Re: EFF Statement on Leahy/Edwards Digital Telephony Bill

Date: Wed, 10 Aug 1994 11:32:15 PDT
From: Mark Stahlman (via RadioMail) 
To: Stanton McCandlish 
Cc: com-priv@psi.com, eff-activists@eff.org, comp-org-eff-talk@cs.utexas.edu,
Subject: Re: EFF Statement on Leahy/Edwards Digital Telephony Bill

Well, what a fine kettle of fish you've gotten yourselves into this time. EFF "supports" a Digital Telephony (wiretap) bill. Quick, who's got the smelling salts?

You've gone from "Jackboots on the InfoBahn" to "substantially less intrusive", "significant privacy advances" and "enhanced protection." And, just whose picture is that in the dictionary next to the definition of "cyberdupes" anyway?

After successfully defeating draconian legislation for years, EFF now helps to . . . draft the kinder-gentler wiretap bill. Because Leahy and Edwards "concluded that the passage of such a bill was inevitable this year", EFF is called upon to perform the one-eyed act in the land of the blind.

What happened from last year to this? Why was any bill "inevitable" in this Congress? Did EFF lose it's clout? Did the Information-SuperHypeway blitz (that EFF cynically fanned) help tip the balance?

I have no doubt that this bill is "better" than the FBI's proposal. I also have no doubt that the FBI knew that it's bill was only the starting point for the negotiations. And, if passed, this bill will certainly deliver to the FBI everything that it wants. That's the way Washington works. Wake up.

As I've said all along, EFF made themselves part of a process far larger, more powerful and more professional than they could ever become when they scrapped the chapters and moved to DC to become lobbyists. And, since the "groups" that EFF "represents" are not particularly powerful, EFF's efforts will inevitably be confined to providing language that helps the truly powerful groups (like the FBI -- which lest we forget is just the Clinton administration) get their way.

But don't be fooled. EFF is not an "opposition" group wrestling with the weighty issues of cyberspace politics. Despite the advertisements, EFF is not "hacking politics and then fixing it." They have opted to become an integral part of the "system". Is that a bad thing? Certainly not. The "system" delivers enormous benefits to most of it's citizens. And, it needs it's functionaries -- like EFF.

But, as Toffler would have put it, ours is a completely obsolete Second Wave "system" which needs to be radically transformed. Reread the concluding section of Toffler's "Third Wave" on 21st Century Democracy. Published in 1980, this book lays out the issues and predicts the outcomes that are still worthy of very serious debate, study and action.

The technologies we are so intimately involved with will inevitably lead to profound social and psychological changes which in turn will force the development of something akin to Toffler's "Third Wave" government. I don't know if it will be 20% or 50% the size of current government but it certainly won't tolerate anything like Gore's NII or this administration's Information Industrial Policy initiatives. Nor will it support a police force bent on wiretaps to catch electronic tax cheats -- a far more plausible motivation for this legislation than hunting porno-smuggling-kiddie-grabbing-terror-toting hairballs.

We need organizations (and individuals) which are dedicated to working on the thorny problems of inventing a new government which will be capable of supporting and defending a cyberspace economy. This is a process which is probably best conducted *outside* of the current "system". As EFF has shown us, the talk-show temptations of being an "insider" are just too powerful to be resisted. Principles don't matter when you're on the "inside". Clear, careful and even "radical" thinking doesn't help when the horse-trading takes over.

Re-read the EFF's founding principles, re-read "Across The Electronic Frontier." Then, compare the text with the reality. Take it as an object lesson in politics. Disappointed? Well, maybe that's part of growing up.

Hopefully, EFF will take up the case of the Milpitas porn-BBS conviction on appeal. Now that's real cyberspace politics! This administration (yes, they still run the DoJ) decided to attack cyberspace information rights by trying to impose the "community standards" of Memphis on all of cyberspace. A non-Internet connected private board with $99 annual fees was convicted of 11 counts of delivering porn over the phone (and acquitted of a kiddie porn count because the board refused to post the kiddie-GIFs the Feds sent them). Yes, there's plenty of important work left for EFF to do.

And, what about you? Start something new, something bold. Have the courage to just say no to cyber-crats and digital control freaks. Forget mortibund ideologies. Stop trying to summon Jefferson's (or Marx's or Rand's) ghost from the grave. Face up to the fact that we already live in a networked economy and that millions of people have already entered into Toffler's new "psycho-sphere". Pick up the tools at hand and take responsibility to invent the future. Your Softbot descendants will honor you for your valor.

Mark Stahlman
New Media Associates
New York City
stahlman@radiomail.net