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- From: risks@CSL.SRI.COM (RISKS Forum)
- Newsgroups: comp.risks
- Subject: RISKS DIGEST 14.07
- Message-ID: <CMM.0.90.1.722133955.risks@chiron.csl.sri.com>
- Date: 19 Nov 92 00:45:55 GMT
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-
- RISKS-LIST: RISKS-FORUM Digest Weds 17 November 1992 Volume 14 : Issue 07
-
- FORUM ON RISKS TO THE PUBLIC IN COMPUTERS AND RELATED SYSTEMS
- ACM Committee on Computers and Public Policy, Peter G. Neumann, moderator
-
- Contents:
- Re: Recommended POLL FAULTING by RISKS folks (Rebecca Mercuri)
- Cordless phone users gain some privacy rights (Jerry Leichter)
- How to tell people about risks? (Xavier Xantico)
- Risks of DYI Home movies (Alex Heatley)
- Re: A320 descent anomalies -- reported in French press (Pete Mellor)
- Redressing the record on English system maintenance (James H. Paul)
- Re: Safe Conduct (Ken Tindell)
- Re: Risks of cellular phones in aircraft (James Olsen, Dan Sorenson, Bob Rahe)
- Re: Key registration: a naive thought about encryption (Martyn Thomas)
- Re: RISKS of technical people disengaging brain, encryption, outlaws ...
- (Mike Dixon, Dan Swartzendruber, Ken Arromdee, John Sullivan,
- Robert Hartman)
-
- The RISKS Forum is moderated. Contributions should be relevant, sound, in
- good taste, objective, coherent, concise, and nonrepetitious. Diversity is
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-
- ALL CONTRIBUTIONS CONSIDERED AS PERSONAL COMMENTS; USUAL DISCLAIMERS APPLY.
- Relevant contributions may appear in the RISKS section of regular issues
- of ACM SIGSOFT's SOFTWARE ENGINEERING NOTES, unless you state otherwise.
-
- ----------------------------------------------------------------------
-
- Date: Tue, 17 Nov 92 20:21:42 EST
- From: mercuri@gradient.cis.upenn.edu (Rebecca Mercuri)
- Subject: Re: POLL FAULTING recommended for RISKS folks (Baube, RISKS-14.07)
-
- I browsed some of the recent postings on RISKS regarding what appeared to be
- voting "anomalies" and had been keeping my typing fingers firmly clenched in my
- fists for fear of provoking another flame war (now that the Denning one seems
- to have abated). As I had published recently on the subject of electronic
- voting (CACM Nov 1992 Inside Risks; Virus & Security Conference, March 1992),
- have been involved in voting matters for close to a decade as an elected
- official (committeeperson), and have provided expert witness testimonies, your
- moderator requested that I comment on this subject. Here then, is my advice:
-
- 1. Read the state and local election codes (they may differ).
- You may find that in your municipality it is perfectly "legal" to
- have misaligned ballots and other more egregious problems, simply
- because the law does not specifically preclude such things. Copies
- of the laws should be available at your county or city courthouse.
-
- 2. Raise a LEGITIMATE protest.
- This might include:
- a) Lobbying to get the laws changed if you think they are inadequate.
- b) Petitioning the courts to have elections thrown out, or recounts,
- if you think that there has been a breach of the law.
- c) Getting press coverage.
-
- 3. Get involved at the grass roots level.
- Although many municipalities saw a > 80% turnout of _registered_
- voters at the polls this November, the Spring primaries will likely
- see < 20% of those same voters returning. It is typically in the
- off-year races where people who will be appointing the members of your
- Boards of Elections (who oversee the process) will be getting elected.
- Vigilance is a year-round process. Although it is quite eye-opening to
- work at the polls THROUGHOUT election day (not just at the beginning or
- end of the day), what occurs during the other 363 days of the year
- often sets the stage for what happens at the polling places. If you
- have no idea how to get involved, start by perusing your telephone
- book for the numbers of local officials, and your newspapers for
- announcements of political or civic gatherings.
-
- And while I am on the soap-box...
-
- 4. Spend considerably more time WORKING for the causes you care about than
- you do reading or writing about them (on bbs or email).
- The problems of elections and computer risks (as well as poverty,
- unemployment, hunger, discrimination, violence, ...) are not going to
- be solved if we sit here at our terminals relaying anecdotes around
- the world at NSF (and other government-funded) expense. If you are
- not ACTIVELY contributing to the solution, you are part of the problem.
