network age is about as successful

as pissing into the wind."

  - Keith Henson, in an article on the AABBS prosecution, 

    _Computer_underground_Digest_, Jan. 21, 1995.







"A means of control should exist whereby access operators and their 

organizations are held responsible for what is posted on the Internet," 

  - Church of Scientology lawyer Helena Kobrin







"If a Nation expects to be ignorant and free in a state of civilization,

it expects what never was and never will be...if we are to guard against

ignorance and remain free, it is the responsibility of every American to be

informed."

  - Thomas Jefferson







"I don't understand why they call it public broadcasting.  As far as I am 

concerned, there's nothing public about it; it's an elitist enterprise.  

`Rush Limbaugh' is public broadcasting."

  - Speaker of the US House of Representatives, Newt Gingrich on the 

    de-funding of the Public Broadcasting System, as quoted by 

    _Broadcasting_and_Cable_, Feb. 20, 1995, p. 8







"The Internet is a conduit of criminal activity."

  - James P. Lennane, president of software company DeScribe Inc., who in

    Oct. 1994 offered a $20,000 reward for the turning in of certain software

    pirates, whom Microsoft also offered a $10,000 bounty on.







"First of all, you have to make the distinction between the Internet

and some commercial service like AOL or Prodigy.  If you spend that

time and money building internets, you at the end of your labors

will own tangible assets: hardware, software, paid-for network

bandwidth, and human capital in the form of people who know how to

run same. Spending those dimes on Prodigy means that in the end you

will have rented someone else's assets and will have nothing

concrete in the end except for receipts for bills paid."

  - Edward Vielmetti of MSEN







"That will change over time the entire flow of information and the entire

quality of knowledge in the country and it will change the way people will

try to play games in the legislative process."

  - Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, Newt Gingrich, on

    increasing public electronic access to Congressional Information

    (as reported by _BNA_Daily_Report_for_Executives_, Nov. 22, 1994)







"John [Malone, of cable tv giant TCI] and I were just on a Networked

Economy Conference panel together, and we were standing at the urinals

talking about things, and Barry Diller comes in and stands between us.  And

Barry says, `C'mon, you seem like such good friends.  Just split the

difference.'"

  - Bell Atlantic CEO Ray Smith, on the failed BA/TCI "NII" merger, reported

    in _Wired_, Feb. 1995, p. 110







"...Don't mistake any of this for altruism...Fear and greed just doesn't 

work. If you want to be successful, quality and service just works better."

  - Larry Edison, CEO of Oracle, on the company's improved customer service;

    reported in _Investor's_Business_Daily_, Feb. 22, 1995, p. A2







"Networks are based on choice.  When they get uncomfortable, it's easy to 

opt out of them.  Communities teach tolerance, co-existence, and mutual 

respect...I fear that calling a network a community leads people to 

complacency and delusion, to accepting an inadequate substitute because 

they've never experienced the real thing and they don't know what they're 

missing."

  - Eric Utne, publisher of _Utne_Reader_, from _Utne_Reader_, Mar.-Apr. 

    1995, p. 3







"If I knew what you've made during the year, if I know what your withholding

is, if I know what your spending pattern is, I should be able to generate

for you a tax return. I am an excellent advocate of return-free filing. We

know everything about you that we need to know. Your employer tells us

everything about you that we need to know. Your activity records on your

credit cards tell us everything about you that we need to know. Through

interface with Social Security, with the DMV, with your banking

institutions, we really have a lot of information ... We could literally

file a return for you. This is the future we'd like to go to."

  - US Internal Revenue Service Document Processing System project manager,

    as reported by _Wired_, Dec. 1994, p. 174.







"I think intellectual property is more like land, and copyright violation

is more like trespass. Even though you don't take anything away from the

landowner when you trespass, most people understand and respect the laws

that make it illegal. The real crime in copyright violation is not the

making of the copies, it's the expropriation of the creator's right to

control the creation."

  - Founder of ClariNet Communications Corp., _Internet_World_, 

    Nov/Dec. 1994, p.64)







"E-mail someday will unite us all in a shared state of epistolary bliss. 

E-mail is ethereal; it consumes no paper, no ink, and only a misting of 

fossil fuels. E-mail is nearly instantaneous. Best of all, e-mail 

combines the vacuity of phone talk with the potential permanence of 

letters. A fledgling still, e-mail promises to burgeon beyond anyone's 

calculation. Maybe the letter's golden age isn't dead after all; it may 

be yet to come."

  - an op-ed piece in the Nov. 9, 1994 _Wall_Street_Journal_







"Laws do not persuade just because they threaten."

  - Seneca, 65 CE







"Nothing we do in this great capital can change the fact that

factories or information can flash across the world, that people

can move money around in the blink of an eye...Nothing can change the

fact that technology can be adopted, once created, by people all across the

world and then rapidly adapted in new and different ways by people who have

a little different take on the way that technology works."

  - William Clinton, President of the United States, in a

    _New_York_Times_ article by John Markoff, Sep. 21, 1993

    [Note how inconsistent this statement is with the Clinton

    Administration's policy efforts to stuff the encryption genie

    back in the bottle.]







"The right to be heard does not include the right to be taken seriously."

  - Hubert H. Humphrey







"Usenet is like a herd of performing elephants with diarrhea -- massive, 

difficult to redirect, awe-inspiring, entertaining, and a source of 

mind-boggling amounts of excrement when you least expect it."   

