more on Google Maps Imagery and National Security

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

Begin forwarded message:

From: Rob Raisch <info () raisch com>
Date: June 10, 2005 10:44:40 AM EDT
To: dave () farber net
Cc: Ip ip <ip () v2 listbox com>
Subject: Re: [IP] Google Maps Imagery and National Security


If we were to outlaw everything terrorists might use to perpetrate  
their crimes, we would live in a world without books, libraries,  
colleges, trade schools, computers, calculators, two-way radios, cell  
phones, wristwatches, alarm clocks, washing machines, microwave  
ovens, street maps, copper wire, transistors, cigarette lighters,  
matches...the list is almost endless.
As readers of this list might remember, one of my favorite topics is  
how people modify technology created for one purpose to serve  
another: Speak-N-Spell(tm)s used as instruments of experimental  
electronic music, Furby(tm)s hacked to say and do new things, BIC(tm)  
pens used to open im*pen*etrable bicycle locks.  Everyday it seems,  
we hear of some new, startling example of humanity's boundless  
ingenuity.

So it seems the problem of terrorism must be addressed within a  
larger context.

Rather than trying to control access to "dangerous" knowledge,  
shouldn't we be concentrating on understanding why dangerous people  
do the things they do, and apprehending them?  As I am sure we have  
all heard, Stewart Brand once said: "Information wants to be free",  
but I wonder how many of our elected officials really understand what  
this seemingly simple statement means.

/rr


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