- Many of the RISKS postings point to the inadequacy of software
- engineering methodologies and practices, yet few colleges and
- universities offer COMPREHENSIVE courses in SW Eng. and far fewer
- REQUIRE them as part of core curricula for the next generation of EE
- and CS professionals. Many of the problems with computerized vote-
- counting are directly related to failures in verification, validation
- and auditability (all familiar words to Software Engineers). If you are
- concerned about reducing risks, get out there and make it happen.
-
- I regret, in advance, that I will not be able to reply to private emails
- relating to the above posting, as my bandwidth is severely impacted due to
- writing a dissertation. If you feel moved to comment, please relay such to
- RISKS and Neumann will filter them as appropriate. I hope that at least one
- person will write (in a few months, because that is how long it will take) that
- they did ALL of points 1, 2, 3, and 4 and report on their results.
-
- Rebecca Mercuri.
-
- Copyright (c) 1992 by Rebecca Mercuri. All Rights Reserved.
- Permission granted to RISKS FORUM for posting, and ELECTRONIC reposting
- is permitted in its ENTIRETY, with this notice intact. Printed (hard-)
- copy may only be made for personal (non-profit) use. The author retains
- all rights to the material herein.
-
- ------------------------------
-
- Date: Wed, 18 Nov 92 11:26:21 EDT
- From: Jerry Leichter <leichter@lrw.com>
- Subject: Cordless phone users gain some privacy rights
-
- Cordless telephone users, whose conversations have been easy prey for
- electronic eavesdroppers, finally won a degree of privacy in a federal
- appeals-court ruling.
-
- The Fifth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, in a criminal case, said that when
- such phone users reasonably expect their conversations to be private, the
- government can't listen in. But the court said the Fourth Amendment privacy
- right must be evaluated case by case, depending on such factors as whether the
- phone user had sought privacy by purchasing devices intended to foil
- eavesdroppers or by using phones known to be more difficult to tap.
-
- The ruling is apparently the first in which a federal court has allowed
- cordless-phone users any privacy rights. Previously, other appeals courts have
- said the phones are so easy to eavesdrop on - with an AM/FM radio or even with
- another cordless phone - that any expectation of privacy was ridiculous.
-
- The Eight U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in the late 1980s that
- eavesdropping was allowed, and the U.S. Supreme Court declined to review the
- decision.
-
- The New Orleans court noted that the previous opinions are all several years
- old, and that the technology has since advanced in the $1.39 billion
- cordless-phone market. Some phones on store shelves now, for instance, come
- with scrambling devices made to combat high-tech eavesdroppers. Other phones
- work within shorter ranges, so their frequencies can't be as easily intercepted
- as they were in the past. More than 18 million cordless phones are expected to
- be sold this year....
-
- "The reasonableness of expectations of privacy for a cordless phone
- conversation will depend, in large part, upon the specific telephone at issue,"
- the court said. It declined to spell out the technological features it
- considered most relevant.
-
- [The actual drug conviction, based on information recorded by a neighbor, was
- upheld since no evidence about the phone had been introduced.]
-
- Privacy-rights lawyers applauded the broader ruling, which they said is a step
- toward preventing eavesdropping by private citizens as well as police. The
- lawyers noted that cellular-phone conversations already are protected [though
- technically they are as easy to intercept.] ...
-
- [N]ow that cordless phones are more secure, they should be treated the same as
- cellular phones, Ms. [Janlori] Goldman [of the ACLU] said. "People who use
- these different kinds of phones do not make these kinds of distinctions," she
- said. "One circuit is willing to recognize that this might be an absurd
- distinction." ...
-
- [For those interested, the case citation is U.S. vs. David Lee Smith, Fifth
- U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, New Orleans, 91-5077.
-
- Can we expect future Willie Horton's who beat the rap to get hired by the maker
- of their phone to tout it as "private - and a court agreed?"]
- -- Jerry
-
- ------------------------------
-
- Date: 18 Nov 92 18:06:12+0100
- From: "Xavier Xantico QZ (=J. P a l m e QZ)" <./S=J.P.SKHB/G=S.@heron.dafa.se>
- Subject: How to tell people about risks?
-
- A problem with risks is that it is difficult to communicate information about
- risks to people. If, for example, a doctor says to a patient "there is a very
- small risk that this pill will cause liver problems" then many patients
- interpret this as if the doctor had said "there is a large risk that this pill
- will cause liver problems". So doctors usually do not tell the patients such
- information, because the patients so often misinterpret the information.