  - Gene Spafford, 1992, quoted in a Joel Snyder article in _Internet_World_,

    Nov/Dec 1994, p.94







"They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary

safety deserve neither liberty nor safety."

  - Benjamin Franklin, _Historical_Review_of_Pennsylvania_, 1759.







"Ninety-eight percent of the adults in this country are decent, hardworking,

honest Americans.  It's the other lousy two percent that get all the 

publicity.  But then, we elected them."

  - Lily Tomlin







"Any vagabond babbler or unacknowledged genius, any enterprising tradesman,

with his own money or with the money of others, may found a newspaper, 

even a great newspaper.  He may attract a host of writers, ready to 

deliver judgment on any subject at a moment's notice; he may hire 

illiterate reporters to keep him supplied with rumors and scandals. His 

staff is then complete.  From that day he sits in judgement on all the 

world, on ministers and administrators, on literature and art, on 

finance and industry."

  - K.P. Pobyedonostseff, _Reflections_of_a_Russian_Statesman_

    (tr. Robert Long)







"I'd rather have 10% of the world than 100% of New England."

  - President of Nynex, the New England local telephone monopoly, on

    telecom deregulation, as reported in _Business_Week_, Feb. 20, 1995,

    p. 92







"If you think the 13,000 guys at Microsoft who aren't millionaires yet are

going to show some restraint, you're in for a surprise."

  - Andy Nicholson of Microsoft, in response to America On-Line CEO Steve

    Case's comment that Microsoft should show some restraint in the online

    market.







"If I have a market in the U.S., I have 200 to 250 million guys all 

speaking the same language, all paying in dollars, and all reading the 

same magazines.  The natural hub of the industry is the United States.  

Whether the Japanese or the Europeans like to hear this or not, it's the 

truth."

  - Expatriate Belgian CEO of TechGnosis, a software company now based in

    the US.







"In every work of genius we recognize our own rejected thoughts: they

come back to us with a certain alienated majesty."

  - Ralph Waldo Emerson







"There is a First Amendment right to speak in a encrypted way...The right

to speak P.G.P. is like the right to speak Navajo.  The Government has no

particular right to prevent you from speaking in a technical manner even if

it is inconvenient for them to understand."

  - Eben Moglen, Columbia U. professor of law and legal history, in a

    _New_York_Times_ article by John Markoff, Sep. 21, 1993







"The soft-minded man always fears change.  He feels security in the status

quo, and he has an almost morbid fear of the new. For him, the greatest

pain is the pain of a new idea."

  - Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.







"Cyberspace still exists at the pleasure of the real world."

  - Esther Dyson, EFF Boardmember, from Jan. 14. 1994 _Economist_ article







"Grassroots can grow through concrete."

  - Jim DePoe <aare@ph001193.uuhare6.rabbit.net>, as quoted in Jim Warren's

    _GovAccess_ e-newsletter.







"Philosophical habits of mind do not come quicker through fiber optics.

Clear thinking is not aided by better dot resolution.  Understanding

ourselves and feeling for others does not come with a software upgrade."  

  - Linda Ray Pratt







"When one door closes another door opens; but we often look so long and so

regretfully upon the closed door that we do not see the ones which open for

us."

  - Alexander Graham Bell







"[R]espondents [to an Internet survey] reported a more active civic life in

cyberspace than is typically reported by respondents in the national

election studies (NES) of Center for Political Studies of the University

of Michigan.  Even though the technology is new, close to one-third

had used e-mail to contact a public official.  This compares to an

estimated 28 percent of the NES who reported ever having written a

letter to a public official during the 1960 and 70s...About 60 percent had

been asked to petition or otherwise contact a public official about an

issue or public policy."

  - Bonnie Fisher, Michael Margolis, David Resnick, "Democracy on the

    Internet" Survey Results, as presented at the Annual Meeting of the

    American Political Science Association in New York City, Sept. 1-4, 1994







"Knowledge of history is the precondition of political intelligence.

Without history, a society shares no common memory of where it has been

[or] what it core values are."

 - 'National Standards for United States History' as reprinted in _Time_, 

    Nov. 7, 1994







"Extremism in defense of liberty is no vice.  Tolerance in the face of

tyranny is no virtue."

  - Barry Goldwater







"When you are confronted by any complex social system, such as

an urban center or a hamster, with things about it that you're

dissatisfied with and anxious to fix, you cannot just step in and set

about fixing with much hope of helping...Jay Forrester has demonstrated

it mathematically, with his computer models of cities in which he makes

clear that whatever you propose to do, based on common sense, will almost

inevitably make matters worse rather than better.  You cannot meddle with

one part of a complex system from the outside without the almost certain

risk of setting off disastrous events that you hadn't counted on in other,

remote parts.  If you want to fix something you are first obliged to

understand, in detail, the whole system, and for very large systems you

can't do this without a very large computer.  Even then, the safest course

seems to be to stand by and wring hands, but not to touch...Intervening is

a way of causing trouble."

  - Lewis Thomas, from the essay "On Meddling", _The_Medusa_and_the_Snail_,

    Viking Pr., New York, 1979







"I hate the idea of causes, and if I had to choose between betraying my

country and betraying my freind, I hope I should have the guts to betray 

my country."  

