[9953] in cryptography@c2.net mail archive
Re: [DailyRotten] FBI requests worm-built password log
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (John Gilmore)
Mon Dec 17 20:27:13 2001
Message-Id: <200112180120.RAA10340@toad.com>
To: "Steven M. Bellovin" <smb@research.att.com>
Cc: "Jay D. Dyson" <jdyson@treachery.net>,
Cryptography List <cryptography@wasabisystems.com>, gnu@toad.com
In-reply-to: <20011217233116.16D327B55@berkshire.research.att.com>
Date: Mon, 17 Dec 2001 17:20:23 -0800
From: John Gilmore <gnu@toad.com>
> Perhaps more on target, possession of those passwords does *not*, as
> far as I can tell, change the FBI's legal ability to, for example, read
> someone's email. They'd still need a court order...
Steve, the FBI doesn't care about what the law says. Their big
concern is what they can get away with. If having two million
peoples' passwords, stolen by a worm, lets them get away with more
stuff, then they'll go for it, laws or no laws.
Who's going to prosecute them if they violate the law before getting
around to changing it? John Asscroft? He's sworn to uphold the
Constitution, and of course none of his proposals would ever violate
anyone's civil rights. But since his view seems to be that we never
had any rights anyway, he can't very well diminish them, though he is
desparately looking for the boundaries just in case there are any left.
John
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