-
- Any comment on how to communicate risk information so that people get a correct
- understanding, especially when you are informing people about very small risks?
-
- ------------------------------
-
- Date: Thu, 19 Nov 92 11:03:03 +1300
- From: Alex Heatley <Alex.Heatley@vuw.ac.nz>
- Subject: Risks of DYI Home movies
-
- Recently in Auckland, Aotearoa (New Zealand) the police were involved
- in an unusual case. It seems that several people burgled a house and among the
- items taken was a set of videotapes. The tapes contained home-made pornographic
- movies involving the inhabitants of the burgled house. The burglars then
- attempted to use their possession of the tapes to blackmail the "actors" into
- paying for the return of the tapes. Unfortunately when the burglars arrived at
- the payment drop off point they were met by the NZ Police, who seized them and
- the tapes.
- Any sighs of relief that the "actors" might have had were short-lived.
- The burglars counter-charged that the tapes contained scenes of child
- pornography and bestiality which made them indecent under NZ Law. The result
- was that several police "had" to view 40 hours of video recordings to verify
- whether these claims were or were not correct (it turned out that the
- recordings did not contain any child pornography or bestiality).
- The tapes were returned to the, by now, extremely embarrassed "actors".
- With the increase in home computers capable of using frame grabbing software to
- create digitised pictures and the almost insatiable desire of the networks to
- spread any and all such pictures, the "actors" involved in this case were very
- lucky that their images didn't end up adding to the network traffic statistics
- for alt.sex.pictures.erotic.
- Of course, if the original tapes had been encrypted, this embarrassment
- would never have occurred... or would it?
-
- Alex Heatley Computing Services Centre, Victoria University of Wellington, P.O
- Box 600, New Zealand. Alex.Heatley@vuw.ac.nz
- [The proof is done. KiWiD. PGN]
-
- ------------------------------
-
- Date: Tue, 17 Nov 92 17:33:30 GMT
- From: Pete Mellor <pm@cs.city.ac.uk>
- Subject: A320 descent anomalies reported in French press
-
- ---------------------------Le Monde------------------------
-
- Translated from Le Monde, 10-30-92 from the "Faits Divers" column.
- Translation by John Lupien (jrl@world.stdl.com)
-
- Incident during the descent of an Airbus A-320 of Air Inter
- -----------------------------------------------------------
-
- The crew of an Airbus A320 who were making in September a flight between
- Clermont-Ferrand and Paris-Orly were surprised to witness an aberration in the
- vertical speed of descent of the equipment. Having chosen a mode of descent of
- 550 meters per minute, they noticed that the plane was losing 750 meters per
- minute, and that when they tried to correct that value to 450 meters per
- minute, the rate worsened to 850 meters per minute. The pilots at that point
- changed their procedure and chose an angle (rather than a rate) of descent and
- everything went back to normal.
-
- The cause of the incident can be imputed to defective design in the interface
- between the flight controller and the auto-pilot, both developed by the French
- Sextant-Avionique and by the German BGT and with which other types of planes
- such as the Airbus A-300 and A-310 are equipped with. This kind of fault is not
- frequent, but it is one of the anomalies that the crew is trained to correct.
-
- This incident would have passed unnoticed if certain pilots had not made it
- public to point out a relationship to the aerial catastrophe of Mount
- Saint-Odile which happened in January, when 87 persons were killed in the crash
- of an Airbus A-320 of Air Inter. The first findings of the commission of
- inquiry had perhaps made it appear that the crew was mistaken in the choice of
- descent mode towards the airport of Strasbourg and that they had not monitored
- their trajectory.
-
- Translator's comment - The translation is as literal as I could manage...
- Certain bits such as "esquisser un rapprochement" perhaps translate not
- so well...
-
- ---------------------------End Le Monde-------------------------
-
- -----------------------------Figaro-----------------------------
-
- Translated from Le Figaro, 10-30-92 from the "En Bref" ("In Brief") column.
- Translation by John Lupien (jrl@world.std.com)
-
- AIRBUS
-
- Electronics in question
- -----------------------
-
- Judge Francois Guichard, in charge of the investigation of the accident of
- Mount Saint-Odile, which killed 87 last January 20, indicated on Thursday
- evening in Toulouse that the recent incident in the descent mode of an A320 of
- Air Inter "Could a priori appear to be one of the reasons that caused the
- accident". The magistrate referred to the failure of the electronic control
- systems for the mode of descent of an A320 of Air Inter which, in September,
- took a much steeper descent than that chosen [by the pilots].
