Crime & Puzzlement [8/8]
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- Max Belankov (2:5054/2.31)
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- 1996-08-29T23:11Z
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Hello All!
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******
Defining the conceptual and legal map of Cyberspace before the
ambiguophobes do it for us (with punitive over-precision) is going to
require some effort. We can't expect the Constitution to take care of
itself. Indeed, the precedent for mitigating the Constitutional
protection of a new medium has already been established. Consider
what happened to radio in the early part of this century.
Under the pretext of allocating limited bandwidth, the government
established an early right of censorship over broadcast content which
still seems directly unconstitutional to me. Except that it stuck. And
now, owing to a large body of case law, looks to go on sticking.
New media, like any chaotic system, are highly sensitive to initial
conditions. Today's heuristical answers of the moment become
tomorrow's permanent institutions of both law and expectation.
Thus, they bear examination with that destiny in mind.
Earlier in this article, I asked a number of tough questions relating to
the nature of property, privacy, and speech in the digital domain.
Questions like: "What are data and what is free speech?" or "How
does one treat property which has no physical form and can be
infinitely reproduced?" or "Is a computer the same as a printing
press." The events of Operation Sun Devil were nothing less than an
effort to provide answers to these questions. Answers which would
greatly enhance governmental ability to silence the future's
opinionated nerds.
In over-reaching as extravagantly as they did, the Secret Service may
actually have done a service for those of us who love liberty. They
have provided us with a devil. And devils, among their other
galvanizing virtues, are just great for clarifying the issues and putting
iron in your spine. In the presence of a devil, it's always easier to
figure out where you stand.
While I previously had felt no stake in the obscure conundra of free
telecommunication, I was, thanks to Operation Sun Devil, suddenly
able to plot a trajectory from the current plight of the Legion of Doom
to an eventual constraint on opinions much dearer to me. I
remembered Martin Neimoeller, who said:
"In Germany they came first for the Communists, and I didn't speak up
because I wasn't a Communist. Then they came for the Jews, and I didn't
speak up because I wasn't a Jew. They came for the trade unionists, and I
didn't speak up because I wasn't a trade unionist. Then they came for the
Catholics, and I didn't speak up because I was a Protestant. Then they came
for me, and by that time no one was left to speak up."
I decided it was time for me to speak up.
The evening of my visit from Agent Baxter, I wrote an account of it
which I placed on the WELL. Several days later, Mitch Kapor
literally dropped by for a chat.
Also a WELL denizen, he had read about Agent Baxter and had
begun to meditate on the inappropriateness of leaving our civil
liberties to be defined by the technologically benighted. A man who
places great emphasis on face-to-face contact, he wanted to discuss
this issue with me in person. He had been flying his Canadair bizjet
to a meeting in California when he realized his route took him
directly over Pinedale.
We talked for a couple of hours in my office while a spring
snowstorm swirled outside. When I recounted for him what I had
learned about Operation Sun Devil, he decided it was time for him to
speak up too.
He called a few days later with the phone number of a civil
libertarian named Harvey Silverglate, who, as evidence of his
conviction that everyone deserves due process, is currently
defending Leona Helmsley. Mitch asked me to tell Harvey what I
knew, with the inference that he would help support the costs which
are liable to arise whenever you tell a lawyer anything.
I found Harvey in New York at the offices of that city's most
distinguished constitutional law firm, Rabinowitz, Boudin, Standard,
Krinsky, and Lieberman. These are the folks who made it possible
for the New York Times to print the Pentagon Papers. (Not to dwell
on the unwilling notoriety which partner Leonard Boudin achieved
back in 1970 when his Weathergirl daughter blew up the family
home...)
In the conference call which followed, I could almost hear the skeletal
click as their jaws dropped. The next day, Eric Lieberman and Terry
Gross of Rabinowitz, Boudin met with Acid Phreak, Phiber Optik,
and Scorpion.
The maddening trouble with writing this account is that Whole Earth
Review, unlike, say, Phrack, doesn't publish instantaneously. Events
are boiling up at such a frothy pace that anything I say about current
occurrences surely will not obtain by the time you read this. The
road from here is certain to fork many times. The printed version of
this will seem downright quaint before it's dry.
But as of today (in early June of 1990), Mitch and I are legally
constituting the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a two (or possibly
three) man organization which will raise and disburse funds for
education, lobbying, and litigation in the areas relating to digital
speech and the extension of the Constitution into Cyberspace.
Already, on the strength of preliminary stories about our efforts in
the Washington Post and the New York Times, Mitch has received an
offer from Steve Wozniak to match whatever funds he dedicates to
this effort. (As well as a fair amount of abuse from the more
institutionalized precincts of the computer industry.)
The Electronic Frontier Foundation will fund, conduct, and support
legal efforts to demonstrate that the Secret Service has exercised prior
restraint on publications, limited free speech, conducted improper
seizure of equipment and data, used undue force, and generally
conducted itself in a fashion which is arbitrary, oppressive, and
unconstitutional.
In addition, we will work with the Computer Professionals for Social
Responsibility and other organizations to convey to both the public
and the policy-makers metaphors which will illuminate the more
general stake in liberating Cyberspace.
Not everyone will agree. Crackers are, after all, generally beyond
public sympathy. Actions on their behalf are not going to be popular
no matter who else might benefit from them in the long run.
Nevertheless, in the litigations and political debates which are certain
to follow, we will endeavor to assure that their electronic speech is
protected as certainly as any opinions which are printed or, for that
matter, screamed. We will make an effort to clarify issues
surrounding the distribution of intellectual property. And we will
help to create for America a future which is as blessed by the Bill of
Rights as its past has been.
John Perry Barlow
barlow@well.sf.ca.us
Friday, June 8, 1990
=== Cut ===
With best wishes,
Max
Kime: Устаpели не только ответы, но даже сами вопpосы.
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* Origin: Кто к нам с чем -- тот оттого и того... (2:5054/2.31)