Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!ut-emx!walt.cc.utexas.edu!mnemonic
From: mnemonic@walt.cc.utexas.edu (Mike Godwin)
Newsgroups: comp.org.eff.talk
Subject: Re: My suggestion
Message-ID: <36592@ut-emx.UUCP>
Date: 22 Aug 90 15:05:42 GMT
References: <36585@ut-emx.UUCP>
Sender: news@ut-emx.UUCP
Reply-To: mnemonic@walt.cc.utexas.edu (Mike Godwin)
Organization: The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas
Lines: 39

In article <36585@ut-emx.UUCP> lshaw@walt.cc.utexas.edu (logan shaw) writes:
>
>Also, does anybody know what the EFF's stand on this is?  Are they
>trying to keep law to a minimum amount of limitation, trying to
>make strong laws that protect everybody, or just trying to foster
>discussion to see what everyone wants?

I think it is safe to say that the Electronic Frontier Foundation 
wants whatever laws that *are* passed to reflect what the technology
and problems really are, and not what misinformed lawmakers imagine
they might be. For example, the law shouldn't assume that most hackers
are crooks and technovandals, and should recognize that computer hackers may
well represent the best and the brightest of our future human
capital.

>I for one cast a vote for keeping everything as free as it is.

One problem is that things aren't that free right now. There have
been a lot of show trials and show prosecutions this year, and
a lot of third parties have suffered as well. The seizures at 
Steve Jackson Games are only the most well-known example. In that seizure,
the Secret Service agents told Jackson that the manual for his 
role-playing game called GURPS Cyberpunk was actually a manual
for computer crime. Jackson's company has been crippled by the seizures
of their information and equipment, much of which was unnecessary.

>The internet is the best example of freedom of speech I've seen.

I agree, but the Internet is only part of what this is all about.


--Mike



Mike Godwin, UT Law School  |    --S is for 'Save me!'
No longer a bar-exam nerd   |    --T is for 'Take it slow!'
mnemonic@ccwf.cc.utexas.edu |    --O is for 'Oh, no!'
(512) 346-4190              |    --P is for 'Please, please don't go!'