-
- ----------------------end Figaro--------------------------
-
- My thanks to John for these two translations.
-
- Peter Mellor, Centre for Software Reliability, City University, Northampton
- Sq., London EC1V 0HB, Tel: +44(0)71-477-8422, JANET: p.mellor@city.ac.uk
-
- ------------------------------
-
- Date: Wed, 18 Nov 1992 12:25:16 -0500 (EST)
- From: PAUL@NOVA.HOUSE.GOV (James H. Paul)
- Subject: Redressing the record on English system maintenance (RISKS-14.06)
-
- > From: Scott Dorsey <kludge@agcb.larc.nasa.gov>
- > To: paul@nova.house.gov
- > Subject: DC-3
- >
- > In a recent Risks digest, you mention that if more than three production
- > aircraft are still flying, it's a requirement that avionics become available,
- > and use the Honeywell equipment for the DC-3 as an example. This is not a
- > good example at all, since there are almost two thousand DC-3 aircraft flying
- > in the US alone, as well as many more abroad. The DC-3 remains a reliable
- > workhorse of an aircraft; easy to fly and inexpensive to maintain. A large
- > amount of current cargo lines still have DC-3s for use to smaller airports
- > where larger jets cannot land, and in fact there are still turboprop retrofit
- > kits available for the DC-3.
- >
- > Nonetheless, this is not as much of a problem as you might expect, both
- > because most avionics are fairly standardized, and because the low production
- > volume means that most of them are handmade on a one-off basis.
- > --scott
-
- After receiving the message above, I went back to my posting in RISKS-14.06.
- Those who aren't able to find the article could very well misinterpret the
- comment about avionics support requirements. My summary improperly tied actual
- system problems in various applications to a different concern about long-term
- support for aircraft avionics. The author cited the DC-3 (Dakota to
- Englishmen) as the example of how long the a company might find itself in
- harness to produce vintage equipment. Dorsey is, of course, correct about the
- treasured status of the venerable DC-3, and the profit to be made from the
- large number of planes left. The article's discussion focused more on the
- close fit between autopilot and aircraft necessary for certification and the
- likely difficulties this would pose as the more computer-literate aircraft of
- the jet age continue to carry us around the world and the avionics firms try to
- keep the control systems up-to-date. I did a poor job of setting the context.
-
- ------------------------------
-
- Date: Wed, 18 Nov 92 12:26:20
- From: ken@minster.york.ac.uk
- Subject: Re: Safe Conduct (RISKS-14.05)
-
- This will have very important consequences for UK industry. For example, none
- of the UK motor industry considers computing in cars as safety critical, and
- hence do not use appropriate techniques for developing software ("a bunch of
- cowboy hackers" was one description of the software developers in one company).
- Of course, with this new law (which is EC wide) it won't be up to the industry
- to deign if something is safety critical or not, it will be up to the law
- courts. If I were an executive in the car industry I would be quaking in my
- shoes at the moment..
-
- Ken Tindell Internet : ken@minster.york.ac.uk Computer Science Dept., York
- University, YO1 5DD, UK : +44-904-433244 Local FTP site: minster.york.ac.uk
-
- ------------------------------
-
- Date: Tue, 17 Nov 92 10:27:44 -0500
- From: olsen@hing.LCS.MIT.EDU (James Olsen)
- Subject: Re: Risks Of Cellular Speech
-
- In RISKS-14.04, Robert Gezelter writes:
-
- >While I believe that it is true that the use of Cellular phones is
- >prohibited in aircraft ... I seem to remember that the rationale is
- >aviation related, not Cellular Phone related.
-
- There are, in fact, two separate risks involved here, and two separate
- regulations to control them. In-flight users can impose an excessive load on a
- a cellular phone system by accessing many cells at once; therefore the FCC has
- recently prohibited airborne use of cellular phones (see 57 FR 830).
-
- There is also a more general risk of any portable electronic equipment
- used in aircraft, since it has not been tested for interference with
- the electronic systems in the aircraft. FAA regulation 91.21
- therefore prohibits the use of portable electronic equipment (with
- minor exceptions) in an airliner unless the airline has determined
- that it will not cause interference. Many airlines have issued
- blanket permission for items such as tape players and laptop
- computers, but I am unaware of any that yet allow the use of cellular
- phones, even on the ground, where they would otherwise be legal.
-
- Jim Olsen olsen@cag.lcs.mit.edu "Tache d'etre heureux."
-
- ------------------------------
-
- Date: Thu, 12 Nov 1992 05:11:25 GMT
- From: viking@iastate.edu (Dan Sorenson)
- Subject: Re: Risks Of Cellular Speech (Gezelter, RISKS-14.04)
-
- > ... To be exact, my recollection is that the frequencies used by
- >Cellular are fairly close to some of the frequencies used by the avionics.
-
- This is my understanding too, but note that this was extended on some
- airlines to laptop computers and even some hand-held video games. Midwest
- Express, a rather expensive but high-quality business-oriented airline, has
- cellular phones in each seat. I suspect it's not the frequency of the cellular
- phone transmission that worries the airlines, but rather the electro-magnetic
- or RF interference it might play with the IFR systems or possibly the
- electronic controls on the aircraft.
-
- The risk here would be allowing non-certified phones on board, whereas
- airline-supplied phones can be easily tested by the airline.
-
- Dan Sorenson, DoD #1066 z1dan@exnet.iastate.edu viking@iastate.edu
-
- ------------------------------
-
- Date: Tue, 17 Nov 1992 13:13:27 -0500
- From: bob@hobbes.dtcc.edu (Bob Rahe)
- Subject: Re: Cellular phones in aircraft
-
- In RISKS-14.05, berry@athos.pei.com (Berry Kercheval) writes:
-
- |>The blanket ban *is* due to cell overlap, then, and my guess is the reason
- |>there is not an altitude restriction is that it's too hard to figure out; the
- |>number of cells reached is a complex function of altitude, position of the
- |>aircraft and cells, and the topography of the surrounding landscape. I can
- |>just picture the FCC bureaucrat saying ``Hell, that's too hard. Let's just ban
- |>'em all.''.
-
- Now I'm all for blasting bureaucrats but this shot seems a bit gratuitous.
- Just how might a regulation be written that would allow cellular use from
- aircraft given the complexity of deciding? Would I have to carry my (possibly
- banned) portable computer with a CD-ROM geographical database of cells in
- the US (or wherever I was travelling) along in order to calculate whether I
- could make a call? Actually, it sounds as tho the bureaucrat is correct. It
- is too hard to be reasonably done.
-
- Bob Rahe, Delaware Tech&Comm College Internet: bob@hobbes.dtcc.edu
- CompuServe: 72406,525 Genie:BOB.RAHE
-
- ------------------------------
-
- Date: Mon, 16 Nov 92 11:03:33 GMT
- From: Martyn Thomas <mct@praxis.co.uk>
- Subject: a naive thought about encryption
-
- The security services are using a lot of very expensive resources to decrypt
- intercepted messages (Spycatcher revealed that all telephone traffic and all
- radio traffic was routinely monitored and recorded in the 1950s to 1970s -
- so this is probably still true, or close to true).
-
- If you don't *need* your messages to be secure from the Government, why not
- give them a break and agree to a key registration scheme? Arguments that
- this will always be defeated by the criminals seem to ignore the help that
- the law-abiding can give by making the unco-operative easier to identify,
- and thereby freeing decryption effort.
-
- Isn't there a balance between distrust of Government,(however justified) and
- a need to help the law-enforcers to enforce the laws that keep society
- civilised?
-
- We are the experts in this technology. What can we propose that gives a
- proper balance between privacy and law-enforcement?
-
- Martyn Thomas, Praxis plc, 20 Manvers Street, Bath BA1 1PX UK.
- Tel: +44-225-444700. Email: mct@praxis.co.uk
-
- ------------------------------
-
- Date: Tue, 17 Nov 1992 13:26:16 PST
- From: Mike Dixon <mdixon@parc.xerox.com>
- Subject: Re: RISKS of technical people disengaging brain
-
- >Most of us are in professions where logic is of some importance. It hurts
- >credibility to declare in public, "I *don't* believe" a tautology.
-
- in a very aptly-titled Risks submissions, Dan Herrick purports to make a
- contribution to a serious social discussion (the effectiveness of gun control)
- with a trivial "logic" analysis. this is the kind of argument that gives
- technical people a bad name.
-
- the statement "When guns are outlawed, only outlaws will have guns" isn't a
- tautology on anything but the shallowest reading (hint: people usually don't
- bother to assert tautologies). it's an assertion that dangerous, threatening,
- bad people will have guns and good, honest citizens won't be able to defend
- themselves. some people believe it, some don't; only extreme technical
- blindness would allow someone to think the question could be dismissed with a
- puff of logic. *that's* what hurts credibility (and that's perhaps the least
- of its risks).
- .mike.
-
- ------------------------------
-
- Date: 17 Nov 1992 16:12:12 GMT
- From: dswartz@lectroid.sw.stratus.com (Dan Swartzendruber)
- Subject: Re: RISKS DIGEST 14.05
-
- On the subject of "RISKS of technical people disengaging brains", I'm afraid
- Mr. Herrick has fallen victim to over-literalism. I've used this expression
- more than once, and I'm perfectly aware of the tautology. The point he is
- missing is that many natural languages contain grammatical constructs which if
- analyzed grammatically, are either tautologies or self-contradictory. This
- doesn't automatically make them nonsense or their users fuzzy-thinking fools.
- I think most native English speakers understand intuitively the implied clause
- which follows statements of the form "If/when they outlaw X, only outlaws will
- have X". If he doesn't, I'm sure he can find any number of people (possibly
- even without advanced degrees) who would be more than happy to explain it to
- him.
- Dan S.
-
- ------------------------------
-
- Date: Tue, 17 Nov 1992 03:59:02 GMT
- From: arromdee@jyusenkyou.cs.jhu.edu (Ken Arromdee)
- Subject: Re: RISKS DIGEST 14.05
-
- It's not a tautology. One reasonable interpretation of the statement is that
- "if X is outlawed, only people who are already outlaws of other types will use
- X".
-
- I suppose this indicates a RISK of some sort, though I don't really feel like
- phrasing it fully.
-
- Ken Arromdee (UUCP: ....!jhunix!arromdee; BITNET: arromdee@jhuvm;
- INTERNET: arromdee@jyusenkyou.cs.jhu.edu)
-
- ------------------------------
-
- Date: Tue, 17 Nov 92 17:46:13 -0600
- From: sullivan@geom.umn.edu
- Subject: Re: RISKS of technical people disengaging brain
-
- Dan Herrick, dlh%dlhpfm@NCoast.org, misses the deeper meanings of the statement
- "if X is outlawed, only outlaws will use X". Of course, there is a tautologous
- interpretation, explained by Herrick. But when X is refers to guns, this
- statement has been used to imply many things that are not tautologies.
- Far-right lobbying groups have used this slogan to imply that any waiting
- period, or other reasonable restriction on the purchase of deadly weapons,
- would lead merely to difficulties for "law-abiding citizens" while having no
- effect on criminals.
-
- I'm sure the original author (Phil Karn, karn@qualcomm.com) was merely trying
- to disassociate himself from such "fuzzy thinking", by pointing out that what
- might be true for cryptography might not be true for guns.
-
- Statements in a language like English are very rarely tautologies: they
- always carry around extra baggage.
-
- -John Sullivan, sullivan@geom.umn.edu
-
- ------------------------------
-
- Date: Tue, 17 Nov 92 20:02:00 GMT
- From: infmx!hartman@uunet.UU.NET (Robert Hartman)
- Subject: Re: RISKS-14.05: Logic vs. Clever Slogans
-
- Actually, this statement is not, strictly speaking, a tautology. It isn't
- even, strictly speaking, a statement of logic. Why? Because its truth value
- depends not on its logical form, but on the meaning of its terms.
-
- In particular, the meaning of the term "outlaw" is telling. It is one thing to
- break the law. It is quite another to "be an outlaw." Ordinary citizens break
- laws. Some even scoff at certain laws, and other still skirt the letter of the
- law while seeing its value and holding to its intent. But "being an outlaw"
- implies a habitual disdain or disregard for the law--which is why the clever
- originators of that slogan use that word in order to frighten ordinary citizens
- into opposing restrictions on their ability to purchase guns. It's funny how
- much less impact the slogan has when you replace "guns" with "encryption."
-
- While it's true that if you make codes or guns more difficult to obtain, only
- those with stronger motivation will obtain them. Nevertheless, one need not be
- an outlaw to vehemently desire both protection and privacy.
- -r
-
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- End of RISKS-FORUM Digest 14.07
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