Information Security News mailing list archives

Re: Re: dejavu, Re: Hijackers' e-mails were unencrypted


From: InfoSec News <isn () c4i org>
Date: Thu, 11 Oct 2001 06:16:25 -0500 (CDT)

Forwarded from: dont <dont () csds uidaho edu>

OK, major departure incoming... but a couple of points...

      It was once argued that our government could not possibly
succeed in placing limitations on its citizens' exercise of their
Second Amendment rights.  Now behold the municipalities,
commonwealths and states in which the right of the people to keep
and bear arms (which the Second Amendment clearly states _shall
not be infringed_) has been abrogated in the name of "public
safety."  Given that trend, it is more than idle speculation to
suggest that our lawmakers will walk down the same path on the
issue of cryptography.

Second Amendment states:  "A well regulated Militia, being necessary
to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and
bear Arms, shall not be infringed."  People just always seem to forget
the "well regulated Militia" part... and no, I don't want to start a
huge debate on the individual writings of the constitutional authors
and what they really meant... just noticing how few people mention the
first few words when "quoting" this Amendment.

As with most things in life, I can argue both ways on the gun
"control" issue...

      Given the glacial pace of our judicial system and the
lightning rate of our technological advances and vulnerability
discoveries, those two institutions are sorely incompatible if we
are to genuinely pursue meaningful security.  Let us not forget
that the Black Hats are not

I kinda hate the DMCA myself on several levels, but the Constitution
did not create our governmental system for EFFICIENCY.  It has,
however, guided us from horse power to nuclear power, and I have faith
it will continue to do so, through arguments in forums like this.  
Heck, it wasn't until the 17th Amendment (124 years later I think)
that Senators were elected by popular vote.

"We" just need to keep telling our elected folks what we think, and
things will change, eventually (nothing good really happens overnight
anyway).  We are the oldest representative democracy on the planet,
and about two-thirds of the constitutions in hte world now were
written since 1970.

We'll get this DMCA thing close to "right" eventually.


don tobin 
(PhD someday, soon, maybe...)
Center for Secure and Dependable Software
Univ of Idaho



-
ISN is currently hosted by Attrition.org

To unsubscribe email majordomo () attrition org with 'unsubscribe isn' in the BODY
of the mail.


Current thread: