From: jktaber@netcom.com (John K. Taber) Subject: Re: EFF Statement on Leahy/Edwards Digital Telephony Bill Stanton McCandlish (mech@eff.org) wrote: : This is simply not an accurate picture. We weren't asked to draft a bill : that would pass. The one they already had would pass. We were asked to : come and take an axe to it, and to add privacy protections. I don't think : we can be faulted for doing so at all. EFF (there is no non-national EFF; : groups like EFF-Austin and EF-New Hampshire are separate organizations) : has not "sold out" or "given in". We simply had an opportunity to make a : terrible bill into just a bad bill, not to mention impregnate it with the : most significant privacy legislation this side of ECPA. Yep, Stanton, you guys were snookered, all right. You are mistaken that it would have passed. They lied to you. When I opposed another bill years ago, they told me the same lie. They invited me to help improve it. I did not see how a bill that was essentially wicked could be "improved". So, I declined. The bill did not have the support the liars told me it did. One lone programmer, me, was able to kill it. You fell for a common ploy. Please recant. We all make mistakes, especially when dealing with such clever suborners. Then work assiduously for the defeat of this bill. By the way, who told you it would pass? One of the staffies I bet. Which committee was it, Criminal Justice subcommittee? -- John K. Taber jktaber@netcom.com