  - E. M. Forster







"One practice which I believe should be eliminated is that of the so-called

'paper front'.  A client is advised to finance an 'organization' to

promote or fight for its cause under the guise of an independent and

spontaneous movement.  This is a plain public deceit and fraud...Attempts

to fool the public by making it believe an 'organization' existing only

on paper is really a vociferous group favoring this or that cause have

helped to cast a shadow upon the business of public relations counseling."

  - John W. Hill, _The_Making_of_a_Public_Relations_Man_







"Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of

chains and slavery!?"

  - Patrick Henry







"The most exciting breakthroughs of the 21st century will not occur because

of technology  but because of an expanding concept of what it means to be

human."

  - John Naisbitt & Patricia Aburdene, _Megatrends_2000_







"In a Time/CNN poll of 1,000 Americans conducted last week by Yankelovich

Partners, two-thirds said it was more important to protect the privacy of

phone calls than to preserve the ability of police to conduct wiretaps.

When informed about the Clipper Chip, 80% said they opposed it."

  - Philip Elmer-Dewitt, "Who Should Keep the Keys", _TIME_, Mar. 14 1994

[note: these statistics have since been called into question.  Even so, 

they are unlikely to be off by very MUCH...]







"Many thanks to those of you who flamed the PC [Progressive Conservative

party] pranksters.  I know when I went online that I would have to deal

with fake posts and related chaff.  That's the price of being on the Net. 

I'm not about to delete my account.  I still want to hear from people with

*real* concerns and *real* suggestions".

  - Robert Rae, Premier of Ontario, Canada, in a post to the Usenet newsgroup

    ont.general, thanking supporters for verbally attacking PC party leader 

    Mike Harris, who referred to an obviously forged message from a fake Bob

    Rae as an embarassing "security violation" and the forgers themselves.

    From a K.K. Campbell article in _eye_Weekly_.  [If major figures of

    government are encouraging flaming, netiquette still has a long way to

    go...]







"Time makes more converts than reason."

  - Thomas Paine







"A Gallup poll reveals nearly 85% of Canadians worry the info-highway

will be a threat to their privacy, but 54.9% are still willing

to pay up to $15 monthly to be hooked into it. The info-highway

received a 54% recognition rating, a figure described as "astounding"

by Anderson Consulting, which sponsored the survey.  58.7% were

interested in educational services, but only 21.3% in home shopping

and 16.4% in calling up video games." 

  - _Toronto_Globe_&_Mail_, "Snoopophobia Haunts Info-Highway" May 3, 1994







"Maybe we need a tax credit for the poorest Americans to buy a laptop. Now,

maybe that's wrong, maybe that's expensive, maybe we can't do it, but I'll

tell you, any signal that we can send to the poorest Americans that says,

'We're going into a 21st century, third-wave information age, and so are

you, and we want to carry you with us.'"

  - Rep. Newt Gingrich, Speaker of the House of Representatives addressing

    the House Ways and Means Committee, Jan. 1995.  [From _New_York_Times_,

    Jan. 5, 1995, excerpted in _Edupage_, Jan. 8, 1995.]







"Relying on the government to protect your privacy is like asking a peeping 

tom to install your window blinds."    

  - John Perry Barlow, EFF co-founder, _Decrypting_the_Puzzle_Palace_







"Only through intelligent utilization of interactive multimedia technology

can we make higher education simultaneously more productive and more

efficient." 

  - Bernard Gifford, software entrepreneur, quoted in _Educom_Review_, Nov./

    Dec., 1994







"California legislators consider 10 to 15 letters and faxes to be a

*strong* showing of support for a bill (in a state of 31-million population!)"

  - Jim Warren, _GovAccess_ Internet newsletter, 08/04/94







"It is almost impossible for anyone outside this damn beltway to really

understand how the Congress works.  If you aren't here, walking the halls

of Congress, sitting at bars and attending parties where you get to knock

back some brews with Hill staffers, you don't have a handle on the

almost numbing amount of bullshit that goes on."

  - _CWD_ and _Comm_Daily_ journalist Brock Meeks, post to com-priv mailing

    list forum, 10/22/94







"'If you want me to tell you that our money buys us a vote on a particular

bill at a particular time, I say: `Fuck You,` it doesn't,' according to a

prominent lobbyist for one of the regional telephone companies.



"'However, if you ask me, `Do we get better access because of a couple of

$1,000 checks?`  I'll guarantee you that two grand gets us in the door and

gets our telephone calls returned before Joe Blow from the home office,' he

said.  'And it sure as hell gets our calls returned before yours.'"

  - Brock Meeks, _CyberWire_Dispatch_, 2nd issue of 11/08/94







"There are at least four big barriers to the NII. One is outdated and

compartmentalized regulations governing telecommunication, cable

broadcasting, and information industries. Another is legal issues

concerning copyright, intellectual property, and security. The third is

standards and the interoperability of the various NII technologies. And the

last is the development of new structures for commerce and business

activities on the NII, including billing and payment for services

rendered,"

  - president of WilTel, Inc., as reported in _Telecommunications_, Nov. 

    1994, p. 29







"It's amazing where capitalism has boomed in the last couple of years.

First the Eastern Bloc, and now the last bastion of socialism -- the

Internet itself."

  - the Chairman of Delphi Internet Services Corp., as reported by 

    _Information_Week_, 10/24/94







"E-mail is reincarnating the age of letter writing. We're keeping in touch

the way the Victorians did, building a personal community connected by a

constant stream of letters sharing news and gossip.  E-mail is reviving the

'letter' as a forum for wit, style, and personality, as well as serving as

an invaluable business tool."

  - Leslie Schroeder, Silicon Valley PR consultant to high-tech companies,

    from _Computer_underground_Digest interview by David Batterson, Oct.

    1994







"Every advance in civilization has been denounced while it was still recent."

  - Bertrand Russell







"[If] America's tv and movie producers are unwilling to clean up their

act... when it comes to sex, bloodshed and violence in their programming...

the government stands ready to step in."  

  - Attorney-General Janet Reno at a 1993 Senate hearing on tv violence,

    as reported by a UPI radio report. [One is tempted to ask what the

    difference between 'bloodshed' and 'violence' is...]







"Not all dinosaurs roll over and die. Some of 'em can run real fast and

bite the hell out of you." 

  - a Meridian Bancorp senior vice president on banking industry's plans to

    prevent Microsoft's online services from cutting into their industry. 

    From _Business_Week_, 10/31/94.







"Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic."

  - Arthur C. Clarke







"If five years from now we [the FBI] solve the access problem, but

what we're hearing is all encrypted, I'll probably, if I'm still here, be

talking about that in a very different way: the objective is the same.

The objective is for us to get those conversations whether they're by an

alligator clip or ones and zeros.  Whoever they are, whatever they are, I

need them."

  - FBI Director Louis Freeh, clarifying statements that the FBI may seek

    legislation to ban strong encryption, in an Sept. 1994 Q&A session, 

    from a WELL article by Steven Levy.







"A computer lets you make more mistakes faster than any invention in

human history--with the possible exceptions of handguns and tequila."

  - Mitch Ratcliffe, _Technology Review_, April, 1992







"People need to buy and want to. The selling itself becomes the

entertainment, the sought-after good... In the Internet world there won't

be any other way to peddle. To be successful advertising itself will have

to supply real value to the consumer."

  - Peter Huber, telecommunication attorney, quoted in _Forbes_, 12/19/94







"It's kind of the digital equivalent of a drive-by shooting."

  - a Texas A&M U. professor whose email account was abused by crackers

    who publicly posted racist remarks from the account, resulting in 

    hatemail (including death threats) being sent to the professor.

    (Reported by _Atlanta_Journal_Constitution_, 10/19/94)







"The hottest news in computing today is online communications, and there's

no end in sight to the impact this will have on virtually every segment of the

American public."

  - Practical Peripherals president Jack Murphy, from _Computer_underground_

    _Digest_ interview by David Batterson, Oct. 1994.  Batterson comments:

    "Irontically, Murphy's remarks were faxed to me, not e-mailed."







"The net poses a fundamental threat not only to the authority of the

government, but to all authority, because it permits people to organize,

think, and influence one another without any institutional supervision

whatsoever.  The government is responding to this threat with the Clipper 

Chip...The obvious danger in supplying people with encryption is that

encryption makes it easier to keep secrets, which makes it easier for

people to commit crimes.  With powerful encryption, the net would become an

ideal place for criminals to organize conspiracies."

  - John Seabrook, "My First Flame", _New_Yorker_ 06/06/94







"It [the 'set-top box'] will allow us to control all the communication

needs of a household with one device."

  - John Mallone, Tele-Communications Inc. (TCI) C.E.O.







"Taxpayers have spent more than $200 billion in the last decade on

computer systems that are antiquated, incompatible, and not doing the job."

  - Sen. William Cohen (R-Maine), on misappropriations for, and misuse of

    obsolete computer systems by government agencies (from _Information_

    _Week_, 10/24/94).  Ever get the feeling the govt. is differently clued?







"I doubt that Congress would pass on the opportunity to make sure that our

children were safe from terrorists."

  - FBI Director Louis Freeh using one of the main propaganda buggaboos of

    law enforcement attempts to weaken US privacy rights ("drug dealers",

    "child pornographers/molestors" and "organized crime" being the other 3

    Horsemen of the Big Brother Apocalypse); from House testimony at a 

    hearing on the FBI's Digital Telephony bill, 09/13/94.







"The underground press serves as the only effective counter to a growing

power, and more sophisticated techniques used by establishment mass media

to falsify, misrepresent, misquote, rule out of consideration as a priori

ridiculous, or simply ignore and blot out of existence: data, books,

discoveries that they consider prejudicial to establishment interest..."

  - William S. Burroughs, author (censored by the U.S. government; his

    comments apply now to the underground e-press as well)







"What I believe we lack, as a nation, is something which describes our

rights in an information age. I believe that the principles are all

there, in our constitution. But I shudder to think what the courts will

do to massacre these unless the legislature re-articulates these

principles in terms more appropriate to contemporary technology."

  - Sean McLinden <sean@dsl.pitt.edu>, post to Com-Priv mailing list forum







"To some, this is outrageous.  To some, this is free speech in action."

  - Cliff Figallo (former EFF Online Coordinator, and former WELL Director)

    on the advent of anonymous remailers on the Internet







"If the future navigation system [for interactive networked services on

the NII] looks like something from Microsoft, it will never work."

  - the chairman of Walt Disney Television & Telecommunications, at Broadcas-

    ting & Cable magazine's Superhighway Superpanel (reported by B&C,

    10/10/94)







"Ask the American public if they want an FBI Wiretax and they'll say 'no.' 

