[11282] in cryptography@c2.net mail archive
Re: Challenge to David Wagner on TCPA
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Jay D. Dyson)
Fri Aug 2 14:03:22 2002
Date: Fri, 2 Aug 2002 00:16:57 -0700 (PDT)
From: "Jay D. Dyson" <jdyson@treachery.net>
To: Cryptography List <cryptography@wasabisystems.com>
In-Reply-To: <B96F4EC9.6683%jon@callas.org>
On Thu, 1 Aug 2002, Jon Callas wrote:
> > So my question is: What is your reason for shielding your identity?
> > You do so at the cost of people assuming the worst about your
> > motives.
>
> Is this a tacit way to suggest that the only people who need anonymity
> or pseudonymity are those with something to hide?
Jon has a valid point. For my own part, I spent a number of years
with my own somewhat-known nom de guerre[1]. Even now, I still utilize
two other pseudonyms[2].
What's the point of having pseudonymity? I use it primarily to
keep cranks and kooks at arm's length and to keep my personal grey-area
activities totally divorced from my whitehat career with the United States
government[3]. And in this age of DMCA, pseudonyms are useful in keeping
the turbo-litigious corporations at bay. It's a bit harder for Pissed Off
Vendor to track down Obvious Pseudonym who only posts via open proxies
from overseas nations that are notorious for not doing squat about such
investigative inquiries.
With all that in mind, it's a bit silly to assign malevolent
intent to someone simply because they utilize a pseudonym. To suggest as
much is to assign malevolent intent to those who've performed their
respective arts under fictitious names.
And I personally I find it hard to assign dark motives to the
likes of Eric Blair (George Orwell), Eric Weiss (Harry Houdini), Paul
Hewsey (Bono of U2), and Samuel Clemens (Mark Twain).
-Jay
1. Cancer Omega, Attrition.Org (tattoos and all).
2. And it's just between God and me.
3. Anyone who works for the USG can attest that one pretty much lives in
a fishbowl.
( ( _______
)) )) .--"There's always time for a good cup of coffee"--. >====<--.
C|~~|C|~~| (>------ Jay D. Dyson -- jdyson@treachery.net ------<) | = |-'
`--' `--' `-- I'll be diplomatic...when I run out of ammo. --' `------'
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