FC: More on porn sites, CyberCash, and Virginia governor race

[Declan McCullagh <declan () well com>]

Pat muses: "Sometimes I wonder why anyone of talent and intelligence is 
interested in politics." One possible answer: As a defensive measure?

Background: http://www.politechbot.com/p-02129.html

-Declan

*********

Date: Mon, 11 Jun 2001 03:12:01 -0400
To: declan () well com, amicus () well com
From: Pat Farrell <pfarrell () pfarrell com>
Subject: Re: FC: Porn sites, CyberCash entangle Virginia candidates for
  governor
Cc: pfarrell () pfarrell com
In-Reply-To: <5.0.2.1.0.20010609121128.00a0bc30 () mail well com>

At 12:59 AM 6/11/2001 -0400, you wrote:
> Earley returned a campaign donation from Bruce Waldack; he's urging Warner 
> to return a donation from Bill Melton.... Earley apparently has it on good 
> authority that CyberCash's electronic payment services have been used by 
> (brace yourself) porn sites!

As someone who worked at CyberCash for 3+ years, I can assure
you that they didn't have nearly enough porn sites, or they would
not have gone bankrupt. (I wish I could :-) but I can't...

>>You might wish to make a note of these possible controversial 
entanglements, for disclosure >>as warranted by future political ambitions.

This is really a serious observation. The Post's coverage was (1) boring 
and (2) indecipherable.

What are the issues here? That character distruction is now easy?
That giving to a campaign makes you a public figure?

The fact is that CyberCash's highest volume merchants were porn sites.
That is due not to CyberCash's brilliance, but rather to the simple fact that
on today's net, nobody but porn sites are making money. What is equally true
is that even selling services to the porn sites didn't make any real money.

Melton drew no salary at CyberCash. The company made no money.
Melton did make money on the IPO during the feeding frenzy. I sure wish I had
gotten in on that....

Sometimes I wonder why anyone of talent and intelligence is interested in 
politics.

Pat




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