If you ask them do they want a feature on their phone that helps the FBI find

their missing child they'll say, 'Yes.'"

  - FBI Directory Louis Freeh, on Digital Telephony, US House (Subcmte. on

    Telecommunications & Finance) hearing on the Digital Telephony bill,

    09/13/94).  [Considering that the first question is fairly accurate,

    and the second is a wildly misleading attempt to convert real issues

    into emotionally charged buzzphrases and grossly inaccurate depictions

    of how this technology works, Freeh's estimation of the answers is

    probably correct.]







"Describing the Internet as the Network of Networks is like calling

the Space Shuttle, a thing that flies"

  - John Lester of Mass. General Hospital (from his email signature file).







"In 1991, the latest year figures are available, most Americans, across all

age groups, disapproved when asked the question: 'Everything considered,

would you say that you approve or disapprove of wiretapping?'  Some 67% of

all 18-20 year olds gave the thumbs down, as did 68% of the Gen[eration]-X

crowd...Boomers disapproved of wiretapping almost 3-to-1 while 67% of

those 50 and over disapproved."

  - Brock Meeks, "Riding A Straw Horse", _CyberWire_Dispatch_, reporting

    on innacurate FBI figures presented at House Telecom. & Finance Subcmte.

    Hearing on Digital Telephony legislation, 09/13/94.

 





"Finally, sometime in the near future--thanks to massive computerization of

automobile traffic control--safety on the roads will match the airline

safety of today, with relatively few car accidents and deaths per year.

It's going to be very exciting..."

  - David Batterson, "The Online Future", _Computer_underground_Digest_,

    Oct. 24, 1994







"I believe in markets doing what they do well, which is to develop technology,

and letting citizens do what they ideally do well, which is to set policy."

  - Esther Dyson, opening statements from NII Advisory Council session, 1994.







"Frankly, the people probably most interested in having computer lists on disk

are junk mail vendors and solicitors."

  - Karen Hughes, spokesperson for George Bush Jr. (R) Texas gubernatorial

    campaign, on why Bush refused to follow other candidates in providing

    online copies of files documenting campaign contributions and

    expenditures (as reported by _Houston_Chronicle_, 07/21/94).







"The people never give up their liberties but under some delusion"

  - Edmund Burke







"The advancement and diffusion of knowledge is the only guardian of

true liberty."

  - James Madison, 4th US President







"We were extremely conscious of free speech rights.  But they are not

absolute."

  - John E. Palomino, Santa Rosa CA Regional Director, Dept. of Education

    Office for Civil Rights, on Branham, Arata & Humphrey v. Santa Rosa

    Junior College case.  From "College Settles Harassment Charges

    Stemming from Computer Conferences", Tamar Lewin, _New_York_Times_,

    09/22/94







"Thoughtcrime was not a thing that could be concealed forever. You might

dodge successfully for a while, even for years, but sooner or later they

were bound to get you."

  - George Orwell, _1984_







"My definition of a free society is a society where it is safe

to be unpopular."

  - Adlai Stevenson







"When cryptography is outlawed, bayl bhgynjf jvyy unir cevinpl!"

[When cryptography is outlawed, only outlaws will have privacy!", ROT-13

encrypted]

  - Brad Templeton of ClariNet







"Wherever the Net arises, there arises also a rebel to resist human

control...A network nurtures small failures in order that large failures

don't happen as often.  It is...fertile ground for learning, adaptation,

and evolution...The only organization capable of unprejudiced growth, or

unguided learning, is a network.  All other topologies limit what

can happen."

 - Kevin Kelly, _Out_of_Control_







"In order to keep up with the criminals and to protect our national

security, the solution is clear: we need legislation to ensure that

telephone companies and other carriers provide law enforcement with access

to this new technology." 

  - FBI Dir. Louis Freeh, 12/8/93, on hampering new telecom technology 

    to make it easily wiretappable. [Full text of this Dec. 1993 DC Press

    Club speech available for anonymous ftp as wiretap.speech from

    ftp.eff.org in /pub/EFF/Privacy/Surveillance/Old/digtel93_freeh.speech]







"[Digital Telephony] compared to the Clipper Chip, is relatively benign,

but that's like saying cholera is better than the plague."

  - Carl Rudijerian







"The Film, Video, and Publications Act also breached the Bill of Rights and

it became law.  Parliament is bigger than the Bill of Rights".

  - New Zealand (Howick) Member of Parliament Trevor Rogers, on Minister

    of Justice's comments that Rogers' anti-computer-communications bill

    is unconstitutional.







"It's time for a reality check. These products are a little more difficult

to develop than people thought."

  - a Bell Atlantic management official, on NII technology (quoted in

    _New_York_Times_, 09/09/94).







"The real danger is the gradual erosion of individual liberties

through the automation, integration, and interconnection of many

small, separate record-keeping systems, each of which alone may

seem innocuous, even benevolent, and wholly justifiable."

  - U.S. Privacy Protection Study Commission, 1977







"A government that is big enough to give you all you want is big enough

to take it all away."  

  - Barry Goldwater







"There is no reason for any individual to have a computer in their home."

  - Ken Olsen, then president of Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC), 1977.







"The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers,

and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be

violated, and no warrants shall issue but upon probable cause, support

by oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be

searched, and the persons or things to be seized."

