[CLUE-Talk] Colorado Law might prohibit firewalls and VPN?

[Sean LeBlanc]

On 03-28 16:30, Jed S. Baer wrote:
> Hi Folks.
> 
> I think Ed Felton's gone a little overboard in his analysis here, but it's
> worth looking into.
> 
> http://www.freedom-to-tinker.com/archives/000336.html
> 
> The Colorado bill:
> 
> http://www.leg.state.co.us/2003a/inetcbill.nsf/fsbillcont/A2F0DA113DF2BFC087256CC2006BFB94?Open&file=1303_ren.pdf
> 
> According to Ed, the bills are about "hiding" data from your ISP. Fer
> example, by sending e-mail over an encrypted tunnel, such as VPN, I guess,
> or using NAT. I have the CO bill downloading as I type.

A related story showed up on Slashdot later, interestingly enough.

I wonder what this will do to projects like freenet? Don't they hide data
from anyone, including ISPs? Does it have any impact on SSH or SSL?

All this legislation is hard to keep up with - I only finally discovered
that the "Know Your Customer" delight was pushed through on the Patriot Act.
I think the theory about pending legislation never really dying (even when
it's shot down) is true; they resurrected that one really fast after 9/11. 

I understand people are paranoid in these times, but do banks really have to
be spying on customers? I remember re-reading some of the cypherpunk stuff
(post 9/11) about untraceable digital money and thinking, "that will NEVER
happen now, at least not in this country." Well, unless something radical
happens like the Free State Project: http://www.freestateproject.org/. Not
that it ever had a chance under the War on Drugs, but under the War on
Terrorism, I think we can kiss that idea goodbye.

And don't get me started on the Ashcroft and crew fighting terrorism
by...wait for it....cracking down on the sellers of "smoking accessories".
Please. 

You have to love the nanny state. 

-- 
Sean LeBlanc:seanleblanc at americanisp.net  
http://users.americanisp.net/~seanleblanc/
Get MLAC at: http://sourceforge.net/projects/mlac/
My most brilliant achievement was my ability to be able to persuade my wife to 
marry me. 
-Winston Churchill