History of the Electronic Frontier Foundation

Well, no one submitted it (guess no one reads the LA Times), but from the Red Rock Eater list we have a link to Freedom Fighters of the Digital World, a laudatory history of the EFF. Read it, live it, remember it when you think "I can't make a difference".

Comments

Print it out and make it your bible!

[lcorc79]

In this post 9/11 world, sure - we need to think about security. But we need to remember PRIVACY! and all other freedoms we too-often take for granted.

If most of us addicted to /. would take less time reading and bitching about all of these issues and spent some time actually lobbying and petitioning and holding rational discussions/debates on all levels (from the neighborhood greasy spoon to Washington), we'd see more of a difference.

Don't like the Rosens of this world? [MP|RI]AA got you down? Worried about Carnivore? Take this not just as a reminder of an important (and neglected/forgotten) part of the net's history, but as a battle call...

Seriously. Let's do something, instead of bitching. Don't post a comment unless you're going to write a congressman/woman or sign a petition today. I'm going right now...

Peace.

Re:Opportunists

[KjetilK]

Americans feel safer because we are actively pursuing our enemies.

But does it have any effect? Do you really think what you do has any effect on their abilities? I seriously doubt it.

Also, just think about the numbers: Salon had an article about a twelve year-old kid who had his entire family killed. Now, the only thing he wants to do with his life is kill as many americans as he possibly can. One thing you've got to ask yourself: Do you blame him? You killed his family, do you blame him for wanting to kill you? There is a lot of wisdom in "If we hate them, we will become them."

While his ability to do so is small, there are thousands like him. If any of them can succeed in their life project, this is not the only time you're going to get hit. Yeah, and it doesn't really take that much to set off a nuclear bomb.

Actually, what I find most discomforting about this whole matter is how surprised everyone seems to be. That the US would be attacked with a Hollywood-style terrorist attack is hardly surprising, terrorists have always wanted to do things like that. There was a really good cartoon about that in Ernie, I guess about 1993-1994, where terrorists wanted to buy Sid's vacuum cleaner to suck up NYC. That they would use planes to crash into buildings, well, novels have been written on the topic. That the US would move to attack somebody is not surprising at all, we all knew that would happen. I've been predicting for years that the US would eventually move to complete what the Russians didn't do in Afghanistan, namely insert the regime they wanted in Kabul. But I must admit that I am slightly surprised it went that fast.

Nor is it surprising to note that civil liberties are attacked, there are strong forces who always wanted that, and they only needed the public's attention.

Finally, the public opinion engineering that has been going on, wow, it's just like in Wag The Dog... What a prescient movie.

You know, most people haven't cared about cryptography at all, so policy has been a tradeoff between the wishes of the hawks and the rational arguments of cryptologists. Of course crypotologists knew perfectly well that crypto can be used by terrorists, but the argument remains: Crypto is making society stronger against attacks, not weaker.

Now, the hawks pretend that something fundamental changed, and so they are getting the public up against crypto. There are no new arguments, there has not been any surprises, it is just that the hawks has got the uninformed public behind them, whereas previously, the public didn't care.