  - Amendment VI, United States Constitution







"I used to feel like I was a flea on the back of a Tyrannosaurus Rex. Now I

feel I might be a small yapping poodle on the back of a Tyrannosaurus Rex."

  - Phil Zimmerman, on releasing "Pretty Good Privacy" (PGP)







"Information wants to be free."

  - Stewart Brand, EFF boardmember, founder of Whole Earth Catalog and the

    WELL. (Among others.  No telling who really said this first.)







"Information wants to be free.  Believe it."

  - Bruce Sterling, author and EFF-Austin boardmember







"But programmers and authors want to get paid."

  - source unknown







"Recently, we have witnessed an alarming number of young people

who, for a variety of sociological and psychological reasons, have

become attached to their computers and are exploiting their potential

in a criminal manner.  Often, a progression of criminal activity occurs

which involves telecommunications fraud (free long distance phone

calls), unauthorized access to other computers (whether for profit,

fascination, ego, or the intellectual challenge), credit card fraud (cash

advances and unauthorized purchases of goods), and then move on to

other destructive activities like computer viruses...Our experience shows

that many computer hacker suspects are no longer misguided teenagers

mischievously playing games with their computers in their bedrooms.  Some

are now high tech computer operators using computers to engage in unlawful

conduct."

  - Garry M. Jenkins, Asst. Director, U. S. Secret Service







"We empower eachother by sharing information...We can create here,

together, a society in which everyone has a voice, and everybody's ideas

are heard."

  - Sheila Lennon, "The Global Village is Finally Wired",

    _Providence_[RI]_Sunday_Journal_, 08/07/94







"Privacy in one's associations ... may in many circumstances be

indispensable to freedom of association, particularly where a group

espouses dissident beliefs."

  - John M. Harlan, Supreme Court justice, 1958







"Civilization is the progress toward a society of privacy.  The savage's

whole existence is public, ruled by the laws of his tribe. Civilization is

the process of setting man free from men."

  - Ayn Rand, _The_Fountainhead_, 1943







"Earlier this month...America Online..shut several feminist discussion

forums, saying it was concerned that the subject matter might be

inappropriate for young girls who would see the world 'girl' in the

forum's headline and 'go in there looking for information about their

Barbies,' a spokeswoman said."

  - Peter H. Lewis, "Censors Become a Force on Cyberspace Frontier", 

    _New_York_Times_, 06/07/94







"It seems to me the book has not just aesthetic values -- the charming little

clothy box of the thing, the smell of the glue, even the print, which has its

own beauty. But there's something about the sensation of ink on paper that is

in some sense a thing, a phenomenon rather than an epiphenomenon. I can't

break the association of electric trash with the computer screen. Words on

the screen give the sense of being just another passing electronic wriggle."  

  - John Updike. _Atlantic_Monthly_, 09/94







"While we bemoan the decline of literacy, computers discount words in favor

of pictures and pictures in favor of video. While we fret about the

decreasing cogency of public debate, computers dismiss linear argument and

promote fast, shallow romps across the information landscape. While we

worry about basic skills, we allow into the classroom software that will do

a student's arithmetic or correct his spelling."

  - David Gelerntner, Yale U., _New_Republic_, 09/26/94







"Cryptography is an enormously powerful tool that needs to be controlled,

just as we control bombs and rockets."

  - David A. Lytel, President's Office of Science and Technology Policy







"Society has recognized over time that certain kinds of scientific inquiry

can endanger society as a whole and has applied either directly, or through

scientific/ethical constraints, restrictions on the kind and amount of

research that can be done in those areas."

  - Adm. Bobby R. Inman (then CIA Dep. Dir.) in a February, 1982 article for

    _Aviation_Week_and_Space_Technology_ on why cryptographic research should

    be limited to government scientists.



The Electronic Frontier Foundation believes that individuals have the right

to protect their private communications by any method they choose - without

government interference.







"You know your country is dying when you have to make a distinction between

what is moral and ethical, and what is legal."

  - John De Armond <jgd@dixie.com>, _Performance_Engineering_Magazine_, 1994







"This is the snobbery of the people on the Mayflower looking down

their noses at the people who came over ON THE SECOND BOAT!"

  - EFF co-founder Mitch Kapor, on Internet-user elitism v. BBS users







"Within a cell site, LE officers ... use triangulation equipment to zero in

on a particular caller['s physical location]...cellular tracking is

extremely beneficial, it's an investigative tool of the future."

  - Michael Guidry, of the Guidry Group, Houston, TX, security consultants; 

    from "Fugitive relied on and was undone by cellular phone", _LA_Times_,

    06/19/94







"There is a very real and critical danger that unrestrained public

discussion of cryptologic matters will seriously damage the ability of this

government to conduct signals intelligence and the ability of this

government to carry out its mission of protecting national security

information from hostile exploitation."

  - Admiral Bobby Ray Inman (then Director of the NSA) in a public speech in

    March 1979.







"It is as useless to argue with those who have renounced the use

and authority of reason as to administer medication to the dead."

  - Thomas Jefferson







"Inman seemed to regard real, virile encryption to be something rather

like a Saturday Night Special. 'My answer,' he said, 'would be

legislation which would make it a criminal offense to use encrypted

communication to conceal criminal activity.'



"Wouldn't that render all encrypted traffic automatically suspect? I

asked.



"'Well,' he said, 'you could have a registry of institutions which can

legally use ciphers. If you get somebody using one who isn't registered,

then you go after him.'"



  - from John Perry Barlow's "Decrypting the Puzzle Palace",1992 [available

    online as ftp.eff.org, /pub/EFF/Policy/Crypto/decrypting_puzzle.palace].







"The more people use computers, the more they find ways to abuse things."

  - Rick Sigurdson, IRS investigator & chairman of Federal Computer

    Investigations Committee (from AP Wire story "Policing Cyberspace", by

    Ted Anthony)







"Secrecy and a free, democratic government don't mix."

  - Harry S. Truman on clandestine government From "Plain Speaking: An Oral

    Biography of Harry S Truman," Merle Miller, 1974, ch. 23







"The only maxim of a free government ought to be to trust no man

living with power to endanger the public liberty."

  - John Adams, "Notes for an Oration at Braintree", 1772







"Let us contemplate out forefathers, and posterity, and resolve to

maintain the rights bequeathed to us from the former, for the sake of

the latter.  The necessity of the times, more than ever, calls for our

utmost circumspection, deliberation, fortitude, and perseverance.  Let

us remember that 'if we suffer tamely a lawless attack upon our

liberty, we encourage it, and involve others in our doom.'  It is a

very serious consideration that millions yet unborn may be the

miserable sharers of the event."

  - Samuel Adams ("patriot, statesman, brewer"), speech, 1771







"Good laws lead to the making of better ones; bad ones bring about worse."

  - Rousseau, "The Social Contract," 1762







"There are no necessary evils in government.  Its evils exist only in

its abuses."

  - Andrew Jackson, Veto of the Bank Bill, 1832







"I know of no safe depository of the ultimate powers of the society but the

people themselves, and if we think them not enlightened enough to exercise

that control with a wholesome discretion, the remedy is not to take it from

them, but to inform their discretion."

  - Thomas Jefferson, 1820 







"I still believe, in spite of the level of public inanity in this country,

that people are going to look very unkindly on a scheme to put a government-

mandated flap into the seats of their longjohns."

 - Matthew Mckenzie <mmckenzi@uga.cc.uga.edu>, alt.privacy post about Clipper







"Only in a police state is the job of a policeman easy."

 - Orson Welles







"The defendant's objections to the evidence obtained by wire-tapping must,

in my opinion, be sustained. It is, of course, immaterial where the

physical connection with the telephone wires leading into the defendant's

premises was made. And it is also immaterial that the intrusion was in aid

of law enforcement. Experience should teach us to be most on our guard to

protect liberty when the Government's purposes are beneficent. Men born to

freedom are naturally alert to repel invasion of their liberty by

evil-minded rulers. The greatest dangers to liberty lurk in insidious

encroachment by men of zeal, well-meaning but without understanding."

  - Justice Louis D. Brandeis, dissenting, Olmstead v. United States, 

    277 U.S. 479 (1928)







"Some folks have been saying recently, the real message is not so

much content at this point but: 'What do we want?  BANDWIDTH!  When do we

want it?  NOW!!' 500,000 people on the Capitol steps should do it."

  - Richard Civille (DC Dir., Center for Civic Networking), nii_agenda

    mailing list post, 02/23/94







"Don't hate the media.  Become the media."

  - Jello Biafra (formerly of the band Dead Kennedys.  Successfully fought

    an attempt to prosecute him, the group, and various record distributors

    over the inclusion of an allegedly obscene miniposter by Austrian master

    surrealist painter, H. R. Giger, in one of their albums.)







[The Clipper Chip scheme] "is a focal point for the distrust of goverment."

  - Clinton Brooks, NSA scientist who led the Clipper Chip project,

    _Wall_Street_Journal_ interview, 02/22/94

[No kidding, Clint.]







"I've been asked to explain why I don't worry much about the topics of

privacy threat...One reason is that these scenarios seem to assume that

there will be large, monolithic bureaucracies...that are capable of

harnessing computers for one-way surveillance of an unsuspecting

populace.  I've come to feel that computation just doesn't work that

way.  Being afraid of monolithic organizations especially when they have

computers, is like being afraid of really big gorillas especially when

they are on fire."

  - Bruce Sterling, remarks on commercial use of private information, 

    at Computers, Freedom and Privacy Conference IV, Chicago IL, Mar. 26,

    1994. [full transcript available at ftp.eff.org,

    /pub/Publications/Bruce_Sterling/cfp94_sterling.speech]







"Behind all the hype shaping the electronic highway are corporate

interests. These huge companies are doing the most natural thing

in the world to them; following their own corporate interest."

  - Herber Schiller, "Information Superhighway: Paving Over the Public",

    Z Magazine, March 1994







"A trickle-up model for the new information economy could be effective with

the proper filters (our own). Ideas bubbling up instead of homogenizing

memes raining down."

  - Scott Marshall, from FringeWare mailing list commentary, March 14, 1994







"The FBI wanted us to introduce the [1994 Digital Telephony] bill today and I

said absolutely not. They have to understand they have a Vermonter as the

Chairman Of the [Technology and Law] committee and that we Vermonters

respect our privacy."

  - Sen. Patrick Leahy, from James Bandler, "Eavesdropping Measure is

    Troubling to Leahy", _Rutland_Herald_, Mar. 27, 1994 







"Clipper is like a requirement that house keys be 'escrowed' with the

local police, or that all photos processed at the local drugstore be

double-printed, with copies sent to the local 'Photo Escrow Center.'

After all, how else can we catch child pornographers and other 'bad

guys'?...And what about those curtains that 'encrypt' the visible contents of

houses under surveillance?...Perhaps we need 'approved curtains'...And

what about the many crimes people confess in their diaries?...Surely many

crimes could be stopped if diaries, journals, and personal letters could be

'escrowed'--with suitable safeguards, of course, to ensure that only

legitimate inspections were done (for example, J. Edgar Hoover's need

to inspect diaries to find salacious sexual material).



"Some may call me 'shrill' for citing the above points. I don't think

so. We are at a kind of cusp in history, where privacy can either be

secured through strong crypto--despite the crimes that may go

undetected or unpunished because of this--or privacy can be handed

over to others to protect or not protect as they see fit."

  - Timothy C. May <tcmay@netcom.com>, Usenet post to talk.politics.crypto,

    Apr. 13, 1994







"If you say to people that they, as a matter of fact, can't protect their

conversations, in particular their political conversations, I think you

take a long step toward making a transition from a free society to a

totalitarian society."

  - Whitfield Diffie of Sun Microsystems, world renowned cryptographer,

    MacNeil/Lehrer News Hour, Thursday, 4/7/94







"There are no bad haircuts in cyberspace." 

  - Dave Barry







"Speaking or writing in forms not readily understandable to

your enemies, your neighbors, your spouse, the cops, or your local

eavesdropper is as old as humanity."

  - Timothy C. May <tcmay@netcom.com>, Usenet post to talk.politics.misc,

    Apr. 12, 1994







"How do we reconcile the promise of a new high-speed national medium with

the threat of a far-reaching, nationwide surveillance network, as

foreshadowed by the Clipper chip scheme and the draft Digital Telephony

bill?  Isn't sacrificing privacy to make policework easier a threat to the

principles this nation was founded upon?"

  - Stanton McCandlish <mech@eff.org>, EFF Online Activist, question posed to

    panellists at NII Public Interest Summit, Washington DC, Mar. 29, 1994







"Activism is the killer app for the net."

  - Steven Cherry <stc@panix.com>, .signature file (email footer).







"The part that frightens the hell out of me is the goverment deciding where

technology goes." 

  - Senator Patrick Leahy, on the FBI's proposed Digital Telephony

    surveillance legislation, in "Proposed wiretap law set off debate over

    Justice role", Kevin Power, _Government_Computer_News, Apr. 10, 1994







"Everybody has a different Internet." 

  - Bruce Sterling, from EFF-Austin BoD minutes, Apr. 12, 1994







"But groundless hope, like unconditional love, is the only kind worth having."

  - EFF co-founder John Perry Barlow, "Cynthia Horner's Eulogy", Apr. 1994







"Our fear of technology is really a fear of empowerment. We now have the

ability to design the reality we live in, and we have to step up to the

occasion."

  - Douglas Rushkoff, author of _CYBERIA_, 1994







"Europe is opposed to the Clipper chip because it fears that the FBI or

CIA could target European businesses... The global censorship plan has run

up against opposition from European and American businesses that use

encryption to send sensitive information.  In a position paper to a

consulate of European Union intelligence experts...the European organisation

representing users of computer security has rejected the Clinton initiative

as 'totally unacceptable'...the Information Security Business Advisory Group

(Ibag), warns European governments to ignore overtures from the US government

aimed at restricting access to the information superhighway to users who

use encryption that the government agencies can decode."

  - UK _Independent_ article, "Spooks all set to hack it on the

    superhighway", Mar. 5 1994







"There happened in the Middle Ages what has happened so often

since then. Those who were the beneficiaries of the established

order were bent on defending it, not so much, perhaps, because

it guaranteed their interests, as because it seemed to them

indispensable to the preservation of society."

  - Henri Pirenne, _Medieval_Cities,_Their_Origins_and_the_Revival_of_Trade_,

    1925







"I see in the near future a crisis approaching that unnerves me and causes

me to tremble for the safety of my country. . . .  Corporations have been

enthroned, an era of corruption in high places will follow, and the

money-power of the country will endeavor to prolong its reign by working

upon the prejudices of the people until the wealth is aggregated in a few

hands and the Republic is destroyed."

  - Abraham Lincoln (quoted in Jack London's "The Iron Heel").







"Whenever you have an efficient government, you have a dictatorship."    

  - Harry S. Truman







"1. Freedom of assembly and association as well as speech, press and all other

forms of expression are guaranteed.  2. No censorship shall be maintained,

nor shall the secrecy of any means of communication be violated."

  - Article 21, Constitution of Japan







"All people are by nature free and independent and have inalienable rights.

Among these are enjoying and defending life and liberty, acquiring,

possessing, and protecting property, and pursuing and obtaining safety,

happiness, and privacy."

  - Article 1, Section 1, Constitution of the State of California, USA 







"Did you learn how to think or how to believe?"

  - father of consumer advocate Ralph Nader, who asked the young Nader

    this while questioning him on what he had learned in school one day.

    Nader describes this as a seminal event in leading him to become a

    critic of corporate and government policies. (from an interview with

    Ralph Nader by David Barsamian)







"Democracy is not a spectator sport."

  - Craig Wilson







"There are a lot of dumb people with powerful tools."

  - Jonah Seiger, former EFF Program Coordinator, 1994

 

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